Test : January 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 4" - Current Affairs MCQ

Gujarat became the 1st state to implement 10% quota to EWS (Economically Weaker sections). Gujarat Government announced to implement 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker sections of general category in educational institutions and government jobs for general category poor candidates. This quota will be implemented for every job offers or admission process that is to start from January 14, 2019. The Centre had taken the decision under Article 46 of Guiding Principles of Constitution of India .This move by the Government is considered to be the historic move.

On January 13, 2019, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched country’s largest startup ecosystem, integrated startup complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), at the Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ), in Kochi, Kerala. It is a 1.8 lakh sq ft. facility housing incubation infrastructure across a series of sectors in technology. It will have the following under it:
• facilities of Maker Village that promotes hardware startups,
• the Bionest that promotes medical technologies,
• BRINC, the country’s first international accelerator for hardware startups;
• BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care, and
• a centre of excellence set up by industry majors such as UNITY.

On January 13, 2019, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 4th International Kite Festival and 2nd International Sweet Festival in Hyderabad, Telangana. It was organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Telangana and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, as a part of Sankranthi celebrations, at the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad. This year’s theme for Telangana International Kite Festival was for empowerment of the girl child: ‘Educate girl child and she will save the world’. As many as 42 professional kite flyers from abroad and 60 from India are participating in the Kite Festival and it witnessed participation of nearly 100 enthusiasts of kite flying from 19 different countries including India. Moreover, sweets from 20 countries and from 25 Indian states were displayed at the Sweet Festival.

On January 14, 2019,The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, received the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award, in New Delhi. The Award focuses on the triple P’s of the Nation: People, Profit and Planet. It will be offered annually to the leader of a Nation. This award is given in remebarance of works and contribution done by Prof. Philip Kotler,who is a well-known in the field of Marketing. During his regime, India is identified as the Centre for Innovation and Value Added Manufacturing (Make in India), and a global hub for professional services such as Information Technology, Accounting and Finance.

On January 13, 2019, Asian Cup gold medallist Shakil Ahmed set a world record in indoor rowing by completing 1,00,000 (one lakh) metres in 10hours, in above-40 years category, at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. He also has the record of completing 50,000 metres of simulated rowing in four hours and 13 minutes which is already in the Limca Record Book.

On 13th January 2019, the Bengaluru Raptors beat Mumbai Rockets by 4-3 in the final of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) 2019 at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru to win their maiden title. Kidambi Srikanth, Vu Ji Trang and the Men’s Doubles pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Satiawan won their matches for Bengaluru guiding them to victory. Bengaluru Raptors have become the fifth team after Chennai Smashers, Delhi Dashers, Hyderabad Hotshots and Hyderabad Hunters to win the title. This was the fourth season of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) in which a total of 9 franchises played for the title. The winner team, Bengaluru Raptors got INR 3 crores and the Mumbai team got INR 1.5 crores as the runners-up. Besides the total prize money for this season was INR 6 crores. The teams which finished in the third and fourth places, i.e., Hyderabad Hunters and Awadhe Warriors were awarded INR 75 lakhs each.

On 14th January 2019, Pune became the first city to introduce ROADEO, the robot which will assist the pedestrians, especially children while crossing the roads. It will also ease the work of traffic police, as these robots can be integrated with the traffic signals, as well as can be operated manually, through a Bluetooth app. The robot has two hands to interact with the people and show traffic signs. It has highly expressive eyes to create a feel of a neighborhood helper and also a display to show important messages. Chennai became the second city after Pune to introduce ROADEO.

On January 14, 2019, private sector ICICI Bank appointed former SBI Managing Director B Sriram on its board as independent director for 5 years. Prior to this, Sriram was the managing director of IDBI Bank and before which he was the same in SBI. Besides him, ICICI also appointed management consultant Rama Bijapurkar as independent director.

On January 14, 2019, India-Myanmar bilateral army exercise, IMBEX begun at Chandimandir, headquarters of the Western Command in Chandigarh. It is the second edition of the IMBEX EXERCISE. The motive of IMBEX 2018-19 are:
• To train the Myanmar delegation for participation in United Nations peace keeping operations under the UN flag.
• It provided opportunities to the army personnel of both the nations to serve effectively in UN missions as also understand each other’s training, tactics, procedures and best practices.

On 15th January 2019, the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Shri Suresh Prabhu inaugurated the 2 day Global Aviation Summit (GAS) 2019 with a theme:‘Flying for all-especially the next 6 Billion’.It is being organised by Ministry of Civil Aviation in association with Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in Mumbai.The Summit Concluded on 16th January 2019.

