Current Affairs Quiz- September, 2019

Notes:
In Delhi, a cultural event ‘Namaste Pacific’ was recently jointly organised by the High Commissions of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji to showcase in India the culture of the Pacific countries. Aaradhna, a multi-award-winning R&B and soul artist from New Zealand, performed with her band. Aaradhna is part Indian and part Samoan and has to her credit four individual albums. Traditional masks and artefacts from Papua New Guinea and Pacific Green furniture and other products from Fiji were also displayed. There was also showcase of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Pollinate Energy based in Australia, Nepal and India, and solar lanterns from Barefoot College in Rajasthan.

Notes:
In a unique initiative, the Ambikapur municipal corporation of Chhattisgarh will soon open India’s first ‘Garbage Cafe’ in the city of Ambikapur. This initiative is a step towards making the city plastic-free. In this unique Cafe’ poor people and rag pickers will get free food in exchange for 1Kg of plastic, while breakfast will be provided if half a kilogram of plastic is brought to the cafe. The collected garbage will be sold at Solid Liquid Resources Management Centre (SLRMC). The collected plastic waste would further be turned into granules and will then be used in the construction of roads in the city. Ambikapur is Chhattisgarh’s first dustbin-free city. The city has an efficient solid waste management system. The Self Help Groups (SHGs)of women are involved in door to door collection of waste. The city has been hailed as the 2nd cleanest city in the country in Swachhata rankings. The opening of this garbage cafe is another step towards the city’s aim to become free from plastic waste.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated the Garvi Gujarat Bhavan in New Delhi. The new building is situated near the Congress headquarters at Akbar Road in the national capital & has been built at a cost of around Rs 131 crore by the Gujarat Government. It has 19 suite rooms, 59 regular rooms, a restaurant, a public dining hall, a business centre, a souvenir shop, a multi-purpose hall, conference hall, four lounges, a gymnasium, a yoga centre, a terrace garden and a library built on an area of 20,325 square meters. The Bhavan is equipped with traditional and modern artefacts and technologies and will serve as a home for Gujaratis in the national capital. It will represent the culture, craft and cuisine of Gujarat. This building is in addition to the old Gujarat Bhavan at Chanakyapuri, which will continue to function.

Notes:
The agrarian festival ‘Nuakhai’ has recently celebrated with great pomp and gaiety by the people of western Odisha districts. This major agrarian festival of this region is being celebrated in every nook and corner collectively with much fanfare and religious fervour. The Nuakhai Juhar is a major ritual of the festival. It is an exchange of greetings with friend relative and well-wishers. The elders are wished Nuakhai Juhar and they give blessings for long life, happiness and prosperity. Being an agrarian festival, the eldest in each household in rural pockets worshipped their paddy fields praying for a bumper crop and favourable weather. Women folk leave bed early to perform the Nukhai rituals with decorating the house with colourful rangoli.

Notes:
The Punjab Employment Generation Department (PEGD) has decided to play the role of a recruitment agency for the youth wanting to go abroad for studies and work. It will also set up a special cell to send the youth for studies abroad. The move came after regular complaints of fraud by travel agents. The special cell will have a tie-up with foreign public universities which offer education at reasonable rates. This will not only save students from frauds but also help them financially as the commission which foreign institutes pay to the agents would be returned to them. This facility is already available in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be honoured with the prestigious ‘ 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award’ by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for his leadership and commitment to his ambitious pet project “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA)” on 24th September 2019. The Prime Minister will also address global leaders and corporate executives at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum during his visit here for the high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) session. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), which was launched on 2nd October 2014, is a nationwide initiative aimed to inspire the public to voluntarily clean public spaces as a service to the nation. The aim of the campaign is to achieve the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by 2nd October 2019. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a private foundation owned by billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates.

Notes:
In Thailand, the first US-Asean Maritime Exercise (AUMX) officially started at the Royal Thai Fleet headquarters at Chon Buri’s Sattahip district. The aim of the 5-day AUMX is to train the regional navies in delivering humanitarian assistance and mitigating disasters. The exercise provides a new multilateral venue to work together on shared maritime security priorities in the region. The joint exercise will involve 1,250 military personnel. The AUMX is co-led by the US and the Royal Thai Navy and will be preceded with pre-sail activities in Thailand, Singapore and Brunei, followed by sea drills in international waters in the Gulf of Thailand as well as the South China Sea. The exercise will conclude in Singapore.

Notes:
The 19-year-old Canadian teen Bianca Andreescu has become the first teen to reach US Open semi-finals in a decade since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. To spot in the final, she defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens  by 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Andreescu could become the first teen to win a Grand Slam title since Maria Sharapova captured the 2006 US Open and she would be the youngest US Open champion since Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2004.

Notes:
The digital transformation and IT services major, Wipro Limited has bagged a strategic contract valued at $300 million from the ICICI Bank to provide digital technology led services. Under the contract, Wipro will offer a comprehensive suite of services to ICICI Bank for the next 7 years. Earlier, Mumbai-based IT services firm Vara lnfotech was providing these services to the ICICI Bank. As part of this strategic deal, Wipro will absorb about 3,800 employees of Vara lnfotech along with its existing contracts, facilities and assets, on a going concern basis, through a business transfer agreement for an all cash consideration of  Rs 321 crore. This transaction is expected to be completed during the quarter ending September 30, 2019 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Notes:
The 4th edition of  Indian Ocean Conference (ICO-2019) was held in Male from September 3-4.  It was organized by India Foundation, in association with the Government of Maldives and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (Singapore). The theme of the IOC 2019 is ‘Securing the Indian Ocean Region: Traditional and Non-Traditional Challenges’.