Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2019

Notes:
Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat has won the men’s singles title at the 2019 Bahrain International Series Badminton at Isa Town. He beat top-seed Jason Anthony Ho-Shue from Canada in the finals 16-21, 21-7, 21-12 in the summit clash. Top-seeded Indian mixed double pair of Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad also finished at the top. In women’s singles, Ira Sharma finished second best.

Notes:
Alexei Leonov (85), the legendary Soviet Russian cosmonaut, has passed away in Moscow on October 11, 2019. On 18th March 1965, he created history by becoming the first human to conduct a spacewalk for 12 minutes and 9 seconds during the Voskhod 2 mission.

Notes:
Anoop Kumar Mendiratta has been appointed as the new Law Secretary (Secretary, Legal Affairs) in the Union Law Ministry on contractual basis till March 30, 2023. He  is at present the District and Sessions Judge (North East) of the Delhi’s Karkardooma Courts.  As per officials, it is the first time a sitting judge has been appointed as Law Secretary.

Notes:
India has been ranked 102nd out of 117 nations at the 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) that tracks hunger and malnutrition. The GHI is a peer-reviewed annual report, which is jointly published by Ireland’s Concern Worldwide and Germany’s Welthungerhilfe. It scores countries on a 100-point “severity scale”, where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. With a score of 30.3, India suffers from a level of hunger that is serious threat.

Notes:
In West Bengal, the joint military exercise ‘Shinyuu Maitri’ between Indian Air Force (IAF) and Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) has started at Air Force Station – Arjan Singh in Panagarh town from October 17 to 23. The focus of the exercise will be to undertake Joint Mobility and Tactical (JMT) interoperability among the two forces.

Notes:
The 129th death anniversary of the mystic bard Fakir Lalon Shah is observed in Bangladesh on October 17, 2019. The devotees of Lalon from across the country and the world have congregated at the shrine to participate in the 3-day-long programme which is being organised by the Lalon academy and the culture ministry of Bangladesh. Lalon is believed to be born in 1774 though no written records exist. He died in 1890. His songs talk about humanism, love and equality going beyond the limitations imposed by religion, caste and creed.  His contemporary Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore got some of his songs transcribed and published.

Notes:
A Chinese company “Sam Enterprise Group” has signed a secretive deal with the  government of the Solomon Islands to lease an entire Tulagi island for up to 75 years but the status of the lease remains unclear since it is a non-binding agreement. The deal was signed just a few days after the Solomon Islands abandoned Taiwan and began diplomatically recognizing Chinese aid and investment to flow. The purpose of the deal is to establish a Pacific military base on a strategic gateway to Australia. The island of Tulagi served as a South Pacific headquarters for Britain and then Japan. It is the site of a former Japanese naval base and was the scene of fierce fighting in World War II.

Notes:
The Baliyatra is one of the biggest trade fairs of Odisha i.e. scheduled to begin on November 12. The 8-day trade fair will be jointly organized by the Cuttack District Administration, District Cultural Council, and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC).

Notes:
In Washington DC, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led the Indian delegation at G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as well as the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings on the side-lines of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings. The focus of discussions in the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting was on the current challenges to the global economy and possible responses to mitigate them.

Notes:
Sociopolitical philosopher-writer KB Siddaiah (65) has passed away in Bengaluru. He was one of the founder members of Dalitha Sangharsha Samithi (DSS) during the 80’s and co-authored many songs to inspire the movement. He was a disciple of Jnapith awardee Dr U R Anantamurthy and critic Ki Ram Nagaraj.