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

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has approved operations of seaplanes in the Andaman Islands under UDAN-3 (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) making Andaman the first island of India to operate seaplanes. The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu has approved operations on 13 water aerodrome routes out of five are from Andaman Islands which others are from dams in Gujarat and coastal areas in Kerala. The Islands of Andaman that would be connected through seaplanes are Campbell Bay, Car Nicobar, Havelock, Hutbay, Neil, Long island and Diglipur. Operation of Seaplanes which are commonly used in Maldives and Mauritius is a part government’s ambitious regional connectivity scheme and it will give a huge push to tourism in the strategically important region.

On 8th January 2019, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed tokenization of debit, credit and prepaid card transactions to enhance the safety of the digital payments ecosystem in the country. The central bank has allowed card schemes like Visa, Mastercard and others to start issuing tokens for third party payment applications as well. “Tokenisation and de-tokenisation” shall be performed only by the authorized card network and recovery of original Permanent Account Number (PAN) should be feasible for the authorized card network only. Tokenisation acts as an additional layer of security as it masks sensitive card data such as the 16-digit Account Number, expiration date and security code.

On 9th January 2019, World Bank projected India’s GDP to grow at 7.3% in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5% in the following two years. The Bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world. In India, the growth has accelerated, driven by an upswing in consumption, and investment growth has firmed as the effects of temporary factors wane, the World Bank said in its latest report. Domestic demand has strengthened as the benefits of structural reforms such as Goods and services Tax (GST) harmonization and bank recapitalization take effect. In 2018,China’s Projection is 6.5 and 6.2% each in 2019 and 2020 and 6% in 2021, according to the January 2019 Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank. Strong domestic demand is envisioned to widen the current account deficit to 2.6 per cent of GDP next year. The World Bank’s estimate suggest that India’s potential growth rate is around 7%, and is expected to remain around 7% .

On 08th January 2019, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced USA Cricket as its 105th member. USA Cricket came into existence after USACA was expelled in June 2017 for lack of cooperation in terms of unifying the cricket community in the country. The application of USA Cricket to become the 93rd Associate member in compliance with the ICC constitution, was accepted as per the recommendation of the seven-member Membership Committee to the ICC Board last year. In October 2018 USA Cricket had appointed Paraag Marathe president of 49ers Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the 49ers as the Chair of the Board. The International Cricket Council (ICC) was founded at Lord’s on 15 June 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference with Australia, England, and South Africa as its founding members. The Imperial Cricket Conference was renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965.

On January 9, 2019, the Reserve bank of India has agreed to disbursed sri lanka’s loan amount of USD 400 million to boost the nation’s reserve.RBI has agreed to issue the fund under the SARRC SWAP facility system.It is also said that another request of currency swap USD 1 billion is under process . RBI’ S assistance is appreciated by the Sri Lanka government and it will help the nation to recover and build itself from the political and constitutional crisis that is prevailing in the nation. The RBI’s very rapid and timely assistance will serve to boost investor confidence by supporting Sri Lanka to maintain adequate level of external reserves while accommodating outflow related to imports, debt servicing and if necessary support for the currency to avoid disorderly adjustment. Due to the political crisis ,the nation’s economic rating is downgraded by the leading credit rating agenices- Moody’ s’, S&P rating,Fitch Rating. Sri lanka is to move forward to IMF for further finaicial assistance.IMF has hold back its discussion about next loan for sri lanka because of the political crisis. After IMF’s review ,Sri Lanka is to receive sixth tranche of USD 250 million as a loan amount,total amount would be disbursed as the seventh tranche in the mid of 2019.

On January 8th 2019,Market regulator SEBI has set up a advisory Research advisory committee(RAC) that will help and analyse the new methods of policy making for the development of capital market.The committee formed will be headed by Sankar De. This committee is formed with an objective to define the objective of creating the policy for the development of the capital market and for as bridge between the analytical research to formation of the policy. For promotion and developing the researches that are relevant to the capital market. Exploring the research collaboration with external researchers from both domestic and international agencies. Another important factor for the formation of this committee is to maintain the database related to the capital market.

On 10th January, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised the annual turnover for availing composition scheme to Rs 1.5 crore from Rs 1 crore effective from April 1, 2019 to provide relief to small businesses under Goods and Services (GST) regime. It is said that “those who come under the composition scheme will pay tax quarterly, but the return will be filed once a year”. The Goods and Services (GST) exemption limit has been doubled to Rs. 40 lakh annual turnover and Rs 20 lakh for northeastern states. It is also said that small companies would have the option to opt out of the GST tax net, adding that services and goods providers will get the benefit of composition tax.

On January 7, 2019, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) pavilion received ‘Exhibitor of the Year Award’ at 106th Indian Science Congress held at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara, Punjab. DRDO’s outdoor exhibits included surface-to-air missile system – Akash, model of BrahMos missile, remotely operated vehicle – Daksh, heavy weight torpedo – Varunastra, Laser Ordnance Disposal System (LORDS) and Vehicle Mounted Dazzler etc. DRDO pavilion also had a dedicated stall on Technology Development Fund (TDF) Scheme for promoting public/private industries especially MSMEs. It also provided information on ‘Kalam’s vision: Dare to Dream’ the pan India online contest for engaging young minds in emerging technologies namely Artificial intelligence, Cyber security, Robotics, Autonomous Systems, etc.

