Current Affairs Quiz- September, 2019

Notes:
Young shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal from Delhi has recently won gold in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. With the win, she has also secured an Olympic quota for India. This is India’s 9th quota in shooting for 2020 Tokyo Games. World no.1 Olena Kostevych of Ukraine claimed the silver, while Serbia’s Jasmina Milavonovic bagged the bronze in the ongoing event.

Notes:
Varun Dhawan’s upcoming movie ‘Coolie No. 1’ has become the first Bollywood film to go plastic-free. The environmental friendly initiative was taken by director of movie David Dhawan and its producers Vashu Bhagnani, Jackky Bhagnani and Deepshikha Deshmukh. The movie is all set to release on May 1, 2020. Their decision comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, urged people to shun single-use plastic and encouraged usage of jute and cloth bags to protect the environment.

Notes:
The Punjab Employment Generation Department (PEGD) has decided to play the role of a recruitment agency for the youth wanting to go abroad for studies and work. It will also set up a special cell to send the youth for studies abroad. The move came after regular complaints of fraud by travel agents. The special cell will have a tie-up with foreign public universities which offer education at reasonable rates. This will not only save students from frauds but also help them financially as the commission which foreign institutes pay to the agents would be returned to them. This facility is already available in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana.

Notes:
The famous Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been adjudged as the India’s ‘Best Swachh Iconic Place’ on the basis of the overall improvement in sanitation. The ranking of Swachh Iconic Places was recently released by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of drinking water and sanitation. The initiatives of water kiosks, reverse vending machines, equip dung management centre, installation of kill waste machine, collection, transportation, and disposal of waste along with regular mopping up of waste though a workforce of 1300 sanitation workers (Shrine cadre and outsourced) have enabled the shrine to achieve the top rank. The President will confer the prestigious award to the Shrine during the Swachh Mahotsav to be organized by the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation on the 6th September 2019.

Notes:
The 15th edition of the joint military exercise “Yudh Abhyas 2019” is being conducted between India and United States at Joint Base Lewis Mc Chord in Washington, USA from 05-18 September. It is one of the largest joint running military training and defence corporation endeavors between India and USA. The exercise will provide an opportunity to the armed forces of both countries to train in an integrated manner at Battalion level with joint planning at Brigade level. Both armies will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well developed operations for neutralization of threats of varied nature.

Notes:
Union Tourism and Culture Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel has recently flagged off the first Mobile Science Exhibition (MSE) at Leh Palace in Leh. For the first time, a national programme is being launched from Leh. The aim of the programme is to popularize Science and Technology (S&T) among students as well as the people. The MSE programme is specially designed in a bus so that it can reach the doorsteps of people. The bus will travel from school to school in rural areas and organize exhibitions throughout the year. Along with the exhibition, some other programmes like Sky Observation Programme through telescope, science film show, Science Demonstration Lectures etc will also be organized. The programme carries a number of interactive exhibits related to everyday science. Each specially designed bus contains 20 interactive exhibits. The Culture Ministry will launch 25 Mobile Science Exhibition buses across the country.

Notes:
The Gujarat Government has recently signed the Sister State MoU with elaware State of America in Gandhinagar.  This is the first sister state MoU signed by Gujarat with any state of America. According to official sources, cooperation in the field of services and investment opportunities in GIFT IFSC have also been discussed during the meeting. The sectors like Biotechnology University, bio sciences, financial services, animal husbandry and dairy, port services have been short listed for future cooperation.

Notes:
The digital transformation and IT services major, Wipro Limited has bagged a strategic contract valued at $300 million from the ICICI Bank to provide digital technology led services. Under the contract, Wipro will offer a comprehensive suite of services to ICICI Bank for the next 7 years. Earlier, Mumbai-based IT services firm Vara lnfotech was providing these services to the ICICI Bank. As part of this strategic deal, Wipro will absorb about 3,800 employees of Vara lnfotech along with its existing contracts, facilities and assets, on a going concern basis, through a business transfer agreement for an all cash consideration of  Rs 321 crore. This transaction is expected to be completed during the quarter ending September 30, 2019 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Notes:
The Global Liveability Index 2019 has been released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The index assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. The 2019 index is topped by Vienna (Austria), followed by Melbourne and Sydney. In India, New Delhi and Mumbai ranked 118th and 119th out of 140 cities. While war-ravaged Damascus (Syria) ranked the world’s  least liveable city, followed by Lagos (Nigeria) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

Notes:
The International Day of Charity is observed every year on 5th of September to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity related activities all over the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations for their own purposes on the local, national, regional and international level.