Current Affairs - 2019-20

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Aleksandar Vucic, the chairman of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), has been sworn-in as the new President of Serbia on May 31, 2017 and succeeded Tomislav Nikolic. He won the 2017 Serbian Presidential election by 55% of votes on April 2017. Prior to this post, Vucic was the Prime Minister of Serbia.

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The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), the research arm of Union Ministry of Railways, has launched “New Online Vender Registration System” on January 9, 2018. This new system provides major improvements and paradigm changes in the registration system over the earlier system. Public access to the information, expeditious process completion with defined timelines, simplification of procedures, round-the-year services, availability of all related information on RDSO Website, constant monitoring at all levels, reduction in cycle timelines, regular updation of online data, user friendly interface etc. are the hallmarks of the new system. And also, there is no need for vendors to visit RDSO office for any activity related to his case for registration.

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The Government of India (GoI) had constituted an 8-member task force under CBDT member Arvind Modi in November 2017 to review the Income-tax Act of 1961 and to draft a new Direct Tax Law in consonance with the economic needs of the country. Recently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has invited suggestions and feedback from stakeholders and general public in the format provided on the departmental website. It stated that the format can be downloaded from the website and suggestions may be sent through e-mail at [email protected], latest by 2nd of next month. The task force will also study the direct tax system in other countries and also keep in mind international best practices. The committee will submit its report in May 2018.

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Recently, Meghalaya became the first state in the country to operationalise a law that makes social audit of government programmes and schemes a part of government practice. The Meghalaya state government recently launched “The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017”. The key provisions of the social audit law are as follows:

• Make an easy edit in the course of action for implementation of government schemes as per requirement
• The law gives people a direct say in how money will be spent and fills an information gap for officers and locals

The law also has provision for appointment of social audit facilitator to conduct the audit directly with the people.

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The drug called Truvada has been approved for the treatment of HIV in infected patients. It works by lowering the amount of virus circulating in people’s blood. Also the recent clinical trials show that it can also protect uninfected high-risk people from acquiring the virus, if they take the drug daily before and after exposure. Truvada contains the active substances emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. Drugmaker Cipla has received regulatory approval in India to sell its version of Truvada.

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.

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Scientists from have discovered Gymnothorax indicus (called Indian unpatterened moray), a new species of eel (a snake-like fish) in the northern Bay of Bengal region along the West Bengal coast.

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Recently, Scientists from India have discovered seven new frog species belonging to the genus Nyctibatrachus, in the Western Ghats. These adorable creatures are among the smallest in the world, and four of the new species are tiny enough to fit on a fingernail.

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Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report is published by World Economic Forum.The Report 2017 ranks 127 countries on their ability to deliver secure, affordable, sustainable energy. India ranked 87th among the 127 surveyed countries.

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The South Asia Sub regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) includes seven member countries-Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Myanmar has been recently added to the list as the seventh member of the economic cooperation.