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

The central government’s ambitious project of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’, under which beneficiaries can buy subsidized foodgrains from any ration shop in the country.The central government’s ambitious project of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’, under which beneficiaries can buy subsidized foodgrains from any ration shop in the country will begin on 1 July 2020. Deadline: The Centre has given states and Union Territories time till June 30, 2020, to use point of sale (PoS) machines in the ration shops and roll out the scheme. Present status: 77% of the ration shops across the country have PoS machines.Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Tripura are the states already providing portability of Public Distribution System (PDS) entitlements.

On June 28, 2019, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad formed a committee headed by Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan to look into the revival plans for Telecom sector which is under financial stress. It will review the issues in the sector and promote Ease of Doing Business (EDB).The committee will submit the report in 2 weeks time.It will look into the previous recommendations provided by the telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and will consult Solicitor General, if it requires any clarity on issues.

The G20 (Group of 20) Summit 2019 was held at the International Exhibition Center, Osaka, Japan on June 28-29, 2019. It was the 14th meeting of the G20. The 2018 G20 Summit was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the 2020 G20 Summit will be held in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

India and Indonesia set an ambitious $50 billion target for bilateral trade by 2025 as PM and President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo discussed ways to deepen cooperation in a number of key areas including economy, defence and maritime security. PM met Brazil President, Jair Bolsonaro and held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral relationship, especially cooperation in trade & investment, agriculture and bio-fuels in the context of climate change.

According to the annual banking statistics report compiled by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), India has slipped to 74th place in terms of money parked by its citizens with Swiss banks by the end of 2018. While with maximum holdings, UK (United Kingdom) has remained top in the list. i. India’s holding fell by nearly 6% in 2018 to 955 million Swiss francs (about Rs.6,757 crore)-a second-lowest level in over two decades.

On June 30, 2019, The first edition of the joint security exercise of International Security Alliance (ISA), ISALEX19 held in Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates). Aim The exercise was aimed at testing readiness of the different teams and to evaluate the tools, strategies, and procedures developed jointly between member countries.ISA: It was launched in Abu Dhabi in 2017 and comprises nine countries, the UAE, France, the Italian Republic, Bahrain, Morocco, Spain, Senegal, Singapore, and the Slovak Republic.Operation: Preventing and combating transnational organized extremist crimes through joint security cooperation projects.

On June 27, 2019, The Mahatma Gandhi IT and Biotechnology Park (MGIT-BP), built with the assistance from India was inaugurated at Grand-Bassam in Cote d’Ivoire, a West African country. It was jointly inaugurated by Ambassador of India to Cote d’Ivoire, Sailas Thangal and Cote d’Ivoire’s Vice President, Daniel Kablan Duccan. MGIT-BP is an important milestone for the 150th celebration of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.Nature: It is a dedicated Free Trade Zone (FTZ) for IT and Biotechnology.Fund: It was built through EXIM ( Export-Import) Bank’s Lines of Credit (LoC) of $20 million

MTNL(Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) P.K. Purwar has accepted his additional post as CMD of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for a period of three months from July 1, 2019.Department of Telecommunications has appointed him as CMD of BSNL till the regular CMD will be appointed to the post.He succeeds Anupam Shrivastava who has resigned on 30.06.2019. Pawar will handle both organizations and he will follow the directions of DoT to solve the worst financial situation facing by BSNL.

On June 29,2019, China has tested its latest submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), JL-3.The JL-3 is expected to have a range of around 14,000 kilometers, with a capacity to carry 10 independent guided nuclear warheads.It is expected to reach targets farther away with higher accuracy and capable of carrying more warheads than China’s current SLBMs.A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from submarines.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed a high powered 9 member committee of chief ministers headed by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for transforming Indian agriculture and raising farmers’ income. Members: H.D. Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister, Karnataka; Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister, Haryana; Pema Khandu, Chief Minster, Arunachal Pradesh; Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat; Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh; Kamal Nath, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh,; Union Agriculture, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand.

On July 1, 2019, Union Jal Shakti Minister, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA)- a campaign for water conservation and water security in New Delhi. It will focus on 256 water stressed districts and 1,592 water stressed blocks.Launched in two phases, the first phase is between July 1, 2019, and September 15, 2019, for all participating States and the second phase, will be from October 1 to November 30, 2019, for States with a retreating monsoon.The 5 key intervention areas under the campaign include water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies, reuse, bore well recharge structures, watershed development, and intensive afforestation.

On July 1, 2019, Japan officially resumed commercial whaling for the first time in more than three decades after Tokyo’s controversial decision to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).With this, Japan joined Iceland and Norway as the only nations to allow commercial whaling despite the IWC moratorium. The last commercial hunt of Japan was in the year 1986.

Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer and DIG (Deputy Inspector General of Police) in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Aparna Kumar has scaled Mount Denali (the highest peak in Northern America stands at 20,310 feet) in Alaska, USA (United States of America). She is the first civil servant and IPS (Indian Police Service) officer to achieve the feat of completing ‘7 Summits’ challenge.This was her seventh Summit in her mission of ‘Seven Summits’ Challenge and scaled the summit in her 3rd attempt.

