Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 8-9, 2017. In this summit, India and Pakistan will become full members of the organization. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It is mainly aimed at military cooperation between the members and involves intelligence- sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.

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Before 5 August 2019, Part VI was not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir state. On 6 August 2019, parliament of India declared all the clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 to be inoperative. After this, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories viz. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

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Before April 2019, National Housing Bank (NHB) was a wholly-owned subsidiary of RBI. RBI sold its 100% equity to government in 2019 and now its owner is Government of India. This was done to end the cross-holding in the regulatory institutions as per the Narasimham-II committee report’s recommendations.

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Hyderabad-based ICRISAT, or International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, has recently launched molecular breeding project for pulses.

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In January 2018, the Turkish military began an operation in the Kurdish- majority Afrin Canton and the Tel Rifaat Area of Shahba Canton in Northern Syria. Turkey code-named the operation as Operation Olive Branch.

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INS Chakra is an 8,140-tonne nuclear-powered submarine manufactured by Russia. It was taken by India on lease from Russia in 2012 for a period of 10 years. The Russian experts after examination of the damaged submarine have asked 125 crore for its repair. The Arihant is based on Russian double hull design with a sealed nuclear reactor section. Recently, it also suffered a major damage due to “human error” and is back in services after repairs. INS Arihant was built with Russia’s help under Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project.

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“White Stork” is an automated cargo spacecraft launched by Japan. It is a “space junk” collector that has been made with the help of a fishnet company. The spacecraft aims at clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.

Notes:
Second option is the correct answer
The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement is a global initiative to eradicate malnutrition among children. The SUN Movement was born in 2010 in response to mounting evidence of both the injustice and the impact of malnutrition-costs measured in children’s lives and futures. Indian States of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have also joined the SUN Movement.

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SWAYAM Portal would offer at least 350 online courses and will leverage information technology, access to high quality reading resources, participate in discussion forums; take tests and earn academic grades. Access to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels dedicated to education.

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There are in total six states which have achieved 100 percent Aadhaar card saturation. These are Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh .Haryana achieved saturation on September 26, 2016 followed by Punjab on October 17, 2016, Chandigarh on November 29, 2016 and Himachal Pradesh on December 8, 2016.