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

On May 7, 2019, Finland held the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Lappi Areena, Rovaniemi, Finland. The dignitaries from the 8 Arctic States had approved the work completed under the 2-year Finnish Chairmanship to enhance sustainable development and environmental conservation in the Arctic region. The Arctic States were joined by delegates from the Arctic Council’s Permanent Participant organizations, the heads of the 6 Working Groups, and Observers.Arctic States concluded the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting by signing a joint agreement as the Arctic Council Ministers meet, passed the Chairmanship from Finland to Iceland.

Max Life Insurance Co Ltd has notified that it will commemorate the 6th day of each month as ‘Protection Day’. The objective of this initiative was to raise awareness on financial protection. Aalok Bhan, Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life notified that this date of the calendar month was selected, because, generally, number 6 indicates love, harmony and is also a symbol of secured financial future.The decision came in line with the Company’s launch of Max Life India Protection Quotient survey conducted in collaboration with Kantar IMRB. It denoted that the extent to which the Indians feel protected from financial uncertainties is extremely low, and that level was as 35.

Jagjit Pavadia, an Indian, has been re-elected by the UN Economic and Social Council to a five year term on International Narcotics Control Board with the highest number of votes of 44 in the 54 member council. She will begin her term on March 2, next year. A member of the Indian Revenue Service, Ms Pavadia is the former Narcotics Commissioner of India.She was elected to the INCB for her first five year term in 2014. She has also served as the First Vice-President of the Board in 2016 and Chair of the Standing Committee on Estimates in 2015 and 2017.

Bharti Airtel and Hughes Communication India have agreed to merge their broadband satellite or VSAT (very small aperture terminal) business to improve operational efficiencies and target new customers in areas such as in-flight connectivity. After a merger, Hughes Communication will own 67% share of new entity and the remaining 33% will own by Bharti Airtel.If we talk about current market share, the Hughes Communication has 36% share of the market and Airtel Business – the enterprise and VSAT arm of Bharti Airtel has 27% share of the market.

On 7th May 2019, Renowned academician and father of modern Indian Legal Education, Dr. Neelakanta Ramakrishna Madhava Menon (NR Madhava Menon) died at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram at the age of 84. He was born on 4th May 1935 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Madhava Menon founded the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru, National Judicial Academy (NJA) in Bhopal and the National University of Judicial Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.The first national law school in India, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, was founded in 1986. The school was headed by him for 12 years.The National University of Judicial Sciences in Kolkata was founded in 1998, and the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal was founded in 2003.

After a meeting of Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan and General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) Vice Minister Li Guo, India and China signed a protocol for exportation of Indian chilli meal to China. In the meeting both the dignitaries discussed the challenges related to trade regarding the pending Indian request for agricultural products, that wasn’t been given clearance.

Recently, the Australian flight carrier, Qantas has operated world’s first zero waste commercial flight named QF739 from Sydney to Adelaide which disposed all waste through compost, reuse or recycle.This airline has substituted over 1000 single-use plastic items with more environment friendly items which has helped airline to achieve zero-waste during commercial flight.

India’s first Fintech (Financial technology) start-up enabling payments via interoperable UPI(Unified Payments Interface) QR (Quick Response) codes, BharatPe notified its venture into merchant services by launching a new app named ‘Bharatpe for Merchants’ that allows merchants to keep a track of their cash/credit (Udhar) sales customer wise, to request the accounts receivable from customers through SMS (Short Message Service) payment links or through WhatsApp and to record accounts that are payable to suppliers.

Celebrated once in two years, the 5th United Nations Global Road Safety Week is being observed from May 6 to 12, 2019. It emphasizes that everyone can be a leader for road safety. The theme for this year’s weekly event is “Leadership for road safety”. It launched an ongoing campaign “Save Lives – #SpeakUp” to achieve global goals by ensuring the safety of human life. It runs on the philosophy of “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”.

