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

Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Modi has approved to give monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to small traders, businessmen, and shopkeepers after they attain the age of 60 years. All small shopkeepers, self-employed persons and retail traders who have Goods and Services Tax (GST) turnover below Rs 1.5 crore and also aged between 18 years to 40 years are eligible under the scheme. This decision will benefit 5 crore small traders in the upcoming three years.

The newly formed Union Cabinet has given its consent for the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana ((PM-KISAN) to all eligible farmer families, irrespective of the size of their landholding. Earlier, it was applicable to farmers having two hectares of land. The Cabinet also cleared pension schemes Pradhan Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana for farmers. It will provide a minimum fixed pension of Rs 3,000 per month to farmers above the age of 60.

The Cabinet, first since the outcome of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, approved a new initiative to control Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis to support livestock rearing farmers The FMD and Brucellosis is a common threat among livestock like cow-bulls, buffaloes, sheeps, goats, pigs etc.

Puerto Williams in Chile has become the southernmost city in the world after getting its status upgraded to city category. Previously, southernmost city was Ushuaia in Argentina.

Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh became the first IAF woman pilot to become fully operational by day on Hawk advanced jet aircraft. She landed the gruelling 4 aircraft combat sortie at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Bengal.

Anita Bhatia, has been appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio as the Deputy Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

Flipkart’s co-founder Sachin Bansal to join Ujjivan Small Finance banks as it’s independent director from June 1st. This step is taken in order to achieve the banks plan to upgrade itself as an state-of-the-art mass market bank.

According to a survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) between July 2017 and June 2018 covering 4.3 lakh people revealed that the unemployment rate was about 6.1% in 2017-18, highest in 45 year since 1972-73.

India, US, Japan, and Australia came together to support ASEAN-led architecture mechanism for a rule-based order to promote free, open, prosperous and inclusive indo-pacific region in a meeting held at Bangkok, Thailand. This move is to counter China’s military expansion into the Indo-pacific region.

Asian Development Bank(ADB) approved $350 million loan to rehabilitate and upgrade two state highways and 23 major district roads totaling about 850 kilometers in Chhattisgarh. It will improve the connectivity and access to basic services and livelihood opportunities in the state.

Government has met the fiscal deficit target of 3.4% for the Financial Year 2018-19. The fiscal deficit stood at 3.39% against the estimated rate of 3.4%. The data was released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). It was met through a reduction in government spending, which also contributed to GDP growth slowing to 5.8% in the fourth quarter of FY19.

The Medical and Health Department of Rajasthan was conferred with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Tobacco Control Award for 2019 in recognition of its achievements in the field of tobacco control. It was presented on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day(WNTD) celebrated on May 31, 2019 in an event held in New Delhi.

On June 1, 2019, As a Curtain Raiser for International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2019 which is celebrated on June 21, a two-day Yoga Mahotsava was inaugurated by Shri Rajeev Kumar, Vice-Chairman of Niti Ayog at New Delhi. The Yoga Mahotsav-2019 was organized by Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) under Ministry of AYUSH(Ayurvedic, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy). The theme of IDY 2019 in India is “Yoga for Heart”.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated Financial Literacy (FL) Week from June 3-7, 2019. The theme of the event is “Farmers” and how they benefit by being a part of the formal banking system. The booklet FAME (Financial Awareness Messages) provides basic financial literacy messages for the information of general public.Pictorial booklets describing savings and banking concepts was published under the title ‘Raju’ and the role and functions of the Reserve Bank was explained under the title ‘Money Kumar’ .

Former president of India, Pratibha Patil was honored with the highest civilian award of Mexico termed “Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca” (Order of the Aztec Eagle).The award was presented by Ambassador of Mexico to India, Melba Pria.She becomes the second Indian after the late President S. Radhakrishnan granted this honour.

