Current Affairs - 2019-20

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The Vishakhapatnam railway station in Andhra Pradesh has been adjudged as the cleanest railway station among the 75 busiest stations in the country in category A1, followed by Secunderabad, Jammu Tawi, Vijayawada and Anand Vihar railway stations. This was revealed by Third Party Audit Report on Station Cleanliness i.e. released by Ministry of Railway in New Delhi on May 17, 2017. The railway stations are categorised — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F — based on their annual passenger revenue by the ministry. Among the ‘A’ category stations, Beas railway station in Punjab was rated the cleanest station followed by Khammam station in Telangana and Ahmednagar station in Maharashtra. Zone wise South-East Central railway has been ranked first followed by East Coast railway and Central Railway. The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and was based on criteria such as toilets on platforms, management of tracks and dustbins.

Notes:
Before 5 August 2019, Part VI was not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir state. On 6 August 2019, parliament of India declared all the clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 to be inoperative. After this, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed dividing the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories viz. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

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Maximum expenditure of the family is on food, which is 23%

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Kelo irrigation project is implemented in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh on Kelo River, a tributary of Mahanadi River. The project is targeted to be completed by year 2018. The project was recently in news due to tussle between Chhattisgarh and Odisha state government over sharing of water of Mahanadi.

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A week long diversified cultural carnival ‘Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav’ was held in February, 2018 in Madhya Pradesh beginning at Maan Mandir Fort, Gwalior. 

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ISRO has recently established the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer system at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

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Recently, Scientists have discovered a new planet called Ross 128b that could possibly sustain life. This planet is located just 11 light-years away. It is a temperate planet that orbits a “quiet star”. It gets its name from the fact that it doesn’t spew out life-threatening bursts of radiation. The planet was discovered using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument.

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Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was born on September 25, 1916, in a village Nagla Chanderabhan in district Mathura of Uttar Pradesh. He was regarded as an ideal Swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is known for starting a monthly magazine “Rashtra Dharma”, a weekly “Panchajanya”, and a daily “Swadesh”. He conceived the political philosophy called “Integral Humanism”. Recently, the government celebrated his 100^th birth anniversary on 25^th September 2017.

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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).

Notes:
The Economic Survey 2017-18 notes that India could face a “Late Converger Stall” when it comes to economic growth. The survey identified four major factors impeding India’s growth to developed economy viz. climate change-induced agricultural stress; hyper-globalization which reduces India’s exporting opportunities; difficulties of transferring resources from low productivity to higher productivity sectors; & upgrading human capital as per the demands of a technology-intensive workplace.