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 football, India won the 2019 SAFF under-15 title by defeating Nepal by 7-0 in the final at the Kalyani Stadium in West Bengal. This victory meant that India are now the most successful team in the tournament’s history — winning the title for a record 3rd time after previous wins in 2013 and 2017.

Notes:
In Andhra Pradesh, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has recently dedicated the India’s longest electrified rail tunnel i.e situated between Cherlopalli and Rapuru. He also inaugurated the 112-km long electrified railway line between Venkatachalam and Obulavaripalli. The length of the electrified rail tunnel is 6.6km. The tunnel has 44 trolley refuges and 14 cross-passages in a horseshoe design. It is built in the shape of a ‘horse shoe’ using the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) at a cost of Rs 437 crore. The height of tunnel (rail level to roof) is 6.5m and the minimum height of contact wire is maintained at 5.2m. The track is constructed without using Ballast by providing Bi-block sleepers and Vaslo fittings. There are LED lights at an interval of every 10 metres inside the travel. The newly constructed tunnel will provide seamless rail connectivity between the Krishnapatnam Port and the hinterland areas.

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:
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:
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:
Nobel Laureate from Bangladesh Professor Muhammad Yunus has been conferred the ‘Lamp of Peace of Saint Francis ‘ award by the Vatican for his contribution towards establishing peace and harmony. The ceremony was recently took place at the historical Papal Basilica of Assisi in Italy. The award is recognition for distinguished work by an individual for promoting peace and dialogue among people. The Lamp of Peace award was first given to the Polish trade union leader Lech Walesa in 1981. Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev and Angela Merkel are a few other prominent persons who received this award earlier.

Notes:
In Sri Lanka, the UNICEF South Asian Parliamentarian conference on Children Right’s Convention was held in Colombo from 2nd to 3rd September 2019.  The conference gave the parliamentarians the opportunity to make fresh commitments to push the national agendas for the realization of child rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty. But, during the conference, the Pakistani delegates tried to raise the Kashmir issue which led to a sharp reaction from the Indian side. The Indian delegation consists of  Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi and BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal spoke in unison to counter Pakistan’s claims. 

Notes:
The Global Liveability Index 2019 has been released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The index assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. The 2019 index is topped by Vienna (Austria), followed by Melbourne and Sydney. In India, New Delhi and Mumbai ranked 118th and 119th out of 140 cities. While war-ravaged Damascus (Syria) ranked the world’s  least liveable city, followed by Lagos (Nigeria) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

Notes:
The International Day of Charity is observed every year on 5th of September to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity related activities all over the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations for their own purposes on the local, national, regional and international level.