The Chhattisgarh police have deployed first ever Anti-Naxal women’s commando unit named ‘Danteshwari Ladake’ or ‘Fighters of Goddess Danteshwari’. These women commandos have inducted in the District Reserve Guard (DRG) which is Chhattisgarh’s frontline anti-naxal force.This specially raised squad was part of the security forces “short action teams” that eliminated three Naxal commanders in the past one month, has now inducted in the state’s Naxal-hit Dantewada district.The unit comprised of 30 women commandos led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dineshwari Nand. Out of these 30 women commandos, 10 are surrendered women Naxals and 10 are assistant constables, part of anti-naxal movement Salwa Judum.

Regional Heads of Customs Administration of Asia Pacific Region of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) meeting was headed by Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, Chairman, CBIC. The participants of the meeting included customs delegates from more than 20 countries of the Asia Pacific region and the senior dignitaries of the WCO and its regional bodies, namely, Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) and Regional Intelligence Liaoning Office (RILO). Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, Chairman focussed on the strategic principles guiding India. The principles are as follows: Greater communication and connectivity within the region Making use of the technological advancements Developing an inclusive approach Agreement on major issues

10 Best Airports of 2019:
• Hamad International Airport, Qatar (DOH)
• Tokyo International Airport, Japan (HND)
• Athens International Airport, Greece(ATH)
• Afonso Pena International Airport, Brazil (CWB)
• Gdansk Lech Wasa Airport, Poland (GDN)
• Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia (SVO)
• Changi Airport Singapore, Singapore (SIN)
• Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, India (HYD)
• Tenerife North Airport, Spain (TFN)
• Viracopos/Campinas International Airport, Brazil (VCP)

Guided Missile Destroyer, INS Kolkata and Fleet Support Ship, INS Shakti participated in ‘Group Sail’ exercise with Helicopter Carrier JMSDF Izumo & Guided Missile Destroyer JMSDF Murasame of Japan; Frigate BRP Andres Bonifacio of Philippines and Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer USS Williams P Lawrence of the USA in the disputed South China Sea. This was 6-day long group sail exercise from May 3 to May 9 and objective was to deepen the existing partnership and foster mutual understanding among navies of friendly countries.

Border Road Organisation (BRO) officials have created India’s first ever ice cafe in the mountain village of Gaya in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, at 14,000 feet height above sea level, on the famous ManaliLeh Highway. The ice sculpture, resembles a Buddhist meditation place, was created by natural process. The design of the ice cafe has been inspired by the works of famous Indian engineer and innovator and education reformist, SonamWangchuk.

Mangaluru based Karnataka Bank Limited appointed Balachandra Y V as Chief Operation Officer (COO) and Gokuldas Pai as Chief Business Officer (CBO). Earlier, both are General Managers of Karnataka Bank who were promoted as COO and CBO of the bank. The previous COO of Karnataka Bank was Raghavendra Bhat M.A new COO, Balachandra has a postgraduate degree in Commerce and also a member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (CAIIB) and will be in charge of some of the important department like Treasury and Accounts, Credit Monitoring, Legal and Recovery, Information Technology (IT) and Management Information System (MIS), Human Resource (HR) and Investor Relations (IR).

A group of researchers and professor Manav Desai from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay have developed a microprocessor named ‘AJIT’ which was indigenously conceptualised, designed, developed and manufactured. The chip of the microprocessor was developed at Semi-Conductor Laboratory in Chandigarh. This was the first time that academia, industry and government worked together for the development of new technology. The project was funded by IIT Bombay, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Mumbai based Powai Labs. The team developed a toolset called AHIR-V2, which can convert an algorithm to hardware to design the microprocessor circuit.

