Current Affairs Quiz- September, 2019

Notes:
Young shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal from Delhi has recently won gold in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. With the win, she has also secured an Olympic quota for India. This is India’s 9th quota in shooting for 2020 Tokyo Games. World no.1 Olena Kostevych of Ukraine claimed the silver, while Serbia’s Jasmina Milavonovic bagged the bronze in the ongoing event.

Notes:
Nadubhagam Chundan, the snake boat of Pallathuruthy Boat Club, lifted the 67th edition of the coveted Nehru Trophy at the Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha. In a nerve-biting race, Champakulam chundan rowed by the United Boat Club, Kainakary finished second. Karichal chundan (Police Boat Club) and Devas chundan (NCDC Boat Club, Kumarakom) finished in 3rd and 4th places. The Nehru Trophy boat race was instituted to commemorate the visit of the India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the area and his boat ride in the lake. The Nehru Trophy is the first race of the inaugural edition of the Champions Boat League (CBL). CBL, hosted by Kerala Tourism, is the India’s first-ever boat-race on the lines of IPL. There will be 12 races in the CBL beginning with the Nehru Trophy and concluding with President’s Trophy Boat Race in Kollam on November 23.

Notes:
The Government of Bangladesh has signed an agreement with Reliance Power of India to set up 750 Mega Watt gas-based power plant in Meghnahat near Dhaka. The construction of the plant will be completed by 2022 and its estimated cost is one billion dollars. Under the agreement, Bangladesh will purchase electricity from the project for a period of 22 years at a pre-decided tariff rate equivalent to 5.85 Takas per unit at a total cost of approximately 8 billion dollars. Apart from this, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been signed with Petro Bangla to set up 500 Million standard cubic feet per day LNG terminal at Kutubdia Island near Chittagong in Bangladesh.

Notes:
Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the 72nd Session of World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) in New Delhi. This is the 2nd time that India is hosting Regional Committee meeting. Dr Vardhan was unanimously elected as Chair of the 72nd Session of the WHO -SEARO. The event coincides with the ambitious ‘Fit India Movement’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about remaining fit and doing physical activities like yoga, sports, cycling, etc. The Government of India (GoI) is also observing the entire month of September as “Poshan Maah” (Nutrition Month) to sensitize the public towards healthy eating, address the twin issues of malnutrition/under-nutrition and problem of obesity in some sections of the population, and intensifying the campaign towards a ‘Malnutrition-Free India’.

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:
The 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is at Greater Noida on 2nd September 2019. The core agenda of the 12-day Conference is to reverse land degradation and its outcomes while accelerating positive achievements for people and for ecosystems. The main objective of the convention is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought or desertification. The delegates from 196 countries are participating in COP14. The Parties to the Convention will agree on the actions they will take over the next 2 years and beyond to get the world on a sustainable development path.

Notes:
Sunil Arora, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, has recently assumed Chairmanship of Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) for the term 2019-21 as India takes over the Chair from Romania. He succeeded Lon Mincu Radulescu. The AWEB Flag was handed over to the new Chairman, Sunil Arora and it will remain with Election Commission of India (ECI) for the 2 year term till 2021. More than 110 delegates from 45 countries attended the meeting. A-WEB is the first global organization of election management bodies, and the membership currently consists of 97 organizations from 94 countries. The constituent units of the A-WEB are the Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) of different countries, structured to work together and learn from the experiences and best practices from one another.

Notes:
The famous Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been adjudged as the India’s ‘Best Swachh Iconic Place’ on the basis of the overall improvement in sanitation. The ranking of Swachh Iconic Places was recently released by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of drinking water and sanitation. The initiatives of water kiosks, reverse vending machines, equip dung management centre, installation of kill waste machine, collection, transportation, and disposal of waste along with regular mopping up of waste though a workforce of 1300 sanitation workers (Shrine cadre and outsourced) have enabled the shrine to achieve the top rank. The President will confer the prestigious award to the Shrine during the Swachh Mahotsav to be organized by the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation on the 6th September 2019.

Notes:
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has recently confirmed the presence of tigers in high-altitude regions of Sikkim, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh in a study submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment. The Ministry will use a study on the status of tiger habitats in high altitude ecosystems to have a high altitude tiger master plan. The report provides the action strategy for a high altitude tiger master plan with gainful portfolio for local communities and ensuring centrality of tiger conservation in development, through an effective coordination mechanism, involving stakeholders and line departments operating within the landscape. The study is led by the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) with range country governments of Bhutan, India and Nepal. It is also supported by the Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHPC) of the IUCN and KfW (German Development Bank). The GTF is the only intergovernmental and international body established with members from willing countries to embark on a global campaign to protect the Tiger. Its headquarters is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
The Gujarat Government has recently signed the Sister State MoU with elaware State of America in Gandhinagar.  This is the first sister state MoU signed by Gujarat with any state of America. According to official sources, cooperation in the field of services and investment opportunities in GIFT IFSC have also been discussed during the meeting. The sectors like Biotechnology University, bio sciences, financial services, animal husbandry and dairy, port services have been short listed for future cooperation.