Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 8-9, 2017. In this summit, India and Pakistan will become full members of the organization. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It is mainly aimed at military cooperation between the members and involves intelligence- sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.

Notes:
The 90th edition of Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has started in New Delhi, which was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13, 2017. It was the Mr Modi’s first address to an AGM of a national business association after becoming the Prime Minister. It was his first major interaction with India Inc since the launch of GST. The theme of this year’s AGM is, ‘Indian Business in a New India’. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia are also scheduled to address different sessions of the AGM. Finance Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir will speak on GST at a special session during the AGM.

Notes:
On 25-12-2017, India’s top 10 trade partners are China, USA, UAE, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Indonesia and Singapore.

Notes:
35% total cost = Rs. 17500
∴15% of total cost =

Notes:
Under Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR), banks set aside funds to cover bad loans. A higher provision coverage ratio means the bank is protecting itself better against its bad loans. It was recently in news when provision coverage ratio for most of the public sector banks went down and quantity of bad loans increased.

Notes:
MESSENGER was the first orbital mission around Mercury. It was a NASA robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015. BepiColombo is a joint mission planned to be launched in October 2018. It is a joint mission by European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites to be launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO). The mission will perform a comprehensive study on Mercury, including its magnetic field, magnetosphere, interior structure and surface. Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) is a space probe developed by NASA designed to study the atmosphere of Mars. The mission was successfully launched on November 18, 2013. Mission goals include determining how the planet’s atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time. MAVEN has completed four years on 21 september, 2018.

Notes:
Recently, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its environment report entitled, “Solid approach to waste: how five cities are beating pollution” has recognised 5 cities in the world for their excellent waste management system. These include Osaka in Japan, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Penang in Malaysia and Cajica in Colombia and Alappuzha in India.

Notes:
Second option is the correct answer
The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement is a global initiative to eradicate malnutrition among children. The SUN Movement was born in 2010 in response to mounting evidence of both the injustice and the impact of malnutrition-costs measured in children’s lives and futures. Indian States of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have also joined the SUN Movement.

Notes:
Dauphas’s paper provides information about the formation of the earth and moon. It deciphered the isotopic nature of the material that formed earth. He found that a rare type of extra terrestrial material known as enstatite meteorites formed the half of the first 60% of the earth and the rest formed from the enstatite type impactors.

Notes:
Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have emerged the cleanest districts in India according Gramin Swachh Survekshan. Sindhudurg was judged as the cleanest in the ‘Plains’ category and Mandi in the cleanest district in ‘Hills’ category. The Gramin Swachh Survekshan report was released by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.