Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2019

Notes:
In Badminton, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu has become the first Indian to book a gold medal at the World Championships at Basel in Switzerland. In the final, she defeated her Japanese opponent Nozomi Okuhara by 21-7, 21-7. This was Sindhu’s third straight World Championships final. Sindhu is also the second women shuttler to have five medals and the third to have medals in all three colours.

Notes:
The Jabalpur-based Tropical Forest Research Institute (TFRI) has launched a mobile phone application containing details about insects and pests and their management. The app “INSECT PESTS” is a tool that provides information on insect and pests found in various forest areas and their management in tropical forests of central India. The app contains information in three categories– insect and pests of forest nurseries, of plantations, of natural forest–and their management. The app also has various features to identify pests, their host plants, infestation period, the nature of damage, their brief life history and also the measures to control them. The TFRI works under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Notes:
The 4th edition of the Internet of Things (IoT) India Congress 2019 held in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The theme of Edition is ‘Mainstreaming the Internet of Things’. It is the India’s largest confluence of digital technology. The 2-day session focused on 10 tracks viz. Energy, Healthcare, Defence, Standards and Regulatory, Retail, Digital Communication, Skills and Development, Agriculture, Manufacturing and Smart Cities.

Notes:
Despite environmentalists warning of serious risks to the region, Russia has launched the world’s first floating nuclear reactor – Akademik Lomonosov – across the Arctic. It was loaded with nuclear fuel from the Arctic port of Murmansk to begin its 5,000km voyage to voyage to Pevek in northeastern Siberia. The reactor’s trip is expected to last between four and six weeks, depending on the weather conditions and the amount of ice on the way. The vessel weighs 21,000 tons and has two reactors with a capacity of 35 megawatts each, close to that of those used by nuclear icebreakers. It has a crew of 69 and travels at a speed of 3.5 to 4.5 knots. However, environmental groups have warned dangers of unprecedented project & dubbed it a potential “Chernobyl on ice” and a “nuclear Titanic”. Though, Russia claims the project will provide clean energy to the remote region and allow authorities to retire an ageing nuclear plant and a coal-burning power station.

Notes:
The US Technovation Challenge is the world’s largest technology and entrepreneurship programme for girls which runs across 100+ countries. It is supported by Salesforce.org, Google.org, the Adobe Foundation, Uber, Samsung, BNY Mellon as well as UNESCO, the Peace Corps and UN Women. The competition was recently held in San Francisco. In it, from India, the mobile app “Maitri” clinched the bronze medal at global tech competition. The app was developed by the Noida-based girl team ‘Tech Witches’ to connect children at orphanages with senior citizens in old-age homes. The purpose of the app is to bring together individuals suffering from loneliness and depression and those lacking the nurturing love of elderly role models. The app is available for free on Google playstore & also allows users to volunteer and donate to old-age homes and orphanages

Notes:
The India Child Well-Being Index is a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being through 3 dimensions of healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. The index has been prepared by NGOs World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. The researchers used a total of 24 indicators to create the score instead of just considering income poverty. The 24 indicators are divided into three categories: Healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. As per index, Kerala (0.76) has acquired the topped spot due to its exceptional performance in health, nutrition and education facilities. Tamil Nadu (0.67) bagged the 2nd spot, followed by Himachal Pradesh (0.67) . Though, Meghalaya (0.53), Jharkhand (0.50) and Madhya Pradesh (0.44) featured at the bottom of the index. Among the Union territories, Puducherry led the way with a score of 0.77 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli featured at the other end with a score of 0.52.

Notes:
The Government e Marketplace (GeM) has signed an MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to benefit MSMEs, women entrepreneurs, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) and various loan beneficiaries under MUDRA and Stand-up India scheme. The MoU will enable promotion of special initiatives of GeM like Womaniya and Start-up Runway with SIDBI stakeholders. GeM and SIDBI will also take steps to ensure payments within a guaranteed time-frame to sellers, enhance working capital availability through bill discounting and control NPAs through control of end use.

Notes:
The Safe Cities Index (SCI) 2019 has been released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Tokyo has been ranked first in the SCI index, followed by Singapore and Osaka. The index ranks 60 countries worldwide across five continents and measures the multi-faceted nature of urban safety, with indicators categorized as digital, infrastructure, health and personal security. From India, Mumbai has been ranked as the 45th safest city on the SCI, while Delhi stood at the 52nd position.

Notes:
The Delhi Cabinet has given “in principle” approval to the free-ride scheme of providing free rides for women in city buses and metro trains. For this cause, the Delhi Assembly also passed Supplementary Demands for Grants of Rs 290 crore. Of the Rs 290 crore, Rs 140 crore is for free rides for women in buses and Rs 150 crore for rides in metro trains. The free-ride scheme is slated to begin from October 29. Though, women employees of the Delhi government, local bodies and undertakings will not be entitled for transport allowance if they opt for free ride in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses. Both DTC and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) will strengthen their ticket checking mechanisms prevent “misuse” and “pilferage” of single journey passes.

Notes:
On 2019 National Sports Day (NSD), Gagan Narang and Pawan Singh have been honoured with the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar for their Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation (GNSPF) at the Arjuna Awards ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. The award recognizes their contribution in the growth of their favourite sport and a reward for sacrifices they have made to realize their dream. In 2011, Narang and co-founder Pawan Singh founded GNSPF to nurture budding talent and provide them training in a systematic and structured and also education to help carve out future champions. The Gun For Glory Shooting Academy — formed under the aegis of GNSPF — has 16 centres spread across India and has over 50 shooters getting international level coaching. The academy shooters have won over 165 international medals and many of them are a regular feature in the national team.