On 10th January 2019, 36 years old boxer, M C Mary Kom attained the first position in the latest ranking released by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) in the Light Fly 45-48 kilograms category with 1700 points. Ukraine’s Hanna Okhoto ranked number 2 in the ranking released by AIBA with 1100 points. Mary Kom will have to jump to 51 kg category in order to participate in 2020 Olympics because 48 kg Category is not included in the Olympics yet. Mary Kom has already achieved the feat to become the first woman boxer to win six world championship. Pinki Jangra has been placed 8th in the 51 kg Category whereas Asian Silver Medalist Manisha Maun is place 8th in 54 kg Category. Former World Silver-Medalist Sonia Lather was placed 2nd in 57 Kg Category and India Open gold-Medalist and world bronze winner Lovlina Borgohain has been place at 5th Position.

On 10th January 2019, the Committee constituted under the chairmanship of Sr. Deputy Election Commissioner Sh. Umesh Sinha to review and suggest modifications and changes in the provisions of the Section 126 and other sections of the Representation of the People Act 1951, provisions of Model Code of Conduct and any other Election Commission of India (ECI) instruction in this regard has submitted its report to the Commission. The Committee set up by the Commission included the representatives of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Law & Justice, Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association apart from senior officers of the Commission.

On January 11, 2019,Sikkim,though being a smallest state have set a initiative to introduce UBI in the entire nation.Sikkim’s long lasting chief minister and head of sikkim’s ruling party(sikkim democratic front) Pawan kumar chamling, quoted that if everything goes right then sikkim would be the first state to implement Universal Basic Income (UBI) system and execute it by 2022.This scheme is also regarded as an alternative to social welfare programmes with benefits towards reducing poverty.

On January 10, 2019, the one-day Global Skill Summit 2019 was held in Ranchi, Jharkhand. It is the only state where overall three global summits were organized in a row merely in four years by the state government. The theme of the Summit was: ‘Skilling Youth, Enabling Youth’. It was under the #MOMEMTUM JHARKHAND campaign. It was attended by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, &Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Governor of Jharkhand Smt. Droupadi Murmu was the chief guest.

On January 10, 2019, the 11th edition of EIU Democracy Index 2018 was released by the Economist Intelligent Unit compiling the state of democracies in 167 countries in the world. The Index was started in 2006. Among the 167 nations, Norway topped the charts. It was followed by: Iceland (2), Sweden (3), New Zealand (4) and Denmark (5) closing off the top 5 rankings. The bottom 5 of the list are: Chad (163), Central African Republic (164), Democratic Republic of Congo (165), Syria (166) and North Korea (167).

On January 11, 2019, Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri received honorary membership of the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for their contribution to the sport of cricket. Apart from them, the only other international cricketers to be granted the honorary membership of the SCG are iconic Sachin Tendulkar and Brain Lara of the West Indies.

On January 11, 2019, Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as Venezuelan President for the 2nd term for a new 6-year term. Venezuela is one of the world’s largest oil producers and holds the presidency of oil cartel OPEC until 2025.

On January 12, 2019, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling launched the ‘One Family One Job’ scheme, under which for every family one government job has been allotted, in Gangtok. New recruits were taken for Group C and Group D posts in 12 departments. As part of the scheme, a “Rojgar Mela” (employment fair) was organised at the Paljor stadium in Gangtok, where over 12,000 unemployed youths, from 32 constituencies, were handed out appointment letters. Letters were given to families, by the Department of Personnel, which do not have a government job. He also announced that over 25,000 already employed but unregularised government employees would also be subsequently regularised within 2019. Thus, Sikkim became the first state in the country to carry out such a programme for the people entitling them to state government employee benefits.

On January 13, 2019,Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi is to head the seven-member committee to look into revenue shortfall being faced by the states after the GST roll-out, and suggest steps for augmenting collections, a GST Council notification said.The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state ministers, had on December 22, 2018, decided to set up a group of ministers (GoM) to analyse reasons for the shortfall in revenue collections by the states since July 2017.

On 12th January 2019, The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Constitution (One Hundred and third Amendment) Act, 2019 which grants 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions to the economically weaker sections in the general category. The Act amends Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution to provide reservation to the economically weaker sections in the general category. The 10 per cent reservation will be in addition to the existing 50 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC) making the total reservation quota 60%.

On January 13, 2019, private sector lender IDFC Bank changed its name to IDFC First Bank Ltd owing to the merge of the bank with Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) Capital First on December 2018. The change was effective from January 12, 2019 by virtue of ‘Certificate of Incorporation pursuant to change of name’ issued by the Registrar of Companies, Chennai. The board of IDFC Bank also approved the appointment of V Vaidyanathan, founder and chairman of Capital First Ltd, as managing director and chief executive officer of the merged entity.

On January 13, 2019, the 352nd birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Govind Singh ji, was celebrated as Prakash utsav at Patna Sahib, in Bihar, the birth place of Guruji. On January 13, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative coin of 350 rupees on Guru Govind Singh ji in New Delhi on the eve of 352nd birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru.