Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2019

Notes:
Suresh Raina has become the first Indian batsman to cross 8000 runs in T20 cricket. He achieved this feat when he scored 12 runs against Puducherry in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Delhi on Feb 25. With those 12 runs, Raina has now scored 8,001 from 300 T20s which consisted of 284 innings. It was incidentally his 300th T20. Beside this, Raina is the second Indian after MS Dhoni to have played 300 T20 matches. Apart from Raina, Virat Kohli (7833) and Rohit Sharma (7795) are the only other batsmen in the top 10 list of the highest run-getters in T20 cricket. Overall, Raina is the sixth highest with David Warner (8111 runs), Shoaib Malik (8603), Kieron Pollard (8839), Brendon McCullum (9922) and Chris Gayle (12,298).

Notes:
The Union cabinet has recently approved a proposal for setting up the Centre for Disability Sports at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to benefit para-sports in the country. The centre will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 170.99 crore over a period of five years & will be registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The centre will have a Governing Body comprising a maximum of 12 members, some of them experts from “National Level Sports Federations apart from experts in para games”. The Section 30 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, requires the government to take measures to ensure “effective participation of Persons with Disabilities in sports activities which includes the provision of infrastructural facilities for sports activities for them”. The upcoming centre was proposed in the budget of 2014-15. At present, no specialized sports training facilities for Divyangjan are available in the Country. Hence, this void is proposed to be filled up by setting up sports infrastructure so that persons with disabilities (Divyangjan) can undergo rigorous and specialized training in this Centre.

Notes:
Bhagwan Lal Sahni, a BJP leader from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, appointed new Chairman of the newly constituted National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The NCBC was given constitutional status by Parliament in 2018, after repealing the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993. The NCBC which previously only could recommend on the issue of inclusion or exclusion of a community in the Central list of OBCs will now have the powers of a civil court as it has been given Constitutional status, on par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

Notes:
On 4th March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which will function on the “One Nation One Card” model across the country. The NCMC is the India’s first indigenously developed payment platform for transport that can be used to make payments across public transport anywhere in the country, including Metro, bus and suburban railways, for toll and parking, and for retail like any credit or debit card. The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications e.g. monthly passes, season tickets etc. The card will address the challenges associated with the cash payment e.g. cash handling, revenue leakages, cash reconciliation etc. Beside this, PM Modi also launched an Automatic Fare-Collection system (AFC) called ‘SWEEKAR’, and a gate and card-reader system called ‘SWAGAT’ . The three together will enable the use of the national mobility card across the country without a conflict with existing Point-of-Sale (PoS) machines. The cards can be issued by all public and private banks the same way credit, debit, and prepaid cards are issued.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched “Yuva Vigyani Karyakram (or Young Scientist Programme) for school children to be studying in the 9th standard. ISRO scientists will impart basic knowledge on Space Technology, Space Science and Space Applications to the children to arouse their interest in emerging areas of Space activities. ISRO will conduct “Catch them young” residential training programme of around two weeks duration during summer holidays for these children. For this initiative, three students from each State and Union Territory, covering CBSE, ICSE and State syllabus will be selected. The selection is based on the academic performance and extracurricular activities. Students from the rural area have been given special weightage in the selection criteria.

Notes:
The World Wildlife Day (WWD) is observed every year on 3rd of March to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna & flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. The 2019 theme “Life Below Water: For people and planet” aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Notes:
The government policy think tank, Niti Aayog has recently released Delta ranking report. In it, the Hailakandi district of Assam has been ranked first among the 112 aspirational districts of India, followed by Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh. Hailakandi has made a giant leap from 52nd position to no. 1 position on the basis of its performance during November-December 2018 and January 2019. For securing the first rank as an aspirational district, Hailakandi will be given an allocation of Rs. 10 crore.

Notes:
The Israeli spacecraft “Beresheet” on it’s first-ever moon mission has recently sent its first selfie back to Earth. The image showing part of the Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in the background was beamed to mission control in Yehud, Israel — 37,600 km away. Earlier, on 22nd February 2019, the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and NGO SpaceIL launched the unmanned spacecraft Beresheet from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 22nd February 2019. The 585-kg Beresheet (Genesis) spacecraft took off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk. It is the Israel’s first-ever moon mission that will measure the lunar magnetic field to help understanding of the moon’s formation. So far, only Russia, the US and China have made the 239,000 mile (384,000km) journey and landed on the moon. For Israel, the landing itself is the main mission, but the spacecraft also carries a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, which will help understanding of the moon’s formation. It also carries a time capsule loaded with digital files containing a Bible, children’s drawings, Israeli songs, the recollections of a Holocaust survivor and the Israeli flag.

Notes:
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti politician and sports administrator, has been re-elected president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) for an 8th term despite being embroiled in a forgery case brought by Swiss investigators. Sheikh Ahmad is considered a major powerbroker in world sport & won a new five-year term until 2024.The OCA is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. The headquarters of the OCA is located at Kuwait City.

Notes:
The Congress government in Chhattisgarh has recently constituted a high-level committee under a retired Supreme Court judge to review cases against tribals who are in prison for alleged involvement in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). This marks a shift from the stance adopted by the previous BJP government which was often accused of targeting social rights activists working in Naxal-affected districts. The panel, headed by Justice (retd) A K Patnaik, will review the cases registered against people belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the naxal-affected area.