Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Karnataka won the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy.

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The Part VI of constitution of India is applicable to all the states of India. Earlier it was not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir. After Jammu & Kashmir converted to Union Territory in 2019, the 6th part extends to all states of India.

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The 56th Liberation Day of Goa was celebrated with great pomp & show in Panaji on December 19, 2017. Several programmes and events have been organised to mark the occasion. The state was liberated on this day in 1961 from Portuguese control after almost 450 years of colonial rule. The armed action “code name – Operation Vijay” was carried out by the Indian Armed Forces in December 1961. The operation involved air, sea and land strikes for over 36 hours, and was a decisive victory for the Republic of India that ended 451 years of rule of Portugal over its remaining exclaves in India. The engagement lasted two days resulting in twenty-two Indians and thirty Portuguese killed in the fighting. The brief conflict drew a mixture of worldwide praise and condemnation.

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Major General Jose Eladio Alcain of Uruguayan Army has been appointed new Head of Mission and Chief Military Observer for UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). He will succeed Major General Per Gustaf Lodin of Sweden, who will complete his two year assignment in July 2018. In 1948, the UN Security Council (UNSC) established the UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate the dispute between India and Pakistan regarding the disputed state of Kashmir. In 1949, UNCIP was absorbed into the UNMOGIP, which supervises the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and to monitor the peace in Kashmir.

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Meldonium was included in the list of banned drugs by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The decision was effective from 1 January 2016 because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.

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Recently, the Karnataka government approved “Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy 2017”. With this, Karnataka became the first state to roll out an Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy in the country. Important Facts about the Policy

• It aims to bring down pollution levels and push the “Make in Karnataka” initiative.
• This policy would not only help at boosting sales of EVs, but also in setting up charging infra and special manufacturing zones.
• The policy aims to attract investments worth Rs31,000 crore
• Under this policy, the state government has proposed to set up new EV manufacturing zones, charging stations in public and private spaces including airports, railway stations, metro stations and encourage start-ups to develop business models
• The state government estimates that the new policy will help to create employment for 55,000 individuals over the next few years in the state.

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In recent report of World Bank titled “South Asia Economic Focus – Globalisation Backlash”, it said eliminating tax evasion and corruption-the most talked objectives of junking old 500 and 1000 rupee notes. The report said that the demonetisation move will limit tax evasion and corruption, will help to curb black money, to eliminate counterfeit notes, increase transparency and promote the use of electronic payments in India.

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The GOLF (Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies) experiment on the SOHO mission aims to study the internal structure of the sun by measuring the spectrum of global oscillations in the frequency range 10?7 to 6 10?3 Hz. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, is the most comprehensive space mission ever devoted to the study of the Sun and its nearby cosmic environment known as the heliosphere. Recently, a team of researchers have discovered solar seismic waves which revealed that Sun’s core is rotating four times faster than its surface. Earlier it w… it was assumed that sun’s core rotate at same speed as the surface. The discovery was made using 16 years of observations from GOLF (Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies) instrument on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, a joint project of ESA and NASA.

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The Olympic Committee of Kosovo was represented at the Olympics 2016 Games for the first time since its formation in the wake of Yugoslavia’s break-up. Similarly, South Sudan which was formed in 2011, made its debut at the Olympics 2016.

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Swayam is a 1-U picosatellite (CubeSat) developed by the students of College of Engineering in Pune. This satellite provides point-to-point communications for the UHF HAM band. The Satellite was launched by ISRO on June 22, 2016 along with Cartosat-2C by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-34. The satellite has been placed in low earth orbit (LEO) around the Earth at a height of 515 km. The project was completed over a span of 8 years and more than 200 students worked on it. The scientific objective of the satellite is to demonstrate passive attitude control to stabilise and appropriately orient the satellite. This technique has been used for the first time on an Indian Satellite.