Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh has become the first State to endorse the Central government’s draft bill that makes instant triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence. The draft law, which provides for three-year imprisonment and a fine to a man trying to divorce his wife by uttering “talaq” three times, got the State government’s approval at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on December 5, 2017.

Notes:
India fulfils 85% of its crude oil requirements through imports. As of June, 2022, Iraq, Russia and Saudi Arabia are India’s largest three crude oil suppliers.

Notes:
In Budget 2018, Bamboo has been termed as “Green Gold”. The Finance Minister announced a Re-structured National Bamboo Mission with corpus of Rs.1290 crore to promote bamboo sector. Taxonomically, bamboo is a grass. However, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 classifies Bamboo as tree as well as grass. While the bamboos produced in the forest area have been termed as tree, those produced in non-forest areas have been termed as grass. The recent change introduced in the Forest Act, 1927 has made Bamboo as one of the highest yielding renewable natural resource. The non-forest bamboo produce will now be used for artifacts and for infrastructure development.

Notes:
INS Chakra is an 8,140-tonne nuclear-powered submarine manufactured by Russia. It was taken by India on lease from Russia in 2012 for a period of 10 years. The Russian experts after examination of the damaged submarine have asked 125 crore for its repair. The Arihant is based on Russian double hull design with a sealed nuclear reactor section. Recently, it also suffered a major damage due to “human error” and is back in services after repairs. INS Arihant was built with Russia’s help under Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project.

Notes:
The Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2017 has been released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in partnership with the World Bank Group. The BRAP includes 405 recommendations for reforms on regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures spread across 12 reform areas, that is, labour regulation enablers; contract enforcement; registering property; inspection reform enablers; single window system; land availability and allotment; construction permit enablers; environmental registration enablers; obtaining utility permits; paying taxes; access to information and transparency enablers and sector specific reforms spanning the lifecycle of a typical business. BRAP 2017 includes two new sectors i.e. Healthcare and Hospitality.

Notes:
As of 2023, world’s largest marine protected area is the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area, located in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica. This marine protected area covers approximately 1.57 million square kilometers (about 600,000 square miles) and was established in 2016 by an agreement among 24 countries and the European Union. The Ross Sea Marine Protected Area is intended to conserve the unique marine ecosystems of the region and to support scientific research.

Notes:
In the recently released bi-annual Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2016 of World Bank Group, India ranked 35th among 160 countries and Germany at first.

Notes:
Tidal Wave–II was the air campaign led by US military to destroy Islamic State oil Operation in Syria. The original Operation Tidal Wave was carried out in 1943, by US to destroy Hitler’s main oil supply in Ploesti, Romania during World War-II.

Notes:
A total of 45 nations had participated in the 2018 Asian Games which were held at Indonesi

Notes:
The motto of 2018 Asian Games is Energy of Asi