Nayib Bukele, a conservative businessman sworn in as the President of El Salvador, a small Central American nation, by the speaker of National Assembly. He will succeed Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a leftist former guerrill.

Indian Navy has deployed its P-8 India(P-8I) long-range maritime surveillance aircraft for anti-piracy sorties from Salalah in Oman to patrol the Gulf of Aden and other piracy prone areas. This is an expansion of its Mission Based Deployments(MBD) in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR) to keep them safe. India has been conducting anti-piracy sorties in the Gulf of Aden since 2008. P-8I long-range maritime surveillance aircraft has been operated for the second time in the region, first being deployed in January. The P-8I is a long-range anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. It provides long-range Maritime Domain Awareness(MDA).

On June 3, 2019, IAF AN-32 Aircraft, taken off at 12.27 pm from Jorhat, Assam headed towards Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh went missing with 13 people. The AN-32 was inducted into the IAF in the 1980s.The Aircraft consisted of 8 crew members, including 6 officers led by a Wing Commander and 5 passengers.The ground agencies had last contacted the aircraft at 1 pm following which the contact was lost.The search operations from air and ground parties of Indian Army have been undertaken. On the air, sources like C-130, AN-32 aircraft, two Mi-17 of IAF and Indian Army ALH helicopters were employed. On the ground, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), Border Roads Organization(BRO) and the state police were deployed.

India was ranked 95th among 129 countries in new SDG(Sustainable Development Goals) Gender Equality Index with 56.2 scores. The gender gap index of the World Economic Forum had ranked India with 108.The index accounted for 14 out of 17 SDGs.

The first Golden card was given to UAE-based businessman, LuLu Group chairman M.A. Yusuffali. He has net worth of $4.7 billion and ranked as richest person in UAE by Forbes.Brigadier Saeed Salem Al Shamsi, Executive Director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Abu Dhabi, awarded the first permit.UAE has also announced that about 6800 investors with 100 billion Dirhams worth of investment will be provided with Golden Card in first batch.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) appointed 5-member panel led by Nandan Nilekani recommended measures like 24×7 Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facility, duty-free import of Point-of-sales(POS) machines and elimination of all charges in order to promote digital payments in India. Policy recommendations were made to all major regulators such as RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) , Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) with the objective to reduce cash based payments.

On May 31, 2019, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to withdraw Generalized System of Preferences(GSP) scheme on $5.6 billion exports from India, effective from June 5, 2019. GSP allows emerging countries to export goods to the US without paying duties. It offered duty-free market access to more than 3,000 items exported from India.India is the world’s largest beneficiary of GSP from 1970s. The US had announced the withdrawal of special duty benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) on March 5, 2019, effective from first week of May. But later it was postponed as India would get new Government. As per a study by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations(FIEO), India’s global merchandise exports for 2018 were $324.7 billion. It included $51.4 billion to the US. But only $6.35 billion of exports from India to the US benefited from the GSP scheme. Such exports were covered under 1921 US tariff lines.

A committee headed by Dr. Kasturirangan submitted draft national education policy 2019 to Union Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Minister of State for HRD, Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre in New Delhi to rename Minister of Human Resource Development to Minister of education.For promoting Indian and classic languages three new national institutes for Pali, Persian, and Prakrit and an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) are recommended.

A week-long exercise (27 May 2019 to 4 June 2019) between the Indian army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) – Kharga Prahar concluded in Punjab. The exercise was undertaken by various units and formation of Kharga Corps. The key aspects of this exercise is to validate operational aspects and brought out many lessons to the corps.

The ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India announced that fee for SC/ST candidates who join vocational training under Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) have been waived off.This decision was taken by the Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey at the senior officials meet. The decision intended to strengthen the skill development and benefiting the underprivileged sections of society. The decision follows the recent reforms brought in January 2019 such as decentralization of powers for JSSs- giving more accountability and independence to the district administration, Training of Trainers to develop the capacity through NSTIs (National Skills Training Institutes)