Test : July 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 4" - Current Affairs MCQ

No.1: Jharkhand is among the poorest regions in the world improving the fastest (poverty reduction from 74.9% to 46.5% in the ten years) followed by Rattanak Kiri in Cambodia.Report: 364 million people (156 million (34.5%) are children) in India still living in multidimensional poverty in the world.Progress in achieving SDG 1: The report identifies 10 countries(Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam)have shown statistically significant progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1(SDG 1), ending poverty “in all its forms, everywhere”.

On July 11, 2019, France became the first country to pass GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) Tax on digital giants in defiance of a probe ordered by the United States (US) President Donald Trump. It will levy a 3% tax on total annual revenues of the largest tech firms providing services to French consumers.The 3% of digital sales in France regard to advertising, websites and the resale of private data.It will help to plug taxation gaps.The tax was passed by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. After earlier passing the chamber of the National Assembly the GAFA was enacted by a simple display of hands in the Senate Upper House.

The Pop singer Taylor Swift topped the Forbes Celebrity 100 list 2019 for the second time after 2016. She is the highest-paid celebrity with her 2019 estimated earnings to be over $185 million. Her 2018 ‘Reputation’ tour became the highest-grossing tour in the history of the United States collecting over $266.1 million. Second name in the list was of Kylie Jenner, with estimated earnings of $170 million followed by Kanye West with earning over $150 million.Ed Sheeran, singer-songwriter, stood at the fifth position with $110 million and Dwayne Johnson stood at No. 15. Akshay Kumar was the only Indian in the Forbes Highest-Paid Celebrities 2019. He stood at the 33rd spot with earnings of Rs 444 crore ($65 million).

The First Global Conference for Media Freedom 2019, hosted by the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada, was held on July 10-11, 2019 in London, UK. It was co-hosted by Chrystia Freeland, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Jeremy Hunt, the UK Foreign Secretary.

The state-owned banks in India stated that Rs.1.50 trillion ($21.76 billion) worth of loans as wilful defaults in 2018-19. the State Bank of India(SBI) holds the highest number of wilful defaults, worth around INR 461.58 billion, while Punjab National Bank(PNB) ranked second at Rs.250.9 billion and Bank of India at Rs.98.9 billion.

On July 13, 2019, Anshula Kant, the managing director(MD) of the State Bank Of India(SBI) has been appointed as managing director (MD)and chief financial officer(CFO) of the World Bank(WB). Since September 2018 she has been a Managing Director and member of the World Bank Board.

On July 12, 2019, Meghalaya became the first state in India to ensure water conservation with its State Water Policy. The draft water policy was approved by the State Cabinet in a meeting chaired by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.The policy aims to recognize water resources as a common pool resource, to provide safe and hygienic water for drinking, domestic, sanitation & livelihood development to all residents of the state, ensure the protection and conservation of catchment areas of all water sources to prevent degradation of the quantity and quality of water sources.

Indian table tennis players, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Amalraj Anthony Arputharaj won India’s first ever bronze medal in men’s doubles competition at the 2019 World Tour Platinum Australian Open that held in Geelong Arena ,Geelong in Australia. The Indian pair lost with12-14, 9-11, 8-11scores to top seed Korean pair of Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu in semifinals.The bronze was the only silver lining as other Indians failed to cross the preliminary round in all events.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will provide $100-million loan to L&T(Larsen & Toubro) Infrastructure Finance Company(LTIF) for wind and solar infrastructure projects. This is the first time AIIB is extending loan to a non-banking finance company(NBFC).LTIF, a subsidiary of L&T Finance Holdings collaborated with AIIB to explore the international market for green finance.The project will help in increasing the supply of renewable energy in India & also helps to reduce the carbon intensity by 30-35 percent of the 2005 levels by 2030 which was India’s commitment under Paris agreement.

On July 15, 2019, A high-level committee set up by the Union ministry of health and Family Welfare, Government of India has produced their report called ‘National Digital Health Blueprint’ was released by Health Minister Dr. Harshavardhan in New Delhi. The committee proposed to form a National Digital Health Mission & both the centre and state Governments will be the owners and stakeholders in the new organization.Combined GST-N(Goods and Service Tax Network) and UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) models of the institutional structure has also been proposed by the committee. It has been put in the public domain for suggestions from all stakeholders, including common people.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Centre for Dental Education and Research (CDER) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health will undertake the largest nationwide Oral Health Survey 2019. It will collect data which will act as a baseline for planning preventive and treatment strategies.Objective: To record specific, representative data on the most prevalent dental diseases in India like dental decay, gum diseases, dentofacial deformities, cancerous lesions, dental fluorosis and dental trauma among others.Committee: An expert committee consists of dentists representing various oral health specialities and health ministry officials. They met at the AIIMS to discuss sampling strategies, planning and timelines of the survey.

On July 9,2019, In the event of 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee meeting 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan( June 30 to July 10,2019), the UNESCO(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) announced that the Chinese city of Fuzhou will host the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2020. Tian Xuejun, Chinese Vice Minister of Education was elected as chairman of the 44th session of the committee. The chairman of the 43rd session was Abulfas Garayev.During the meeting, the committee inscribed a total of 29 new sites on the World Heritage List (one in Africa, 2 in the Arab States, 10 in the Asia Pacific region, 15 in Europe and North America and one in Latin America).

On July 15, 2019, Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) Kalraj Mishra(78) appointed as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, replacing Acharya Devvrat. Mishra was resigned as MSME minister from the Narendra Modi-led government(BJP) in 2017 after he crossed the age of 75, the BJP’s unofficial age limit for holding an elected post. In 2014, He was elected as an MP(Member of Parliament) in Lok Sabha elections from Deoria. Devvrat (60) has been transferred and appointed as the Governor of Gujarat replacing Om Prakash Kohli who retires on 15 July 2019.

The ICC Men’s World Cup 2019 was the 12th Cricket World Cup held in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019. It was administered by the International Cricket Council (ICC).The Finals were held at the Lord’s Cricket Ground between New Zealand and England. England lifted the first World Cup title beating New Zealand on boundary count after both the match and the subsequent Super Over finished as ties.Ben Stokes of England was awarded the Man of the Match.Kane Stuart Williamson of New Zealand was named as the Player of the Tournament with 578 runs who received the award from Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar. Rohit Sharma scored 648 runs from the nine games at an average of 81 including 67 fours and 14 sixes. David Warner followed Sharma in the second position with 647 runs and Shakib Al Hasan stood third in the list of tournament’s leading run scorers. With record-shattering 27 wickets, Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc topped the table of wicket-takers. He also bagged two four-wicket and two five-wicket hauls in just 10 games.

This is Novak Djokovic’s 16th grand slam & 5th Wimbledon title & first player in the open era since 1948 to achieve this feat.The world Number.7 Simona Halep becomes first Romanian player to reach senior Wimbledon singles final title. she beat 7-time Wimbledon champ& 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena to win maiden title with 6-2, 6-2 scores.