Test : May 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 1" - Current Affairs MCQ

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Program (NCAP). The objective is to reduce the PM (particulate matter) 2.5 and PM 10 concentration by 20% to 30% in at least 102 cities by 2024. The committee will be headed by the Secretary, Union Environment Ministry. The headquarters of the committee will be in New Delhi.The other members of the committee will be Joint Secretary (Thermal), Ministry of Power; Director General, The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and Professor Sachidananda Tripathi, IIT Kanpur.The 102 cities, across 23 states and Union Territories will be identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CBCB). The selection criteria will be based on their ambit air quality data between 2011 and 2015. The NCAP is envisioned as a five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. There would be a review every five years.

India and France will be holding their bilateral naval exercise, Varuna 19.1 rabian Sea off the Goa coast from 1st May to 10th May, 2019.In this 17th edition of the Indo-French naval exercise, the participants are: the French Navy’s aircraft carrier FNS Charles de Gaulle 2 destroyers, FNS Forbin, FNS Provence the frigate FNS Latouche-Treville the tanker FNS Marne a nuclear submarine from the Indian side, the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya destroyer INS Mumbai the Teg-class frigate, INS Tarkash the Shishumar- class submarine, INS Shankul the Deepak- class fleet tanker, INS Deepak.The exercise will be conducted in 2 phases, stated as follows: The harbour phase: This exercise will be conducted at Goa and would include cross-visits, professional interactions, sports events and discussions. The sea phase: This exercise would comprise various exercises of the maritime operations. The 2nd part of the naval exercise, Varuna 19.2, will be held at May-end in Djibouti.

India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) has moved to a new interest rate regime on large savings account deposits with balance above Rs 1 lakh as well as short-term loans like overdraft and cash credit. In March 2019, SBI has announced that it will link its interest rate on large savings account deposits and short term loans to RBI’s repo rate which would be effective from May 1, 2019.By this move, SBI became the first bank in the country which has linked deposit accounts and short term loans to an external benchmark.Currently, repo rate is 6%. So according to external benchmarking formula, the large savings account with balance above Rs 1 lakh earn less interest rate as compare to small savings account. However, if the repo rate increases and goes above 6.25% then large savings account will earn more interest rate than small savings account.

On 30th April 2019, The 125th Emporer of Japan, 85-year-old, Emporer Emeritus Akihito abdicated after 30 years of ruling because of his declining health and age-related problems. His rule was known as Heisei. While his son Emporer Naruhito, 59 -year-old succeeded the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019, ushering in the Reiwa era. This is the first time Japan’s modern History that the country has both an Emporer and Emeritus. Emperor Akihito Of Japan Celebrates His 81st BirthdayThe ‘Ceremony of the Abdication’ took place in a state room of the Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Crown Prince Naruhito, and Crown Princess Masako were present in the function. Akihito is the first Japanese Emporer to abdicate since Kokaku in 1817.

On 30th April 2019, The official Twitter account of the Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information tweeted that an Indian Army mountaineering expedition team has sited mysterious footprints of mythical himalayan beast “Yeti” measuring 32×15 inches (81 centimeters by 38 centimeters) close to Makalu Base Camp,located in North-Eastern Himalayas on 09 April 2019. The yeti also known as Abominable Snowman or Asian Bigfoot is a giant ape-like creature often figures in South Asian folklore. Yetis are believed to weigh anywhere between 91 to 181 kilograms with a height of above 6 feet.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) North Eastern Region (NER) installed 2 geological display boards at 2 important geological sites with geo-scientific information. The sites are Mawmluh cave and Therriaghat cave in Meghalaya. The prime objective of this was to create awareness among students, visiting tourists and the general public and will also help to conserve the site and aid the upcoming generations to be aware of such geological developments. The geological display boards are unveiled at Mawmluh cave and Therriaghat at Sobhar in East Khasi Hill District.

The 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) designated Pakistan based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Masood Azhar as a ‘global terrorist’ on May 1, 2019. This could be possible because China has lifted its technical hold on the proposal to blacklist Masood Azhar. In earlier four instances, China had blocked the proposal to designate Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. This is a huge diplomatic win for India and also a symbolic victory towards the fight against terrorism. This time the proposal was moved by P3 countries (USA, France and United Kingdom), a permanent member to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on February 27, 2019 to designate Azhar as a global terrorist. This move was the response of deadly terror attack in Pulwama by Pakistan based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans.

he UK Parliament becomes the first national government to pass an exemplary measure, that is, a national declaration of an Environment and Climate Emergency. This move marks a serious emergency in dealing with climate change. The declaration was preceded by a visit by teenage activist Greta Thunberg (to the Parliament), the feature of David Attenborough’s documentary movie titled ‘Climate Change: The Facts’ and the 11-days of constant protest by an environmental group ‘Extinction Rebellion‘.Britain’s opposition Labour Party called for this serious action.

On 2 May 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a “sovereign internet” bill that will allow Russian authorities to isolate the country’s internet to expand the Government Control of the Internet. This move is being publicly denounced by all rights groups in Russia and will lead to censorship over large parts of the Internet.The new move requires Internet providers to install equipment for routing Russian web traffic through servers in Russia which will allow the Russian intelligence agencies of state authorities to control public information.Roskomnadzor’s chief (Roskomnadzor is Russia’s chief media regulator), Aleksandr Zharov, notified that the measures would also target the Telegram app widely used by Russians.The text of the law was published on 1st May 2019 and will come into effect after November.

PayPal India used Google Smart Lock and launched its OneTouch experience in India. The launch of the OneTouch feature permits Indian consumers to register their Android device with PayPal and stay logged into PayPal for further PayPal purchases on that device, thus removing the issue of repeated log-ins and enabling a seamless payments experience.The integration with Google Smart Lock will offer a hassle-free payment procedure as well as maintain security to prevent fraud.India becomes the first market where the feature of Google Smart Lock has been integrated.PayPal’s Buyer Protection feature will provide an extra layer of security to this feature for eligible transactions, that is, if items that are purchased online mismatch with the description of the product that was sold, the Buyer Protection feature enables them to claim a refund for eligible transactions

Kumar Sangakkara, former Sri Lanka captain has been named as the first non-British president of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He succeeds Anthony Wreford. It was announced at the MCC annual general meeting at Lord’s on 1 May 2019. He will take up his one-year post in October. Sangakkara, 41-year-old, scored 12,400 runs in 134 tests, appears twice on the honours boards at Lord’s.MCC is the guardian of the Laws of the game and it was founded in 1787 and has been based at Lord’s, which it owns, since 1814.His responsibilities would involve the launch of The Hundred – the England and Wales Cricket Board’s new 100-ball cricket format and two England test matches against West Indies and Pakistan.

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has appointed chartered accountant M Jayshree Vyas as its first independent woman director to the board. However, BSE has missed the deadline of April 1 which was given to all top 500 listed companies based on their market capitalisation to appoint an independent woman director on their board. M Jayshree Vyas. Earlier, M Jayshree Vyas worked as the managing director of Shree Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank, Ahmedabad since 1986. She had also helped in launching the first financial literacy program in Sewa bank in 2001.

The 14th edition of the annual Sino-Indian border trade opens at Nathu La, which is the frontier post at Sino-Indian border in Sikkim. Officials and traders of India and China made their presence at the border to symbolise the beginning of the border trade.Every year, between 1st May to 30th November, the bilateral border trade between 2 nations is held for 4 days a week for 6 months.After a long interval of 44 years, cross border trade commenced on July 6, 2006 to promote the benefits of trade, increase tourism in Sikkim, thus offering employment for people of the region.

In order to commemorate the 750th birth anniversary of Sri Vedanta Desikan, Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu unveiled a postage stamp in New Delhi on May 2, 2019. The stamp has been released by Indian postal department. The releasing of commemorative postage stamps inspire the younger generation to practice humanism, peace and compassion propagated by the great saint and spiritual icon.

The name Fani was suggested by Bangladesh.The name of cyclone ‘Fani’ was picked up from a pool containing 64 names suggested by eight countries in the North Indian Ocean basin.(Eight Countries are India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan and Thailand).

The 16th Ministerial Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue held in Doha, Qatar with the theme ‘Partners in Progress’. Dr. V.K. Singh, in his address, expressed his grief for the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka (on April 21, 2019) and focussed for the global community to adopt the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (UNCCIT) efficiently.By putting more stress on the theme “Partners in Progress”, the minister brought into limelight India’s desire to work collaboratively with all ACD Member States, in agreement with the Indian Government’s approach of “Collective Efforts, Inclusive Growth”. He emphasized the Member States in joining the International Solar Alliance that was launched in November 2015 to bring in energy security for sustainable development and poverty removal by in Asia by promoting renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief, A S Kiran Kumar has been conferred France’s highest civilian award “Knight of the Legion of Honour”. This award is for his invaluable contribution to the development of the India-France space cooperation. The award has presented by Ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler, on the behalf of President of the French Republic. The Padma Shri awardee served as the ISRO chief from 2015 to 2018.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the current Defence Minister of India held a bilateral meeting with General Wei Fenghe, Honourable Defence Minister of China, in which they discussed regional and bilateral security issues. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Nirmala Sitharaman was in Kyrgyzstan on a 3-day visit to attend the SCO meet and to hold bilateral meetings with the member-countries on the summit’s sidelines. In the SCO ministerial meeting, the 8 member-states discussed on the different facets to raise cooperation to curb terrorism. The present SCO meeting is being held before the SCO summit, which would take place from 14th June to 15th June, 2019.

India will be invited to the G7 summit at Biarritz, France.France, which is the chair of the G-7 grouping has invited India to the summit scheduled for August 24-26, 2019 where discussions will be focused on combating inequality. The group consists of US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy.

According to Takehiko Nakao, President and Chairperson of Asian Development Bank, the Asia-Pacific region is supposed to grow at 5.7% in 2019 but the rising trade tensions might hinder its growth.ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2019 report released in April states that developing Asia comprising of 45 countries is estimated to grow by 5.7% in 2019 (which is pointed out by Nakao). However, the growth outlook for developing Asia is approximated to come down to 5.6% in 2020.While addressing the opening session of the Board of Governors at ADB’s 52nd Annual Meeting, Mr. Nakao notified that the consumer and investor behaviour could diminish due to trade tensions between the nations. ADB’s lending hiked to a high of 21.6 $ billion in 2018 which was 10% higher as compared to 2017.

The article titled ‘Coalgate 2.0’ written by Nileena M S has won the Asian College of Journalism’s Award for Investigative Journalism, 2018. The article was published in “The Caravan Magazine” in March 2018. The final jury which includes Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Nilita Vachani and Dr. A R Venkatachalapathy unanimously approved Nileena’s work as the winner. The Award comprised of a trophy, a citation and Rs. 2 lakh cash prize. The award was presented by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News, who was also the chief guest at the journalism school’s annual convocation ceremony.Nileena’s article investigated the allotment of captive coal blocks in Parba East and Kanta Basan regions of Chhattisgarh. It also explored deforestation, relocation of people, loss of livelihood and denial of forest rights to tribals.‘Coalgate 2.0’ published in “The Caravan Magazine” is an excellent example of investigative journalism in the field of financial reporting.

On 2 May 2019, In the journal ‘Cell’ researchers authored that the discovery of the first small-molecule inhibitors of the Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) protein could enable more precise control over CRISPR-Cas9-based genome editing. i. The research was headed by Amit Choudhary of the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. These first small-molecule CRISPR-Cas9 inhibitors are much smaller than the previously discovered anti-CRISPR proteins.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched 5$ billion Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for the Asia and Pacific region. This will support ADB’s developing member countries’ efforts for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), inclusive of the SDG 14: Life Below Water. Among the 10 rivers that transports 88% to 95% of plastics into the sea globally, 8 are in Asia and Pacific region.

A Japanese aerospace start-up Interstellar Technology Inc. has successfully launched a first privately developed rocket ‘Momo-3’ into space. The unmanned rocket launched from its test site in Taiki on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and it reached about 110 km in altitude before falling into the Pacific Ocean after 10 minutes of flight time. The rocket is 10 meters in length, 50 centimeters in diameter and weighs about 1 ton. ‘Momo-3’ rocket has the capability of putting payloads into the orbit.The company Interstellar Technology Inc. founded by former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie in 2013. The objective is to develop low-cost commercial rockets to carry satellites into space.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Space X) launched its 17th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by using Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon Spacecraft. The 213-foot-tall rocket lifted off at about 2:48 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The resupply mission contains almost 5,500 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware.This mission is a part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, which uses commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS. Space X and Northrop Grumman carry out these missions for NASA by using Dragon Spacecraft and Cygnus Spacecraft respectively.This is the 17th cargo resupply mission to the ISS launched by Space X under a contract worth of USD 3.04 billion for 20 cargo deliveries through early 2020. Also, Space X has a separate follow-on contract for at least six more resupply missions to the ISS through 2024.