Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
Nirupama Rao, the former Indian Ambassador to US, has been appointed as a public policy fellow to a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) where she will work on a project on the Sino-India ties. Rao will be affiliated with the Wilson Centre’s Asia program and spend 3 months in residence at the Wilson Centre from June 2017, which is a key non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues. The WWICS is the living, national memorial to President Wilson, created by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington DC. The Wilson Center provides a strictly nonpartisan space for the worlds of policymaking and scholarship to interact.

Notes:
The Punjab government has decided to collaborate with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as part of its efforts to root out the drug menace in the State. The MoU will be signed between the health department, the Special Task Force (STF) on drugs and the UNODC in the second week of June 2017. It was also decided to develop a roadmap for the project implementation for which a project committee will be set up. The committee will be headed by principal secretary (Health) with STF chief ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu as co-convenor, besides two representatives of UNODC.

Notes:
The Egypt squash team has won the boy’s title at the 6th WSF-World junior squash team championship 2018 by defeating England by 2-0 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on July 29. Egypt’s Marwan Tarek, who lost the individual championship final, defeated Nick Wall of England in straight games. Czech Republic and USA finished third and secured the bronze medal. Host India finished 11th overall.

Notes:
'Tulaipanji' and 'Gobindobhog' are varieties of aromatic rice. Recently, the Bengal Government applied in the Office of Geographical Indications, Chennai for GI certification of products.

Notes:
Government has recently announced the setting up of National Nutrition Mission which would benefit nearly 10 crore people in the country. It aims to cover all the States and districts in the country i.e. 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20. It aims to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies. It would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022). The mission will be funded by Government Budgetary Support (50%) and 50% by IBRD or other MDB. The support ratio would be 60:40 between Centre and States/UTs, 90:10 for NER and Himalayan States, and 100% for UTs without legislature.

Notes:
Recently, based on the recommendations of Kokate committee, the Union Health Ministry had imposed the ban on 344 FDC drugs under Section 26A of Drugs and Cosmetics Act in March 2016. The ban was imposed because of FDC being unsafe and not having a therapeutic justification. India is one of the world’s largest markets for FDC drugs that make up almost half the market share. It was imposed over fears that these drugs cause anti-microbial resistance and might even cause organ-failure because of high toxicity. It also aimed at curbing the misuse of medicines.

Notes:
Darfur is a region in Sudan also known as North Sudan. The War in Darfur is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan

Notes:
The recently found exoplanet, named LHS 1140b, is about 1.43 times larger than the Earth. It has a diameter of 11,322 miles (18,221 km), compared to the Earth’s diameter of 7,918 miles (12,742 km).

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Australia’s Men’s Hockey teams is one of the most successful teams. They lifted the 2018 title. They are nicknamed as the Kookaburras. Who is the coach of Australian Men’s Hockey team?