Test : August 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 5" - Current Affairs MCQ

The Indian Navy is to host the multilateral naval exercise named ‘MILAN‘ for the year 2020 in the month of March. The announcement for this exercise was made by Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) at the INS(Indian Navy Ship) Circars Parade Ground in the ENC on the occasion of 73rd Independence day.The Indian Navy is to host the multilateral naval exercise named ‘MILAN‘ at Visakhapatnam for the year 2020 in the month of March.

On August 16, 2019, 5th BRICS Minister of Environment Meeting held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which was preceded by the 2-day meeting of BRICS Joint Working Group on Environment. The Indian delegation was led by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar.The Ministers of BRICS countries underlined the” Partnership on Urban Environmental Sustainability Initiative (PUESI)” for sharing knowledge & experience on major issues such as waste management, cogeneration, reverse logistics, sanitation, urban air quality, urban green areas.

Wing Commander of Indian Air Force (IAF) Abhinandan Varthaman, who downed an enemy jet during an aerial combat with Pakistan in February 2019 and was held captive for 3 days, was conferred the Vir Chakra 2019, India’s third-highest war time gallantry medal.

Indian Army team participated for the 1st time & has emerged as the winner among 8 teams in five stages of the 5th edition of ‘International Army Scout Masters Competition 2019’ held in Jaisalmer Military Station, Rajasthan from August 6-14,2019. Indian Army was trained under the aegis of Southern Command.

Book titled ‘Kashmir’s untold story: Declassification’ by Bloomsbury publishers was announced on August 14, 2019. The book portrays the time of political and geographical consolidations of Jammu & Kashmir(J&K), beginning from the era of Maharaja Gulab Singh till the present day.Kashmir’s untold story-Declassified.The book is authored by Delhi- based filmmaker Iqbal Chand Malhotra and defence analyst Maroof Raza. The book will be released on September 18, 2019.

On august 17,2019, The 9 day long National tribal festival named “Aadi Mahotsav” commenced at the Polo Ground, Leh-Ladakh. It is a joint initiative of Ministry of tribal affairs and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED). The theme of this year’s festival is “A celebration of the spirit of Tribal Craft,Culture and Commerce”.

The Indian Navy’s stealth frigate, INS Tarkash, participated in the 14th Edition of KONKAN-19 series of annual bilateral exercises between Indian Navy and Royal Navy of Britain off the South Coast of the United Kingdom (UK). It exercised with the Royal Navy’s Daring Class Destroyer, HMS Defender with integral helicopter Wildcat. KONKAN-19 involved Gunnery Shoots, Manoeuvres, Cross Deck Flying, ASW Screening and Air Defence exercise.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade(DIPP), Government of India(GoI) has granted Geographical Indication (GI) tag for 3 new products from two states. Tawlhlohpuan(a woven fabric) and Mizo Puanchei(a colourful Mizo shawl) from the State of Mizoram. Tirur betel vine from Kerala are the latest addition in the GI list.

India has got its first National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) finalized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The objective of the list is to bridge the current regulatory system’s gap that does not cover all the medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic device (IVD). India has got its first National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) finalized by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

On August 16, 2019, Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) headed by Kapil Dev, former Indian cricketer, unanimously re-appointed Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team for 2 years, ending with the 2021 T20 (Twenty 20) World Cup in India. It will be Shastri’s fourth stint with the national team, earlier, having served as the Cricket Manager (2007 tour of Bangladesh), Team Director (2014-2016) and head coach (2017-2019).

On August 17, 2019, A 2 day International Conference titled “Journey of Teacher Education: Local to Global” was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in New Delhi. It was organized by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) as a part of the silver jubilee celebration of its establishment in 1995 (August 17).

United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of Parties (COP-25) meet scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile from 2 – 13 December 2019.

On August 18,2019 the president of India, Shri Ram Nath Govind inaugurated the 15,000 square feet underground bunker museum at Maharashtra Raj Bhavan (Governor’s government house) in Mumbai.

As a boost to the chemical industry in the country, Gujarat is to get the country’s first Central Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology (CICET). The CICET would be built either at Vatva, Ahmedabad or Surat.Apart from CICET, a plastic Waste Management Centre in Ahmedabad is to be set up to find out solutions to systematic segregation and recycling of plastic waste. A skill development centre will also start functioning at Bhavnagar, Gujarat from October 2019.

PM inaugurated the Mangdechhu hydroelectric power plant, one of the major projects under Bhutan’s initiative to generate 10,000 MW (Megawatt) hydropower by 2020 with the Indian government’s support. It is estimated to generate 2,923 GWh (Gigawatt Hour) of electricity. The project was funded by India through a 70% loan and 30% grant. It is a 720MW run-of-river power plant built on the Mangdechhu River in Trongsa Dzongkhag district of central Bhutan. The cost of the hydroelectric plant project is Rs 4,500-crore.

In the 300m races held at the Athleticky Mitink Reiter Event 2019 in the Czech Republic, Indian sprinters Hima Das and Mohammad Anas won gold in the women’s and men’s category respectively.It was the sixth gold in European races by Hima Das since July 2, 2019.

India is the world’s top emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide(SO₂) in the world with more than 15% of all the SO₂ hotspots, tracked by NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite. Norilsk smelter complex in Russia is the largest SO₂ emission hotspot in the world, followed by China, Mexico, Zagroz (Iran) and Kriel in Mpumalanga province (South Africa).

On August 19,2019 a group of experts panel headed by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) legislative member Akhilesh Ranjan who was appointed as the convener of the task force in November 2018 by the finance ministry,submitted a report to Nirmala Sitharaman(Finance Minister), to replace the Income Tax Act with a new Direct Tax Code(DTC).

The 8th edition of Hand-in-Hand (HiH)Military exercise 2019 between India, China will be held in December 2019 at Umroi near Shillong in Meghalaya will focus on transnational counter-terror operations, the establishment of a joint command post, joint combat missions. The 7th edition was held at Chengdu, China in December 2018.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will organize 2-day India Economic Summit 2019 scheduled to be held in New Delhi from October 3 – 4, 2019 with the aim of promoting strong collaboration between South Asia and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations ) nations.

Union Human Resource Development Minister launched the National Mission to improve Learning Outcomes at the Elementary level National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi in the presence of Smt Rina Ray, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy and other senior officers from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development), all States and Union Territories (UTs), Senior Policy Makers and Heads of Institutions.

On 21 August 2019, RK Singh, the Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship has launched the State Rooftop Solar Attractiveness Index 2019 (SARAL) at the Review Planning and Monitoring (RPM) Meeting with States and State Power Utilities in New Delhi. i. SARAL Index: As per the Index, Karnataka got the top spot with SARAL score of 78.8 as the best state for setting up a rooftop solar project followed by Telangana(72.2), Gujarat(67.9) and Andra Pradesh(66.1). Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) has been ranked last with a score of 14.4.

Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu went on a visit to 3 Baltic nations Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from August 17-21, 2019 to enhance India’s bilateral ties with each of the three countries and help in promoting people-to-people contacts and business opportunities. He was the first high-level dignitary from India to visit the three countries.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu addressed the India-Estonia Business Forum 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia. The bilateral trade between India & Estonia is growing and stands at $172 million at present.

On August 19, 2019, Nepal’s foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali announced for the SAARC(South Asian Association for Regional Corporation) foreign ministers informal meeting which is to be held in Nepal in September 2019. This meet is based on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly (UNGA) session.