Test : August 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 2" - Current Affairs MCQ

External Affairs Minister(EAM) of India Dr. S. Jaishankar visited ( 2-day- August 1,2,2019 )Bangkok, Thailand during which he had 18 bilateral meetings, 5 pull-asides and participated in 4 multilateral meets. Aim: The focus bilateral and multilateral meets was on the Indo Pacific, terror and India’s Act East policy. 4 multilateral meets: It includes ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (EAS FMM), 26th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Ministerial Meeting.

On August 5, 2019, Lok Sabha passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill 2019 by a voice vote which seeks to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court (SC) from the present 30 to 33, excluding the Chief Justice of India (CJI). It amends the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956.So including Chief Justice of India (CJI) there will be 34 Judges.

On August 2, 2019, Sharad Satya Chauhan, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of Mohali traffic police launched 3-D Smart Traffic Signal ‘Intelights’ designed by the students of Chitkara University Incubated Start-up – Anukai Solutions. On a pilot project basis, the wireless system is installed at the traffic crossing near Quark City on Airport Road, Chandigarh, Punjab.It proposes a 360-degree solution to curb the rising problem of traffic congestion.It will regulate traffic signals with a smart bird’s eye view wireless sensor system.

On August 7,2019, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its third Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Rates for 2019-20 in Mumbai. The three-day (5 to 7 August 2019) policy review meeting by the six members of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das with the members – Dr. Ravindra H. Dholakia, Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra, Shri Bibhu Prasad Kanungo, Dr. Chetan Ghate and Dr. Pami Dua. The next meeting of the MPC is scheduled during October 1, 3 and 4, 2019.

RBI’s MPC cut its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast to 6.9 percent from 7 percent for FY20(Fiscal year) due to a slowdown in consumption and Investmnet, which is causing dampening effect on growth.The GDP growth is scaled down from 7% in the June policy to 6.9%- in the range of 5.8-6.6% for the first half of 2019-20 and 7.3-7.5% for the second part-with risks to FY20 GDP growth somewhat tilted on the downside.

Jeevan Amar is a non-linked,non-participating life term insurance plan offering great flexibility to policyholders in comparison to other insurance plans by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). It is available for sale offline.

The senior BJP(Bharatiya Janata Party) leader and India’s former external affairs minister(EAM) Sushma Swaraj passed away in All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi due to a massive heart attack. She was 67. Born on 14 February 1952 in Ambala Cantt town of Haryana, Sushma started her political life with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS’(Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) student wing, and later joined the BJP. She was the external affairs minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet from 26 May 2014 to 30 May, 2019, only the 2nd woman in the role after Indira Gandhi. Swaraj was known for her active presence on social media, often replying to calls and messages of distress from Indians abroad.

Famous novelist Toni Morrison who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, passed away at the age of 88, due to old age ailments. She was born as Chloe Ardelia Wofford on 18 February 1931 in Ohio, America. She was the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Most of her work focused on the African community, African women and their struggles in life. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, “Beloved” in 1988.She was made an officer of the French Legion of Honour in 2010.She was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by the then-president Barack Obama.

Naaz Joshi, a transsexual woman from India won the beauty pageant title of Miss World Diversity 2019 held in Port Louis, Mauritius. This was her third successive victory in this beauty pageant competition as she won the title previously in 2017 and 2018. Naaz Joshi had also won Miss Republic International Beauty Ambassador 2017 and Miss United Nationals Ambassador.

Long term member in Cricket Club of India and veteran cricket commentator, Anant Setalvad from Mumbai, passed away at the age of 84 due to old age ailments. He is survived by his two sons. He was a cricket commentator for All India Radio (AIR) in Ranji Trophy, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) tournaments and also for some test matches from the mid-1960s13 to 1980s.He shared the mike with former test opener and ex-selection panel Chief Vijay Merchant on AIR.His last rites would take place at Worli crematorium,Mumbai.

On July 31, 2019, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Om Birla announced that the Lower House (Lok Sabha) will become paperless from the next session. It will save crores of rupees to the exchequer/ national treasury.

On August 4, 2019, India test-fired a sophisticated all-weather and all-terrain two Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) from a mobile truck-based launch unit at complex 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha, which was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the India Army.

On August 1, 2019, D.A. Pennebaker, the Oscar-winning documentary maker of America, passed away at Long Island, New York, the US due to natural causes. He was 94.Pennebaker.Born on July 15, 1925 in Evanston, Illinois, United States, he was the recipient of honorary Academy Award/ Lifetime Oscar in 2013 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

On August 3, 2019, Gujarat Chief Minister(CM) Vijay Rupani has launched a flagship financial assistance scheme called ‘Vhali Dikri Yojna’ in Rajkot, Gujarat for the welfare of girl child in the state. The scheme launched in order to improve the child sex ratio in the state, which currently stands at 890 girl child per 1000 male child.The amount will be given by the state government under the ‘Vhali Dikri Yojna to the girl child in the following manner.

The State Government has allocated Rs. 133 crore for Vahli Dikri Yojana in its recent Gujarat Budget 2019-20.

Australia’s Ellyse Perry on Thursday became the world-number one T20I all-rounder in the latest ICC player rankings, after a standout performance in the series against England, which Australia won by 2-1. The 28-year-old is now 12 points ahead of Taylor and is at a career-high of 398 points, at the top of the table for the first time since October 2017.

Pingali Venkaiah, a freedom fighter and the designer of the flag on which the Indian national flag was based was born on this day in 1876, near Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Today is his 143rd birth anniversary. Venkaiah’s design for the National Flag was finally approved by Mahatama Gandhi in a Congress meeting in Vijayawada in 1921.