GK & Current Affairs Quiz: January 17, 2019

Notes:
Abhinav Shaw (10) has become the youngest gold medallist in shooting at the Khelo India Youth Games 2019 in Pune. He teamed up with Mehuli Ghosh to help West Bengal win the 10m air rifle mixed team event. Delhi’s Devanshi Rana bagged gold in Under-21 girls 25m pistol event. In overall medals tally, Home state Maharashtra is leading in Medal tally of the event with 177 Medals including 64 Gold. Delhi is on No. 2 with 121 medals including 47 Gold and Haryana is on No.3 with 110 Medals including 37 Gold.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has constituted a 7-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to boost the real estate sector under the GST regime. Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel will be the convener of the GoM. The panel will analyse tax rate of GST and suggest a composition scheme for residential construction units. It will also look into the issue of the legality of inclusion or exclusion of land or any other ingredient in the composition scheme and suggest valuation mechanism. It will also examine various aspects of the GST levy on Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Development Rights in a joint Development Agreement and suitable model. Currently, GST on the under-construction flats and houses is 12% whereas ready-to-move-in flats with a completion certificate attract no GST. There are also complaints about the builders not passing on the benefit of input tax credit to the consumers. The Council’s law and fitment committee will assist the panel. The officers from the Centre and states can also be invited in the committee for inputs, if required.

Notes:
In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Kamal Nath launched the Rs 50,000-crore farm debt-waiver scheme named ‘Jai Kisan Rin Mukti Yojana’ on January 16, 2019. It would benefit 55 lakh small and marginal farmers. Under this scheme, Farmers who have registered themselves to pay GST and are paying income tax cannot avail benefits.

Notes:
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has recently given its approval for the Trishna Gas project of ONGC to extract Natural Gas from Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) in Belonia subdivision of Gomati district of Tripura. ONGC has discovered 10-12 gas bearing wells in the sanctuary. The gas extracted from the Sanctuary would be transported to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) owned 100 MW gas-based thermal power project at Monarchak in Sonamura subdivision of Sipahijala district. The Tripura unit of ONGC would provide Rs 25 crore to the state government for carrying out Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. The NBWL is a statutory organization constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, and is chaired by the Prime Minister. It is an apex body to review all wildlife-related matters and approves projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries. It is chaired by the Prime Minister.

Notes:
Sarfaraz Ahmed, the current captain of the Pakistan cricket team, has set a new wicket-keeping record during the final Test match against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on January 13. He took 10 catches in the on-going Test match and surpassed Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and former Indian captain, MS Dhoni, to become the only wicket-keeper captain with the most number of catches in a match. Furthermore, the Pakistani captain has also made another record; taking five catches in each innings of a Test match.