Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has launched the Pragati Rath of the HDFC bank that will provide financial and digital literacy to the people during a month-long initiative by moving to different parts of the state.

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In Italy, the paintings and artworks created by an 80-year-old tribal woman “Jodhaiya Bai Baiga” has being showcased at the ongoing exhibition at Milan, which is the global capital of fashion and design.  Jodhaiya hails from Umaria district’s Lorha village of Madhya Pradesh. Her painting style mainly includes nature and animals. Her teacher Ashish Swami said that this will motivate other members of the Adivasi community to engage in different activities.

Notes:
Rohit Sharma from India has become the first-ever batsman to score hundreds in each innings of his maiden Test as an opener in Visakhapatnam against South Africa.  He also broke the record for most sixes in a Test with 13 hits over the fence & surpassed Pakistan’s Wasim Akram who smashed 12 in a game against Zimbabwe in 1996. Beside this, Rohit  also became the first Indian batsman to be stumped in both innings of a Test.

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Pakistan pacer Mohammad Hasnain has become the youngest-ever cricketer to take a hat-trick in T20I. He achieved the feat against Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 international in Lahore.

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The Nobel Prize 2019 for Physics has jointly been awarded to three scientists – James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz – groundbreaking discoveries about the evolution of the universe and the Earth’s place in the cosmos. One half of the award was given to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for the discovery of an exo-planet orbiting a solar-type star. They will share a 9-million kronor cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. The laureates will receive them at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10. 

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India has slipped sharply by 10 places to rank 68th on the 2019 WEF Global Competitiveness Index due to improvements witnessed by several other economies. The index is compiled by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). In the overall competitiveness ranking, Singapore replaced the US to take the first position.

Notes:
Indian sprinter Nirmala Sheoran has been banned for four years for doping and stripped of her 400m and 4x400m relay titles from the 2017 Asian Championships. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has stated that she tested positive for steroids drostanolone and metenolone in sample taken at the Inter-State meet in Guwahati in June 2018. Hence, the ban was backdated to June 29, 2018 & her results from August 2016 to November 2018 were disqualified.

Notes:
Kadri Gopalnath (69), the well known Saxophone master & Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Mangaluru on 11th October 2019.  He was considered as a pioneer in playing Carnatic ragas on his Saxophone. His production East-West is a fusion of western and Indian music. 

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The Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has recently launched a unique initiative called ‘Ganga Amantran’ to connect with the stakeholders of the river. It is one-month-long pioneering exploratory open- water rafting and kayaking expedition on the Ganga river. The expedition has started at Devaprayag and will culminate at Ganga Sagar covering the entire stratch of over 25,000 kilometres of the River. This is the first ever effort by National Mission for Clean Ganga to raft across the entire stretch of the river and also the longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activityy to spread the message of River Rejuvenation and Water Conservation on a massive scale.  

Notes:
A research team led by Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) has discovered a unique species of miniature well-dwelling subterranean fish ‘Pangio bhujia’ from Kozhikode. It  is the first species of eel-loach in the world that has been discovered to be living in subterranean environments. Eel-loaches are generally found in fast-flowing streams in the south and the south-east Asia. The Pangio bhujia is approximately 3 centimetres long & pinkish-red in colour, and resides in the purest waters of deep subterranean aquifers.