On January 16, 2019, software engineer and mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta, hailing from Haridevpur in South Kolkata, became the first Indian and youngest man to climb the seven highest peaks and volcanic summits across all continents. This feat was attained after he conquered Antartica’s highest point, Mount Sidley. He achieved the feat at the age of 35 years and 262 days. In 2018, Satyarup had scaled the highest volcanic peak in North America, Pico de Orizaba. He beat the record of Australia’s Daniel Bull who had done it at the age of 36 years 157 days.

On January 15, 2019,The International Cricket Council (ICC) appointed former ESPN star sports CEO and former chairman of Singapore based sport hub Manu Sawhney as its new chief executive officer, replacing David Richardson. David Richardson, will step down after the World Cup that is to be held in England. Manu Sawhney will officially join the organisation In the month of July.Until then Sawhney will work along with outgoing CEO Richardson to ensure a smooth transition of leadership before assuming control. The appointment process was led by the apex body’s chairman Shashank Manohar and the Nominations Committee.

On 16th January 2019, the GST council has constituted an eight member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Maharashtra State Finance Minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar to suggest whether a uniform tax rate should be imposed on lotteries or the current differential tax rate system be continued. The Complete list of Group of Ministers (GoM):

On 17th January 2019, honorable President of India Shri. Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the two-day Gandhian Resurgence Summit on the occasion of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. The summit was organised by the Parmarath Niketan, the Harijan Sevak Sangh and the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance. The President also unveiled the statue of Maharishi Bhardwaj in the town. Mr Kovind participated in Vishwa Shanti Yagya at Parmarth Niketan in Arail.

On 16th January 2019, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved recapitalization of Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) to the tune of 6,000 crore rupees to expand its business. The bank will be infused with Rs 4,500 crore before March 2019 and Rs 1,500 crore in the next fiscal by Issuance of Recapitalization Bonds by Government of India which will be in line with those issued to Public Sector Banks. The cabinet has also approved to increase in the authorized capital of Exim Bank from 10,000 crore to 20,000 crore rupees. The infusion of capital into Exim Bank which is the principal export credit agency for India will enable it to augment capital adequacy and support Indian exports with enhanced ability. Besides it will also support Indian textile industries and give thrust to initiatives like changes in Concessional Finance Scheme (CFS) and likelihood of new letters of credit (LoCs) to be issued in future in view of India’s active foreign policy and strategic intent.

On January 17, 2019, Yohei Sasakawa was named to receive Gandhi Peace Prize for 2018,who is the Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organization for Leprosy Elimination.The award will be given to Yohei Sasakawa in recognition of his work towards the eradication of the disease in India and across the world. The award was instituted by the Government of India in 1995 during the commemoration of 125th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.The title winners would receive a cash prize of Rs.1 crore. The Indian government had instituted the award in 1995 to honour individuals and institutions for their contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods. The committee under the Chair of Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi comprising the Chief Justice of India,Justice Ranjan Gogoi(45th chief justice), Speaker of LokSabha Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in LokSabha Shri. MallikarjunaKharge and Member of Parliament, Shri L.K. Advani decided to select this organisation and persons in recognition to their outstanding contributions in the specific fields.

On January 16, 2019, world’s first television channel dedicated to human rights was launched in London by the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR). It would be a web-based channel would bring human rights issues to audiences in over 20 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Initally the programmes would be in broadcasted in English but other languages including Farsi, Turkish, Arabic and Russian would be inducted in the future. Also a mobile app for the channel would be launched.

On January 18, 2019, Indian female wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who hails from Haryana, became the first Indian athlete to receive a nomination in the prestigious Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award. She was nominated due to her comeback after battling a long injury lay-off to win a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Jakarta Asian Games. Besides her, US Tour Championship winner Tiger Woods, Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, American alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn, Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Manyu, and Dutch para-snowboarding star Bibian Mentel-Spee have also been nominated for the same. The deserving winner would be presented the award in Monaco, France on the 18th of February 2019.

On 18th January 2019, Japan launched the Epsilon – 4 rocket carrying 7 satellites developed by private sector companies and Universities from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima. The cost of launch which is roughly USD 50 million was borne by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to promote and encourage space exploration by private sector in Japan. The Epsilon series was developed in a bid to put small satellites into orbit at a low lost.

On 19th January 2019,Prime Minister of India,Shri Narendra Modi launched the Country’s First National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai,Maharashtra, that seeks to portray over a century-old journey of movies in India. The state-of-the-art museum has been built at a cost of Rs 140.61 crore and is housed in two buildings – the New Museum Building and the 19th century historic palace Gulshan Mahal – in the Films Division campus in Mumbai. The National Museum of Indian Cinema was build under the guidance by the Museum Advisory Committee headed by noted film maker Shyam Benegal. An innovation Committee headed by lyricist Prasoon Joshi was also constituted to provide an upgrade to NMIC.