Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
The new missions will be opened in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Togo. Currently, India has 29 resident missions in Africa.

Notes:
Recently, the Union Ministry of Culture has chosen Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, as the venue for the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav, the biggest national cultural festival in the country. The major objective of the annual festival is to popularise and showcase the cultural diversity of India through arts, artisans, various dance forms, handicrafts, flavours etc. from across the country. The festival is a five-day festival, which would be celebrated at Tawang during March 2-6, 2017, and is expected to be attended by almost 600 artistes from all over the country.

Notes:
Hyderabad-based ICRISAT, or International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, has recently launched molecular breeding project for pulses.

Notes:
Recently, the Ministry of Power has directed NTPC Ltd to source up to 10 per cent of its thermal fuel requirements from straw pellets, especially buying those generated in Punjab and Haryana during the winter season. The move is aimed at luring farmers away from stubble burning. As per recent reports from NASA, crop stubble burning is the major reason behind smog pollution in Delhi.

Notes:
The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently launched the “High Fives”, which are the five areas of development, in line with the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy.

Notes:
Recently, the Union Defence Ministry has approved most of the proposals of a committee of experts, headed by Lt. Gen. D.B. Shekatkar (Retd) to bring host of reforms in the military and improve financial management. Recommendations of the committee are: Capital expenditure: Roll-on defence budget must have enough capital expenditure available for modernisation. It must be against the present practice of surrendering unspent capital budget at the end of each financial year. Performance audit: It must be conducted of non-combat organisations under the Defence Ministry. It must include those dealing with defence estates and accounts, Director- General of Quality Assurance, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and National Cadet Corps (NCC). Downsizing or rationalisation of manpower: It will lead to significant savings. Joint services War College: It must be established for training middle-level officers. Reduce deployment of active-duty soldiers in avoidable postings: They will be replaced by retired officers and jawans in the running of NCC. Comprehensive reforms in the running of NCC: Transfer of NCC out of the Defence Ministry to the HRD Ministry: NCC can be run by re-employed or on-contract ex-service personnel.

Notes:
The “TARANG’ Mobile App”, “e-Trans” & “DEEP” e-bidding web portals have been developed by Rural Electrification Corporation Transmission Projects Company Limited (RECTPCL). TARANG stands for Transmission App for Real Time Monitoring & Growth. It is a Mobile App & Web Portal with excellent monitoring tool that tracks upcoming transmission projects and monitor the progress of Inter-State & Intra-State transmission systems in the country. The “e-Trans” web platform is for e-bidding and e-reverse auction for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) in transmission projects. DEEP stands for the Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price; it is an e-Bidding portal for medium term (1-5 years) purchase of power.

Notes:
The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. It was in news when Australian Government approved three mining leases for the India based Adani Group for its Galilee Basin project.

Notes:
SWAYAM Portal would offer at least 350 online courses and will leverage information technology, access to high quality reading resources, participate in discussion forums; take tests and earn academic grades. Access to SWAYAM would be widened by linkage with DTH channels dedicated to education.

Notes:
PUSA-1509 and PUSA-1121 are varieties of Basmati rice grown in Punjab and Haryana.