Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019 was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability”. The discoveries made by these scientists have fundamental importance for physiology and have paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and many other diseases.

Notes:
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:
The first-ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) has started at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on 11th October 2019. The 3-day fair is a major platform to promote export of Indian cooperative produce which will lead to enhanced rural and farm prosperity. The event is also packed with exhibitions, B2B/C2C meetings, conferences, cultural programmes etc. The organizations from 36 countries are participating in the Fair.  

Notes:
India and Japan will hold the 2nd edition of joint military exercise ‘DHARMA GUARDIAN-2019’ in Mizoram from 19th of October to 2nd of November 2019. The focus of the 2-week-long exercise will be to increase the interoperability between the two forces and enhance coordination in dealing with various security challenges including counter-terrorism. The scope of this exercise covers platoon-level joint training on counter-terrorism operations in jungle and urban scenario.

Notes:
Noted environmentalist and social activist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt has been awarded the Indira Gandhi award for national integration for the years 2017 and 2018 in recognition for his services in promoting and preserving national integration in the country. This award is consists of a citation and Rs 10 lakh in cash to be given to the awardee by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Bhatt hails from Uttarakhand and was a pioneer of the Chipko movement.

Notes:
The 10th edition of the joint military exercise “Vajra Prahar” between India and the United States gas started at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle on October 13 & will last till October 28. It  is a Special Forces joint training exerciseconducted alternately in India and the US.

Notes:
In London, Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have jointly won the prestigious 2019 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for their novels – ‘The Testament’ and ‘Girl, Woman, Other’, respectively. The pair will split the literary award’s £50,000 prize money equally. The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they “couldn’t separate” the two works. Atwood (79) is the oldest-ever Booker winner, while Evaristo is the first black woman to win since its creation in 1969.

Notes:
Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer have jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. Mr Banerjee was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D in 1988. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Ms Duflo is the 2nd woman to be awarded a Nobel in economics after Elinor Ostrom (2009) and  is also the youngest person-ever to receive the Economics Prize. The prize amount of 9 million Swedish krona will be shared equally between the three Laureates.

Notes:
The ICICI Bank has launched a new Fixed Deposit (FD) scheme – FD Health that provides the customer a complimentary critical illness cover of Rs 1 lakh from ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company on opening an FD of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh for tenure of at least two years. For investors in FD Health, ICICI Bank will offer the insurance cover free of cost for the first year and thereafter, they can renew it.

Notes:
The IIT Madras has collaborated  with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE)  for research on energy and biofuels. The 5-year joint-research agreement focuses on biofuels, data analytics, gas conversion and transport, and is intended towards finding low-emission solutions.