Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
Pistol aces Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu bagged a bronze each to continue India’s medal charge at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako City, Japan on December 10, 2017. Jitu won an individual bronze in the men’s 10m Air Pistol, which also helped the Indian team comprising Shahzar Rizvi and Omkar Singh besides Jitu, to bag the Team gold in the event.Heena claimed an individual bronze in the women’s 10m Air Pistol. Her effort, along with teammates Shri Nivetha Paramantham and Harveen Srao, helped the Team clinch a silver. India added another individual bronze through Anmol Jain in the junior men’s 10m Air Pistol as well as the Team silver in the event, with combined efforts of Anmol, Gaurav Rana and Abhishek Arya.

Notes:
Before April 2019, National Housing Bank (NHB) was a wholly-owned subsidiary of RBI. RBI sold its 100% equity to government in 2019 and now its owner is Government of India. This was done to end the cross-holding in the regulatory institutions as per the Narasimham-II committee report’s recommendations.

Notes:
Vyas Samman is a literary award given annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation. The award is given to an Indian citizen for an outstanding work of Hindi literature published in the last 10 years. The award includes a cash prize of Rs 4,00,000.
The first Vyas Samman was awarded in 1991 to Dr. Ram Vilas Sharma. In 2018, Leeladhar Jagudi was given the Vyas Samman Award for his collection of poems “Jitne Log Utne Prem, published in 2013.

Notes:
The Ministry of Railways has signed MoU with Ministry of AYUSH in New Delhi on February 6, 2018 to augment Ayush services in Railway hospitals i.e. New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Guwahati. As per MoU, Ministry of Railways will provide logistics and infrastructure in the form of Land & building, Equipments, Furniture, AYUSH medicines and consumables as well as Manpower. It will organize and provide orientation training to newly recruited AYUSH Doctors and AYUSH Paramedicals. Ministry of AYUSH in turn will provide all other technical inputs required for introduction of AYUSH Systems in the five identified Railways Hospitals. The Ministry will also provide technical knowhow regarding the pharmacopoeia, medicine inventory, hospital planning. Presently, Indian Railways is running 126 Homeopathic Clinics and 40 Ayurvedic Clinics through Staff Benefit Fund under Welfare Section of Establishment Directorate.

Notes:
% Expenditure on transport and other items = (20 + 5) % = 25%.

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Asia’ s largest startup ecosystem congregation “Huddle Kerala” will be held at Kovalam near the Kerala capital ‘Thiruvananthapuram’ from April 6 and 7, 2018 to provide a platform for start-ups to pitch their products and interact with a wide array of technology and industry leaders from around the world. The main focus of Huddle Kerala will be on the emerging sectors like blockchain, cryptocurrency, internet of things (IoT), gaming and e-sports, cyber security, digital entertainment, augmented reality, virtual reality, e-governance and mobile governance among other latest technologies. The initiative, organised by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IAMAI Startup Foundation, is to have participation from 2,000 delegates, including start-up entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders and academicians, with 40 speakers in 30 sessions.

Notes:
“Operation Save Kurma” was conducted in the country by the WCCB to combat the proliferating illegal trade in live turtles and its parts from the country to destinations abroad. India is the only recipient of the certificate of commendation at the 69th Standing Committee meeting of CITES. The WCCB had convened a species specific operation on turtles, code named OPERATION SAVE KURMA” from December 15, 2016 to January 30, 2017 and recovered a total of 15,739 live turtles from 45 suspects, having inter-state linkages. The operation brought about awareness among the enforcement agencies to focus on the existing trade routes and major trade hubs in the country, which will be specifically focused in future.

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Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur claim that they have found evidence of ‘lost’ Indian River called Chandrabhaga at a distance of about two km from the 13th century Sun Temple at Konark.

Notes:
Genvoya is a new single-tablet drug has been approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a complete treatment for HIV. Genvoya contains a new form of the powerful antiviral medication tenofovir, which slows progression of the virus. This new form of the medication enters the body’s cells, including those infected with HIV and where the virus replicates, more efficiently than previous forms of tenofovir.

Notes:
Ramanuja was a Hindu theologian & philosopher and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition. His philosophical foundation was qualified monism and is called Vishishtadvaita. He is also known for writing influential texts such as Bhasya on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. Ramanuja’s Vishishtadvaita School and Shankara’s Advaita School are both nondualism Vedanta schools. The 1000th birth anniversary of this Vaishnavite saint was celebrated in May 2017.