GK & Current Affairs Quiz: August 13, 2019

Notes:
Aishwarya Pissay from Bengaluru has created history by becoming the first Indian to claim a world title in motorsports. She annexed the FIM World Cup ( Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme) in the women’s category after the final round of the championship at Varpalota in Hungary. She won the first round in Dubai and was placed third (Portugal), fifth (Spain) and fourth (Hungary) in the subsequent outings. Pissay finished with a tally of 65 points, just four ahead of Portugal’s Rita Vieira in the final overall standings for women. Aishwarya also finished 2nd in the FIM Junior category with 46 points, behind championship winner Tomas de Gavardo (60) of Chile.

Notes:
On the occasion of the World Biofuel Day (WBD-2019), the Rajasthan government released biofuel rules-2019 & became the first State in India to implement the National Policy on Biofuels, which was unveiled by the Government of India (GoI) in May 2019. The desert State will put emphasis on increasing production of oilseeds and establish a Centre for Excellence in Udaipur to promote research in the fields of alternative fuels and energy resources. Further, there would be emphasis on biofuel advertisements by the state government to create awareness about the same. The women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) will be created by the State Rural Livelihood Development Council to encourage the use of biofuels. Apart from this, a biodiesel plant of the capacity of 8 tonnes a day has already been installed in the State with the financial assistance of the Indian Railways. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel which can be used in place of fossil fuels. It is manufactured from vegetable oils, recycled grease, algae, and animal fat.

Notes:
Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute of Germany have recently discovered a new black hole named Holmberg 15A that is clocking in at 40 billion times the mass of the Sun. The black hole is supergiant elliptical galaxy i.e. around 700 million light-years away from Earth and resides right at the centre of the Abell 85 galaxy cluster. It is to be noted that the Holmberg 15A is one of the biggest black holes that’s ever been spotted by keeping track on the movement of stars around it. Black holes are a region of space-time exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.

Notes:
To mark the 77th anniversary of Quit India movement, the Uttar Pradesh has created a world record by planting more than 22-cr saplings in a day at 12.2 lakh locations in the state. For this noble cause, the state government launched a mega afforestation drive ‘Vriksharopan Mahakumbh’ with target to plant 22 cr saplings in a day. The previous record of planting 30,000 saplings was created by Savitribai Phule Pune University of Maharashtra in June 2019.

Notes:
The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the extension of benefits of Child Care Leave (CCL) to single male service personnel and certain relaxations of CCL provisions in case of women officers of defence forces. The decision is taken in line with a recent Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) order extending similar benefits of CCL to civilian employees. Presently, CCL is granted to women officers in defence forces. Recently, DoPT has made certain amendments for grant of CCL to civilian employees, whereby the CCL granted to woman employees till now has been extended to single male government servants also. Further, single male service personnel and women officers of defence forces will also be able to avail CCL in respect of child with 40% disability without any restriction of age limit of the child. The minimum period of CCL that can be availed at a time has been reduced to 5 days instead of 15.