Current Affairs Quiz- September, 2019

Notes:
Veteran actor and multi-faceted artiste S.K. Padmadevi (95),  who was part of the first Kannada talkie film that went on sets, has passed away in Bengaluru, Karnataka on 19th September 2019. She remained active in theatre till late 1960s and acted in several plays by H.L.N. Simha and Ballari Raghavacharya.  She later joined  All India Radio (AIR) and worked on audio plays for over two decades. Ms. Padmadevi was awarded the R. Nagendra Rao award for lifetime achievement by Karnataka Chalanchitra Academy in 2016.

Notes:
The National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) has been set up by the  Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in the national capital as part of the government’s ambitious plan to launch faceless and nameless assessment for Income Tax  (IT) payers from October 2019. K M Prasad, the 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has been appointed as the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (PCCIT) of the new Centre.

Notes:
India and the United States are set to hold their first trilateral-service military exercise  codenamed ‘Tiger Triumph’ at Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in November 2019. The exercise is being organized under the aegis of the headquarters of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS).

Notes:
In Guwahati, the Assam Government has rolled out a housing loan subsidy scheme – Aponar Apon Ghar – where in financial relief will be provided towards purchase or construction of the first house for the family. The subsidy up to Rs 2.50 lakh will be provided for loan amounts from  Rs 5 to Rs 40 Lakh. This move will boost the demand and led to the expansion of real estate in the state.

Notes:
During the 52nd IAAF Congress at Doha, Indian track and field legend PT Usha has been honoured with a IAAF Veteran Pin by the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) in recognition of her contribution to the growth of the sport. She is often called the “queen of track and field”. At the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games, Usha won silver in 100m and 200m events. At the Asian Championships in Kuwait City in 1983, she won gold in 400m. In the 1985 Jakarta Asian Championships, Usha won six medals – five gold and a bronze.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the first-ever India-Caricom summit in New York with a focus on fighting climate change and increasing India’s participation with the grouping. Mr Modi announced a $14 million US dollar grant for community development projects in the Caricom and another $150 million line of credit for solar, renewable energy and climate change related projects. The Caricom grouping has 15 members-states and 5 associate members. Mr. Modi also invited them to join the International Solar Alliance (IAS) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

Notes:
Italian journalist Paolo Borrometi, who was assaulted over his coverage of mafia activity in Sicily and now living under police protection, has won the prestigious 2019 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.   

Notes:
The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has recently discovered 30 reels of unedited footage on Mahatma Gandhi that amounts to almost 6 hours of duration. These 35mm celluloid footages, unedited and stock shots with title cards in between, belonged to several prominent film studios of the time like Paramount, Pathe, Warner, Universal, British Movietone and Wadia Movietone. The major highlight of the discovery is a rare half-an-hour footage that has visuals of a special train carrying Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes, after his assasination on 30th January 1948, from Madras to Rameshwaram. In 1964, the NFAI was established as a media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) with headquarters at Pune, Maharashtra.

Notes:
Japan has successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft “Kounotori8” towards the International Space Station (ISS) from the Tanegashima Space Center at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in southwestern Japan. The acronym ‘Kounotori8’ stands for “white stork” in Japanese & intends to deliver about 5.3 tonnes of supplies to astronauts at the ISS.

Notes:
The 4th edition of Indo-Kazakhstan joint military exercise “KAZIND – 2019” will be conducted at Pithoragarh from 2nd to 15th October 2019. The aim of the exercise is to conduct company level joint training with emphasis on counter terrorism operations in mountainous terrain.