Weekly CA Quiz: November 2019 4th week

The government has approved setting up of six plastic parks in different parts of the country. These parks will have an ecosystem with state of the art infrastructure building and enabling the common facility to consolidate and synergize the capacities of the domestic downstream plastic processing industry.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the top two states in terms of number of beneficiaries, remain the worst performers under Ayushman Bharat.

India will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Forum of Young Scientists and Innovators in 2020, a proposal it had mooted in the grouping’s meeting on cooperation in the field of science and technology this week.

India has been ranked 44 among 110 countries in Food Vulnerability Index (NFVI) 2019, complied by Nomura Global Market Research. The NFVI ranks countries on the basis of their exposure to large swings in food prices.

The second edition of the India ASEAN InnoTech Summit 2019 was held at Davao, Philippines. The theme of the three-day Technology & Innovation Summit was ‘Accelerating towards innovative development’.

The RBI expanded the scope of Special Non-Resident Rupee Accounts (SNRR account) by permitting non-residents to open such accounts for rupee denominated overseas borrowings, trade credit and trade invoicing for popularising cross-border transactions in the domestic currency.

Union Minister for Jal Shakti released a short documentary film on Water Conservation named ‘SHIKHAR SE PUKAR’ in New Delhi.
The film has been made to promote ‘Jalshakti Abhiyan’ and is based on the Journey of an IAS Officer Ravindra Kumar, who climbed Everest this year to attract the attention of people from the top of the Everest on the serious issue of Water Conservation and stopping Water Pollution.

Jammu and Kashmir have achieved the highest road length in the country this year so far under a Centre’s rural roads’ programme with the completion of around 11,400 kilometres covering 1,838 habitations.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched YSR Matsyakara Bharosa, a welfare scheme for fishermen, on the occasion of World Fisheries Day.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will host the first-ever counter-terrorism (CT) exercise for the Quad countries in New Delhi.

Three-day Global Bio-India Summit 2019 begins in New Delhi. It was one of the largest biotechnology stakeholders conglomerate to be held in India for the first time.

Oxford Dictionaries has named “climate emergency” as its 2019 Word of the Year, choosing it from an all-environmental shortlist that also included “climate action,” “climate denial,” “eco-anxiety,” “extinction” and “flight shame.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has downgraded its global growth outlook for 2020. The OECD officials at are now predicting expansion of 2.9 percent.

Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Panwar clinching gold medals in their events to give the country its best ever single-day show in the ISSF World Cup Finals in Putian, China.
Elavenil claimed the top honours in the women’s 10 metres air rifle competition.
Divyansh finished on top in the men’s 10 metres air rifle competition.

Microsoft’s India-born Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has occupied the top spot in Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year 2019 list.

Veteran actor Shaukat Kaifi has passed away. She is remembered for her roles in MS Sathyu’s Garm Hawa, Sagar Sathadi’s Bazaar and Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan.

The WHO (World Health Organization) and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) organize World COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Day on the third Wednesday of November every year. This year in 2019, it falls on 20 November.
This year the theme is “All Together to End COPD”.

In a move to improve measures for the safety and security of women, the Rachakonda Police inaugurated the exclusive bus service ‘She Shuttle’ for women passengers in Hyderabad.

Chhattisgarh is set to have Guru Ghasidas National Park in Kotiya district as its fourth ‘tiger reserve’. Presently there are three tiger reserves in the state which are: Achanakmar Tiger Reserve, Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve and Indravati Tiger Reserve.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched a separate call centre to receive complaints regarding corruption. CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy inaugurated the 14400 citizen helpline number at his camp office.

Uttar Pradesh government is launching a massive immunisation campaign against the filariasis or Filaria. Under this campaign more than 65 thousand teams of health workers will distribute medicines to around 6.5 crore people till 10 December in 19 districts.

Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said that the naval exercise MILAN 2020 is scheduled to be held at Vishakhapatnam in March 2020 in which 41 nations including the US, France, Iran and Saudi Arabia have been invited.

According to a study by World Health Organization (WHO), India is among the top ten ranking countries with the lowest level of insufficient physical activity among adolescents. India is ranked eighth with overall prevalence of insufficient physical activity in adolescents at 73.9 per cent.

India’s Lakshya Sen has won the Scottish Open badminton men’s singles title, defeating Brazilian Ygor Coelho to seal his fourth title in 3 months.

Serbia will stage its first-ever World Athletics Series event after its capital, Belgrade, was confirmed as the host city of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships at the World Athletics Council Meeting.

Nisha Kumari Singh from Bengaluru has been crowned Miss Teen India 2019. With participants between 16 and 19 years of age, the nationwide contest offered experiences for young women to enhance their inherent grace through personality and confidence development with a focus on communication skills, style, fine etiquette, and manners.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kailash Joshi has passed away. He was 90.

