Test : September 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 3" - Current Affairs MCQ

The communication from Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander of 1471 kg to Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) ground station was lost before its soft landing on the unexplored lunar south pole of the Moon. The contact was lost when the lander was 2.1km away from the surface of the moon.

On September 9, 2019, the Co-living index for the year 2019 titled “Insights on Co-living – An Asia-Pacific Perspective” across the Asia-Pacific region was released by London based consultancy agency Knight Frank. The index was topped by Beijing (China) followed by Tokyo(Japan) and Shanghai(China) in the second and third position respectively.

Sumit Nagal, aged 22, became the first Indian to win a set against Roger Federer. But, he lost the match by 6-4, 1-6, 2-6, 4-6 points. He became the fourth Indian to face Federer, after Leander Paes, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna.

Bianca Andreescu, aged 19 won the Women’s Singles title, she was the first teen US Open semi-finalist in a decade. She became the first teen to win a Grand Slam title since Maria Sharapova captured the 2006 US Open and became the youngest US Open champion since Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2004. She became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title. Rafael Nadal(Spain) won the Men’s Singles title. It was his 19th Grand Slam title and the 4th US Open title.

On September 10, 2019, Prime Minister (PM) of India Shri Narendra Modi and PM of Nepal K.P. Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum products pipeline of 69-km from Motihari in Bihar, India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal through video conference.

The Minister of State(MoS) shri ParshottamRupala launched the “CHC Farm Machinery” app for the farmers to connect them with Custom Hiring Service Centres located within 50km radius. The Custom Hiring Centres(CHC) app is available for android devices and could be downloaded from the Google Play store.

The panel suggested that the National Housing Bank (NHB) should create an intermediary for standard-setting and market-making for the instruments. Intermediary could operate either directly through the NHB, the Indian Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC), or the RBI could set up a new organisation.Ownership in the intermediary: The new entity would have 51% ownership by the government through the NHB initially. The government ownership in the entity would then be gradually reduced to 26% over a period of 5 years. The remaining capital of 49% may be initially raised from multilateral agencies. It will start with Rs 500 crore of initial capital and it would be allowed to invest in each pool it securitizes to the extent of 5% of the pool, or 5% of its own capital base, whichever is lower.

On September 10, 2019 Jack Ma, Founder & Chairman of Chinese firm Alibaba Groups has stepped down from his post at his 55th birthday and will remain on board till 2020. Jack will be replaced by Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Daniel Zhang as its new chairman.

11th edition of DefExpo will be held for the first time in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh from February 05 – 08, 2020 with the theme ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’.

7th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting of the 10members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) countries and its 6 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners held in Bangkok, Thailand from September 8-10, 2019. Along with this meeting, the 16th ASEAN India Economic Ministers (AEM) meeting and the 7th East Asia Economic Ministers Summit held at the same place.

On September 8, 2019 former TamilNadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan who was sworn in as the first woman governor of Telangana, became theyoungest state governor at the age of 58 among all the current governors. Andhra Pradesh governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan is the oldest at the age of 85 among the current governors.

Pramod Kumar Mishra, aged 71, was appointed as the new principal secretary to Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi succeeding Nripendra Misra with effect from September 11, 2019. He was the additional principal secretary to the PM (2014-19) and was holding the rank of a Cabinet minister. He is the recipient of United Nations Sasakawa Award 2019, the most prestigious international award in disaster management. Former cabinet secretary P K Sinha, aged 64, was appointed as the principal advisor to the PM. He currently serves as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The “Kisan Maan-Dhan Yojana”(KMY) for small and marginal farmers was launched in Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand. This scheme would benefit 5crore farmers nationwide.Outlay: The scheme is outlayed at a cost of Rs 10,774 Crores for the next three years.Contribution: Farmers can contribute to KMDY in terms of installments from PM-KISAN scheme and through Common Service Centres(CSC).Life Insurance Corporation of India(LIC) is the pension fund manager of the scheme “Kisan Maan-Dhan Yojana”(KMY).The supervisor of this scheme is Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare(MAFW).

On September 11, 2019, The Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karnataka Bank, M S Mahabaleshwara was included in the Managing Committee of Indian Banks Association (IBA). He was elected unopposed from the private sector member banks category. This announcement was made during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of IBA held at Mumbai, Maharashtra. The total membership of IBA stands at 253 consisting of public sector, private sector and foreign banks.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has honored Indian Ambassador Navdeep Singh Suri with its highest civilian honor Order of Zayed II award. He has been given this honor for strengthening the relationship between the two countries. UAE Minister for Foreign and International Affairs HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan presented the honor to Suri, who has been serving as the Indian ambassador to the Gulf nation since October 2016. He will retire in September 2019. Senior diplomat Pavan Kapoor will succeed him as the new ambassador to the UAE.

On September 11, 2019, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested indigenously developed low weight, fire-and-forget Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile (MP-ATGM) from a firing range in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.It was the third successful test-firing of the 100% indigenous ATGM, developed for the infantry battalions of the Indian Army. The missile weighs around 14 kg with maximum range of around 2.5 kms, will replace Soviet-era anti-tank missiles.

Ronaldo Laitonjam was associated with Cycling.India’s Ronaldo Laitonjam created new Asian record in men’s junior 200m time trial event in 10.065 seconds breaking the record of China’s Liu Qi who clocked it in 10.149 seconds in 2018. Ronaldo secured 4 gold medals in this meet.

The joint military exercise between India and Thailand “Maitree – 2019” is scheduled to be held at Foreign Training Node, Umroi, Meghalaya from September 16-29, 2019. Nearly 100 Indian and Royal Thailand Army (RTA) soldiers will participate in the exercise.

On September 12, 2019 the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science & Technology, in New Delhi, has announced that India has joined as the new and 16th member of the Global Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Research and Development (R & D) hub. This partnership would address the challenges and enhance collaboration in the AMR research of the 16 countries, European Commission, 2 philanthropic foundations and 4 International organisations.

The first conference on military medicine for Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) member countries was organised in New Delhi from September 12-13, 2019 by the Indian Armed Forces under the aegis of Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS). The aim of the conference was to share the best medicinal practice and render medical support in military field and to overcome common challenges involved.

The 24th Edition of World Energy Congress (WEC) for 2019 was held from September 9-12, 2019 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the theme “Energy for Prosperity”.

Indian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Navy will participate in the bilateral exercise named Samudra Laksamana 2019 during the port call.The exercise includes a harbour phase and a sea phase. Indian Navy ships Sahyadri and Kiltan made a port call to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia for a 3 day visit from September 12 – 15, 2019 as a part of Indian Navy’s Overseas Deployment to South East Asia and Western Pacific.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines became the 79th member of International Solar Alliance (ISA). Countries which have signed the agreement until now include Bolivia, Palau, France, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Japan, amongst others. The agreement was opened for signature during the Conference of the Parties (COP) 22 at Marrakech, Morocco on November 15, 2016.

On September 12, 2019, Vietnam has inaugurated Southeast Asia’s largest solar power farm called ‘Dau Tieng Solar Power Complex’. It occupies 540 hectares in Tay Ninh province, some 100 km from Ho Chi Minh City, having the capacity to generate 688 million kWh (kilowatt-hour) of electricity annually.

On September 13, 2019, Nelco(National Radio & Electronics Company), a security service provider company of the TATA group, announced the launch of maritime communication services. By this launch, Nelco became the first Indian company to provide broadband services in maritime sector. This communication service that provides uninterrupted Broadband internet to any maritime vessel sailing in Indian waters was launched by Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad in Mumbai along with pilot launch of Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system to track stolen mobile phones.