On July 1, 2019, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), a public sector bank based in Chennai has appointed Karnam Sekar as its new Managing Director (MD)and Chief Executive Officer(CEO). He replaces R Subramaniakumar. Prior to this appointment, he was MD & CEO of Dena Bank.He was on Special Duty and Whole Time Director of IOB since April 2019.He had also served State Bank of India as Deputy Managing Director and Chief Credit Officer.He also headed SBI as Manager-Treasury in Johannesburg, South Africa.

N S Vishwanathan was re-appointed as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for one more year with effect from July 4, 2019. He is in charge of regulation of banks, non-banking finance companies, and cooperative banks.Besides N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain were the two other deputy governors of RBI.He is also a member of the Bimal Jalan committee which looks into the appropriate economic capital framework for RBI.

Dipankar Banerjee, a solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics has been selected by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for its PUNCH mission. Prof. Banerjee is also the co-Chair of India’s Science Working Group, as India is planning to send up its own satellite Aditya-L1, a mission to study the Sun’s corona.Dipankar Banerjee will study the acceleration of the solar wind. He will focus on the polar regions of the Sun.The team will also observe the Sun using joint observations from PUNCH and Indian mission Aditya. PUNCH is an acronym for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere“, which will image the Sun.

On July 3, 2019, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan stated that the Government sets target is to raise health services expenditure to 2.5 percent of the country’s GDP(Gross domestic product) by 2025 due to the increment of expenditure over the last 10 years.Health policy: It is overarching the National Health Policy 2017 (NHP)which aims at increasing public spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025 &recommends State governments should spend more than 8 percent of their budget on the health sector by 2020.

On July 3, 2019, Minister of Electronics and Information and Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply in Lok Sabha stated that comprehensive legislation on data privacy named Data Protection Bill is under formulation to strengthen the protection of personal data.The government has formed a committee of experts on data protection headed by Justice (Retd) BN Srikrishna of Supreme Court to study the issues on data protection and frame Data Protection Bill.It has released a draft Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) which will be placed in the Parliament for the approval.

Indian Air Force (IAF) and Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) are participating in the Garuda VI bilateral exercise at Mont de Marsan in France. The exercise has been started on July 1 and will conclude on July 12. The objective of this exercise is to validate the latest defence strategies by enhancing the interoperability level of the French and Indian crews in air defence and ground attack missions. Contingent:Indian side – It comprised of 120 air-warriors and four Sukhoi 30 MKI along with an IL-78 flight refuelling aircraft. Also, IAF’s C-17 Globemaster strategic lift aircraft will provide logistics support to contingent during induction and de-induction phases. ii. French side – It comprises of Rafale, Alpha Jet, Mirage 2000, C135, E3F, C130, and Casa.

On July 1, 2019, Quantela Inc, a Hyderabad and Silicon Valley-headquartered digital technology company, was awarded World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ‘Technology Pioneers’ award 2019. It was selected by a selection committee of more than 59 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate executives.Quantela: It is a new age digital technology solutions company focused on IoT(Internet of Things). It provides a comprehensive, customizable, scalable platform, “Atlantis” that helps cities to proactively predict and solve social, economic and environmental problems.Technologies: This year technology pioneers emerged from a diverse set of industries focusing on AI(Artificial Intelligence), IoT, robotics, blockchain, etc.

Vaibhav Yadav, Indian pro boxer won the World Boxing Council (WBC) Asia silver welterweight championship 2019 that held in Pattaya, Thailand. He defeated Fahpetch Singmanassak of Thailand.The Championship was conducted by the Asian Boxing Council(ABCO) and approved by the World Boxing Council (WBC).

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has operationalized its first “Aadhaar Seva Kendra” (ASKs) in Delhi and Vijayawada on a pilot basis. UIDAI has a plan to set up 114 such centres by the end of 2019 covering 53 Indian cities. The estimated cost of the project is between Rs 300-400 crore. These centers are similar to the concept of Passport Seva Kendras. ASK centres are addition to thousands of centers that are currently being run by post offices and banks and even in government premises (offering similar Aadhaar services).Delhi Centre – Located at Akshardham metro station premises, it has a capacity to handle 1,000 enrolment/updation requests a day. It is equipped with 16 workstations and will be operational 6 days a week including weekends. It will be closed only on Tuesday and public holidays.Vijayawada Centre – The capacity in Vijayawada centre is 500 enrolment/updation requests a day.

On July 3, 2019, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a six-member working group to review the regulatory and supervisory framework for core investment companies (CIC). The group is to be headed by Tapan Ray, non-executive chairman, Central Bank of India and former Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and it will submit its report by 31 October 2019.The terms of reference: The panel tasked with examining the current regulatory framework for CICs in terms of adequacy, efficacy, and effectiveness of every component thereof and suggests changes.

India was still the fastest growing major economy in 2018-19. Growth of GDP moderated to 6.8% in 2018-19 from 7.2% in 2017-18. Inflation contained at 3.4% in 2018-19. Non-Performing Assets (NPA) as a percentage of Gross Advances reduced to 10.1% at end December 2018 from 11.5% at end March 2018.

On July 3,2019 International Monetary Fund (IMF) appointed American economist David Lipton as its interim leader. He replaces Christine Lagarde who was nominated to head the European Central Bank. Prior to this, Lipton was Special Assistant to the President and served as Senior Director for International Economic Affairs at the National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House.He also worked as a Managing Director and Head of Global Country Risk Management at Citigroup.He also served as a secretary in the Treasury Department from 1993 to 1998 under the Clinton administration.