The Indian Railway Institute of Financial Management (IRIFM) has been set up in Hyderabad, Telangana. This new entity is set up to impart professional training in the management of railway finances

The Etawah Lion Safari, formally known as Etawah Safari Park was thrown open for public in Uttar Pradesh without the lion segment.

Public sector banks collected Rs 1,996.46 crore in penalty from customers for not keeping minimum monthly balance in savings account in 2018-19. In 2017-18, the 18 public sector banks collected Rs 3,368.42 crore by levying minimum balance penalty.

U GRO Capital, a tech-enabled lender to small businesses, has signed a loan co-origination partnership with State Bank of India (SBI) to offer credit at a competitive rate of interest.

SBI Card, the country’s second largest credit card issuer, and Vistara, a full-service carrier, have joined hands to launch a one-of-its-kind premium credit card for travel savvy urban Indians.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its GDP growth forecast for the current financial year (FY20) to 5.6 per cent.

In wrestling, India concluded its campaign at the Under-15 Asian Championships with 28 medals, including 13 gold, 14 silver and a bronze. The superb show by Indian grapplers continued as they won 5 gold on the last day at Taichung, China yesterday. Led by 2019 Cadet World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Chahal, the freestyle grapplers captured four gold while one gold came in the Greco-Roman category.

Noted writer from Rajasthan, Manisha Kulshreshtha, was awarded the 28th Bihari Puraskar for 2018 for her novel ‘Swapnapash’.

Lok Sabha has passed the bill to merge Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy had introduced the Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories), Bill, 2019 for the merging of the two Union Territories.

Anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal released its logo and motto. While the logo symbolises ‘caretaker of people’ (‘Lok’ meaning people and ‘pal’ meaning caretaker) and depicts its various essence figuratively in shapes — such as judges bench for ombudsman, three human figures for people, Ashok Chakra for vigilance, orange book for law and two tricolor hands forming a unique balance, the motto in Sanskrit, when translated into English, reads “Do not be greedy for anyone’s wealth”.

Bihar recorded the highest prevalence of acute respiratory infections among under-five children among the five high-burden states between September 2018 and June 2019.

A maiden bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) have conducted Mine Countermeasure Exercise (MINEX) 2019 at Kochi, Kerala.

The Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank has approved second tranche of USD 150 million (about Rs 1,065 crore) for West Bengal to boost capital investment and infrastructure in the state.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the increase in authorised capital of Food Corporation of India (FCI) from existing Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

Odisha will host the Men’s Hockey World Cup in 2023 and the matches will be played in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.

Odia women weightlifter Jhilli Dalabehera, who has brought laurels for both the State and the country in several national and international events, will receive the 27th Ekalabya Award for 2019.

Veteran Tamil actor Bala Singh passed away in Chennai following a brief illness. Bala who was lauded for his versatile roles in the film industry had made his debut as an actor in Nassar’s movie ‘Avatharam’ in 1995. He later went on to take different roles in over 100 movies.

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister launched the kartavya.ugc.ac.in portal for holding monthly essay competitions for students.

Union Ministry of Rural Development sanctioned 18,338 additional houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) for Tripura for the financial year 2019-20.

Indian Navy successfully test-fired the 290-km strike range Brahmos supersonic cruise missile. BrahMos is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from ships, aircraft, or land.

The 47th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) began in Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh Police in association with the Home Ministry and the Bureau of Police Research and Development is organising the event at the police headquarters in Lucknow.

Union Minister of Jal Shakti, represented India at the 8 WATEC (Water Technology and Environment Control) Conference 2019. The theme of the conference is “Water Stewardship and Innovation–driving global leadership in the responsible planning management, and protection of water”. The conference held at David Intercontinental in Tel Aviv, Israel.

India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a 451 million dollar loan to strengthen power connectivity between southern and northern parts of Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor (CKIC).

Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju felicitated wrestler Bajrang Punia with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.

General Bipin Rawat will be the first Chief of Defence Staff. He will end his tenure as the Army Chief in December 2019.

With 350 Indians killed and 540 injured in 748 terrorist incidents in 2018, India is at seventh place in a global think tank’s list of countries most affected by terrorism.

For the second consecutive year, the National University of Singapore was named Asia’s top university according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Asia Rankings 2020. Its compatriot Nanyang Technological University rose to second, displacing the University of Hong Kong (third).

Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has projected Centre’s fiscal deficit to be about 3.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019-20, which will be slightly wider than the 3.4% posted in fiscal 2019.

Sports Ministry has constituted a 13-member expert committee to review the Draft National Sports Code. The expert committee will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Mukundakam Sharma.

Renowned cartoonist Sudhir Dar whose works graced several newspapers in a career spanning 58 years, passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 87.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced financial assistance of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka including USD 50 million for counter-terrorism after holding talks with the visiting Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Ireland pacer Tim Murtagh announced retirement from international cricket. The 38-year old seamer made his international debut for Ireland in 2012.

Celebrated Malayalam poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, popularly known as Akkitham, has won the Jnanpith Award 2019, becoming the sixth literary personality from Kerala to achieve the honour.