Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill (82), the former Director General of Police (DGP) of Punjab, has recently passed away in Delhi on May 26, 2017. He was known for rooting out Sikh militancy from Punjab. During Indira Gandhi tenure, Gill mounted ‘Operation Black Thunder’, a critical success in the war against terrorism. In two tenures as DGP Punjab, he led one of the most successful counter-terrorist operations, bringing Punjab from the verge of disintegration to complete normalcy. He also worked for the Chhattisgarh government as a security adviser to help control Naxal activities in 2006. Gill was an author, editor, speaker, consultant on counter-terrorism, president of the Institute for Conflict Management and president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).

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:
Chandrayaan was launched on October 22nd 2008 and successfully reached the lunar surface on November 14, 2008. The ISRO lost communication with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29, 2009, almost a year after it was launched on October 22, 2008. It operated for 312 days.
In 2017 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found India’s first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1 which was considered lost, is still orbiting the moon.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat -National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) in New Delhi on March 21, 2018. The scheme has the benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year. The target beneficiaries under the scheme will be over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. The benefits of the scheme are portable across the country. A beneficiary will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public and private empaneled hospitals across the country. The AB-NHPM will subsume the ongoing centrally sponsored schemes- Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and senior citizen health insurance scheme.

Notes:
SWIFT stands for Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT). It has been launched by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) as an initiative to speed up customs clearances for consignments and improve ‘ease of doing business. It provides a single-point interface for clearance and is expected to reduce documentation and costs. It is expected to cover and benefit over 97 per cent of India’s imports. The single window connects over 50 offices of six government agencies with the Indian customs department. These are the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI); Department of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage; Drug Controller; Animal Quarantine; Wild Life Crime Control Bureau and Textile Committee

Notes:
Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have emerged the cleanest districts in India according Gramin Swachh Survekshan. Sindhudurg was judged as the cleanest in the ‘Plains’ category and Mandi in the cleanest district in ‘Hills’ category. The Gramin Swachh Survekshan report was released by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

Notes:
The wild ass, locally known as ghudkhar and found only in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat in India, has been classified as an endangered animal. The Red List of International Union For Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released recently moved the wild ass from the ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ category, indicating the need for heightened protection measures. The IUCN added that the population of the Asiatic wild ass has declined by an alarming 52% in the past 16 years.
In Gujarat, there are 4,451 wild asses as per the 2014 census. In 2004, their number was 3,863. Principal chief conservator of forest H C Pant said, “Gujarat has recorded a 10% rise in numbers especially in the past five years. This change in classification must be prompted by the decline in their population across the world.” {Source: Times of India}

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.

Notes:
India’s total foreign exchange reserve is US$405.1434 billion with foreign exchange assets (FCA) component at US$380.0499 billion, gold reserves at US$21.1399 billion, SDRs of US$1.4796 billion and US$2.4740 billion reserve position in IMF in the week to July 20, 2018.

Notes:
At the Rio Olympic Games, India Men’s National Hockey team finished at the 8th position bagging two victories and three losses. Where was the 2018 World Cup Hockey held?