Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
India has signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to provide fresh assistance of 318 million credit line to develop the island nation’s railway sector. The agreement was signed in Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 6, 2017. India has already provided four Lines of Credit for the development of railway sector in Sri Lanka through its EXIM bank amounting to approximately 966 million. These credit facilities have been utilized to improve the Southern and Northern railway lines and for the procurement of rolling stocks for the Sri Lanka Railways.

Notes:
INS Arihant is a nuclear-powered submarine built by India. It is first indigenously built nuclear propelled strategic submarine and is the lead ship of the Arihant-class of submarines. It was designed and constructed as part of India’s nuclear weapons program. INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, and it was designed to carry and launch ballistic missiles. The submarine was launched in 2009 and completed its sea trials in 2016. It is currently in service with the Indian Navy.

Notes:
Government has increased quota for disabled people for admission to PG medical courses from 3% to 5%. The move came after the union ministry of health and family welfare approved to amend the regulation for admission to post graduate medical courses in order to expand the scope of persons with disabilities getting the benefit of reservation. Now all 21 benchmark disabilities as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 can register for admission to medical courses.

Notes:
∠ACB = 180° – 120° = 60°
AB = AC
∴ ∠ABC = ∠ACB = 60°
∴ ∠BAC = 60°
Hence option [B] is the right answer.

Notes:
Southern birdwing is the largest butterfly of India, endemic to peninsular India. It was recently in news when the State Forest department of Karnataka sent a proposal to the state government to declare Southern Bird Wing butterfly as the state butterfly. 

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The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989. It is also known as Green Nobel Prize. The prize is awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of US$175,000 per recipient. Prafulla Samantara is an environmentalist from Odisha. He is known for Lok Shakti Abhiyan, a civil rights organisation, which was at the forefront of the protests in Niyamgiri in Lanjigarh district where Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of Vedanta Alumina, was planning to set up mining operations in a joint venture with state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC).

Notes:
Recently, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, has proposed to develop a dedicated 200 acre industrial park for the manufacture of medical devices in his state. The Park will be having a Common Manufacturing Facility Centre to act as a Hub for SME Sector to enable it to flourish as a Cluster. Focus will be on creating an Eco System for High End Medical Device Manufacturing and Import Substitution with an eye for Export Market. Though the Medical Device Park has been proposed to be set up in three states viz. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, but Andhra Pradesh has become the first to implement the programme. The proposed medical devices park will have ‘Centre of Excellence’ in which research for medical device will be conducted.

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The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was a national agency of Government of India, which was responsible to consider or give approval to FDI in India. FIPB is now abolished as announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during 2017-2018 budget speech in Lok Sabha.

Notes:
Petroleum coke, or pet coke, is a byproduct of oil refining. It is a key input material for cement producers and is a highly polluting fuel. The Supreme Court requested all states and union territories to move forward towards a blanket ban on the use of pet coke. Pet coke is a dirtier alternative to coal. The use of pet coke has come under scrutiny due to rising pollution levels in major cities. Pet coke is most widely used in the cement industry. It is also used as a primary material for electrodes used in electric steel furnaces for smelting and refining steel scrap.
The majority of pet coke is produced in the US but is transported to India and China. In 2016, the US sent more than 8 million metric tons of pet coke to India.

Notes:
Seychelles is an archipelago and country in the Indian Ocean. Officially known as the Republic of Seychelles, it is a 115-island country. Recently, India signed an Agreement with Seychelles for the Development, Management, Operation and Maintenance of Facilities on “Assumption Island”. The agreement will be valid for 20 years, after which it can be renewed for periods of 10 years at a time.