Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu has flagged off India’s first Antyodaya Express between Ernakulam and Howrah. The train service was inaugurated by the Railways Minister via video conferencing in New Delhi on February 27, 2017. The Antyodaya Express is a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, for the common man to be operated on dense routes. The new express train will have facilities like cushioned luggage racks which can serve as seats, LED lights, modular toilets, pleasing interior colour scheme and others. Beside this, the Railway Minister has also flagged off the 4th Humsafar Express between Sriganganagar and Tiruchirapalli. The new train is fully air-conditioned third AC service with an optional service for meals.

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S Ganesh Kumar has been appointed the new Executive Director (ED) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He succeeded Chandan Sinha, who has taken voluntary retirement on May 31, 2017. As Executive Director (ED), Kumar will look after the departments of Information Technology, Payment and Settlement Systems and External Investments and Operations. Prior to being promoted as ED, he was Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Information Technology. Currently, the central bank has 11 Executive Directors.

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The Australia Group is an informal group of countries that work together to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons. The group was established in 1985 after Iraq used chemical weapons in 1984. The group’s members include 42 countries and the European Union. The group’s members meet annually to improve export licensing measures and stop potential proliferators from acquiring CBW materials.
The Australia Group’s members coordinate their national export controls to limit the supply of chemicals, biological agents, and related equipment, technologies, and knowledge. In 2020, the group agreed to add Novichok nerve agent precursors to its list of chemical weapons precursors.
The Australia Group’s first meeting was held in Brussels, Belgium in September 1989. India became the 43rd member of the group.

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Also known as Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, it is convention number 182 and is most widely-ratified international labor convention, it has set a global target of eliminating the WFCL by 2016

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The Pardhi community in central India has been a nomadic community of hunters. Phase Pardhis, one of the subgroups within the community, were known for their skill in catching birds with phase (traps). Traditional hunters Phase Pardhis are part of an initiative to save critically endangered lesser f1oricans. (Down To Earth)

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Indore ranked first, Bhopal occupied the second spot  and Visakhapatnam the third spot as per the Swachh Survekshan 2017. 

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National Accountability Bureau is Pakistan’s corruption watchdog. Its an autonomous and constitutional body of that country responsible to build efforts against corruption and prepare critical national economic intelligence assessments against economic terrorism to Pakistan government. It has been frequently in news in context with corruption charges on Nawaj Sharif. It recently also ordered the freezing of properties and assets of finance minister Ishaq Dar, who is also facing a reference in the Accountability Court for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

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As per the India State of Forest Report 2017, Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum carbon stock of 994.5 million tonnes followed by Madhya Pradesh (695.5 million tonnes), Chhattisgarh (560.9 million tonnes) and Maharashtra (493 million tonnes).

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The first Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Leaders' Summit held on 7 March 2017 in Jakarta to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Association. The Vice-President of India led the Indian delegation. The Summit was preceded by meetings of the Council of Ministers and the Committee of Senior Officials. The Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (Dr) VK Singh (Retd) participated in the Council of Ministers while Secretary (ER) in MEA Shri Amar Sinha led the talks at the Committee of Senior Officials.

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Maharashtra was the first State in India to launch a nutrition mission, in 2005, followed by five other States, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Karnataka, covering a total population of 300 million. Recently, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh joined the list with the focus of the nutrition mission and inter-sectoral coordination to improve child nutrition in the first 1000 days.