Current Affairs Quiz-December, 2019

Notes:
Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) and Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to organise ‘National Organic Festival of Women Entrepreneurs’. The event will be planned and organized through National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Sonepat, Haryana. NIFTEM Vice Chancellor has agreed to organize festival annually. NIFTEM is an academic institution under the administrative control of Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

Notes:
US President Donald Trump signed a bill that supports pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a move that is bound to anger China. The legislation proposes to impose sanctions on officials committing human rights violations against pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong. It was passed by both the chambers of the US Congress House of Representatives (417-1) and the Senate unanimously.

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H R Khan, former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been appointed as first chairman of steering committee panel on Code for Responsible Lending (CRL) in Micro-Credit. Members of panel include: P Satish of Sa-Dhan, Sonia Krishnankutty of L&T Finance, Harsh Shrivastava of MFIN and Srinivas Bonam of IndusInd Bank among others.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has referred Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for insolvency proceedings, making it the first financial services player to go NCLT for a possible debt resolution. DHFL has a debt of Rrs.83,873 crore. As per the statutory inspection of DHFL conducted by the National Housing Bank, the DHFL showed a serious deterioration in its finances. It had public deposits of Rs.6,188 crore as on 6 July 2019, down from Rs.10,166.72 crore as on 31 March 2018.
RBI has filed an application for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process against DHFL under Section 227 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 read with Rules 5 and 6 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Rules, 2019.

Notes:
13th South Asian Games have formally begun in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari declared games open in a glittering ceremony at Dasaratha Rangshala in Kathmandu on December 1. Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Chairman of National Assembly Ganesh Timilsina, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel, Ministers from South Asian countries and a large number of other dignitaries also graced the opening ceremony. Over 2700 athletes from seven South Asian Countries participated in the march past.

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Centre launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0 across the country. The government’s flagship scheme is aimed at immunizing children under the age of 2 years and pregnant women against eight vaccine preventable diseases. The IMI covers vaccines for diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, measles, meningitis and Hepatitis B. Vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and hemophilus influenzal are also being provided in selected areas. The IMI 2.0 aims to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts spread over 27 States. The IMI 2.0 will be carried out between December 2019 and March 2020.

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India has successfully conducted another night trial of its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-2 missile from a mobile launcher of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha coast. The successful test fires were part of a routine user trial for armed forces and met all parameters. Earlier, the flight test of surface-to-surface missile was carried out barely a 15 days after two back-to-back trials of Prithvi-2 were conducted successfully at night from same base on 20 November.
It is a tactical surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) with a strike range of 350 kilometres and is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kilograms of warheads. The state-of-the-art missile is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines and uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target.

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Brussels in 2020 for the India-EU Summit 2020. He was invited to participate in the 2020 EU-Summit by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. India-EU partnership is based on shared values such as multilateralism, democracy, respect for rule of law, rules-based trade and international order. The summit is aimed at expanding strategic partnership with Europe.

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Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $206 million loan on 2 December. The aim of the MoU is to develop water supply and sewerage infrastructure in 5 cities of Tamil Nadu. It will strengthen the capacities of urban local bodies (ULBs) for improved service delivery. The project aims to improve the lives of the urban people in the identified cities of Tamil Nadu. It will provide universal access to water supply and sanitation, improve sewage treatment and drainage systems.

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A report by Lancet Global Health said India recorded the highest estimated number of cervical cancer deaths in 2018. The report titles Estimates of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in 2018: a worldwide analysis said that the global cervical cancer cases reported in India and China together contributed 35% of the global cases in 2018. India contributed with 97,000 cases and 60,000 deaths and China recorded over 106,000 cases and 48,000 deaths.