On May 10, noted Tamil novelist and Sahitya Akademi Awardee Thoppil Mohamed Meeran passed away at Pettai in Tirunelveli district. He was 74. He authored several Tamil and Malayalam novels. His novel “Saaivu Naarkkali” (The Reclining Chair) won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1997. His other novels are “Oru Kadalora Graamaththin Kathai”, “Thuraimugam”, “Koonan Thoppu” and “Anju Vannam Theru.” He has also written short stories like “Anbukku Muthumai Illai”, “Thangarasu”, “Ananthasayanam Colony”, “Oru Kutti Theevin Varippadam”, “Thoppil Mohamed Meeran Kathaigal” and “Oru Maamaramum Konjam Paravaigalum.” He received eight awards in total which included the Sahitya Akademi Award and Tamil Nadu Kalai Ilakkiya Perumantram Award in 1992.

Antonov An-12 heavy cargo plane coming entered the Indian air space from an unauthorised air route & it was forced to land at Jaipur airport. It was left off after a thorough investigation.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has decided to hold Ocean Conference 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal from June 2 to 6, 2020 with a theme of “Scaling up ocean action based on science and innovation for the implementation of Goal 14: stocktaking, partnerships and solutions.” To support this conference, the resolution was adopted by the 80th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 73rd session.

Japan has begun testing the ALFA-X version of its fastest-ever Shinkansen bullet train that could reach 400 km per hour (249 mph). The bullet train ALFA-X (Advanced Labs for Frontline Activity in Rail Experimentation) is scheduled to start its service in 2030, when, rail company JR East would operate it at 360 kilometres per hour (224 mph). This speed will make it 10 kph faster than China’s Fuxing Hao, which links Beijing and Shanghai and operates at the same top speed. This would make ALFA-X, the world’s fastest bullet train. The ALFA-X’s futuristic design features 10 cars and a sleek pointed nose.The bullet train will be tested (after midnight, when the line is quiet) twice a week on the line between Sendai and Aomori, 2 Japanese cities, which are 280 kilometres apart.

The WHO (World Health Organization) has published a research paper titled ‘Forecasting the future need and gaps in requirements for public health professionals in India upto 2026’ in the ‘WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health‘, in which it states that India faces critical shortage of healthcare professionals, especially in Bihar, Jharkhand, U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) & Rajasthan which have the worst hit ratio as compared to Delhi, Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat which are in a relatively better position.Health workforce includes all those people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance and improve the health of the general public affected with any kind of health issue.

In Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG) Geneva, Switzerland, the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-14) held. The theme of the meeting was “Clean Planet, Healthy People: Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste”.

The United Nations Secretary–General Antonio Guterres has appointed 17 new advocates to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include the Indian actress Dia Mirza and the Chief of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma. The newly appointed UN advocates are the 17 influential global figures. It is the responsibility of these advocates to raise awareness, inspire greater ambition and strive hard for the faster action on the SDGs, which were adopted by the world leaders on September 25, 2015.The other newly appointed SDG Advocates are Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Founder, Education Above All Foundation (State of Qatar), British screenwriter, producer and film director Richard Curtis, Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad, Director of Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs, Brazilian footballer and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, Forest Whitaker.

Recently, the world’s first exclusive women’s cricket magazine “CRICZONE” released with Indian women’s cricket team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana featured as the cover story. The publisher of the magazine is Yash Lahoti. The magazine “CRICZONE” was launched in Jaipur, Rajasthan during an event which was conducted on the sidelines of the inaugural women’s T20 challenge. It was attended by international cricketers like Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and overseas players like Danielle Wyatt and Sophie Davine.The objective of this magazine is to empower young aspiring women cricketers to take the sport as a profession and able to make sustainable living.

After the occurrence of clashes between militants and security forces in Kashmir on May 10, 2019, for the very first time ISIS, the Islamic State terror group has claimed to have established a new ‘province’ in India, termed as “Wilayah of Hind” (India Province) in Arabic. This has been announced through its Amaq News Agency. ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Officially known as the Islamic State) did not speak about the Indian province’s geographical territory though.