Current affairs
- Saudi Arabia increased India’s Haj quota by 30,000 which was the third hike in 3 years. It was increased from 1,70, 000 to 200,000. With this, more Indians will get a chance to visit annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, a city in Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia. The issue discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman in the ongoing G20 Summit in Osaka Japan.
- As per Mercer’s 25th Annual Cost of Living Survey which was conducted in March 2019, 209 cities were ranked in the list. Costliest Cities in world: The costliest city in the world was Hong Kong for the second consecutive year. It was followed by Tokyo, Singapore and Seoul. Other cities in the top ten lists were Zurich (5), Shanghai (6), Ashgabat (7), Beijing (8), New York City (9) and Shenzhen (10).
- As per Mercer’s 25th Annual Cost of Living Survey which was conducted in March 2019, Mumbai was considered as India’s most expensive city. It was included in the list of top 20 most-expensive cities in Asia for expatriates as its residential housing prices were the highest in the world. Indian Cities: Mumbai fell 12 spots and was ranked 67th position. New Delhi stood at 118th place, Chennai was ranked 154th position, Bengaluru at 179th position and Kolkata at 189th place.
- The Government of India, Government of Rajasthan and the World Bank signed a $ 250 Million Loan Agreement for Phase II of Rajasthan State Highways Development Project. The Loan Agreement was signed by Mr.Sameer Kumar Khare on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Shanker Lal, Acting Country Director (India) on behalf of the World Bank. It will be used to support the construction, upgradation, improvement, and maintenance of 766 kms of state highways and district roads.
- “The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2017-18” released by National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) huge variations among the states in terms of the unemployment rate. The overall unemployment rate pegs at 6.1%.
- Nagaland has the highest unemployment rate among the states with 21.4% followed by Goa (13.9%)and Manipur(11.6%), while Meghalaya has the lowest rate at 1.5%.Chhattisgarh and Sikkim also have the lowest rates. Rural and Urban: Urban areas witnessed higher unemployment (7.8%) than the rural areas (5.3%).Male Vs Female: Females have the lowest unemployment rate (5.7%) in comparison to males (6.2%).Union territories: Nagaland still gets top in the list of union territories while Dadra and Nagar Haveli with a low rate of 0.6%.
- An Indian engineer, Nitesh Kumar Jangir, from Bangalore has won the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation for Sustainable Development Award 2019 in the “People” category in London, UK (United Kingdom).
- An Indian engineer, Nitesh Kumar Jangir, from Bangalore has won the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation for Sustainable Development Award 2019 in the “People” category in London, UK (United Kingdom)for the creation low-cost neonatal breathing device named “Saans” for saving the lives of newborn babies. Saans: It is breath supporting device used for tackling avoidable deaths of premature babies from Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS)and It is world’s first neonatal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device powered in multiple ways through direct source electricity, including rechargeable battery, vehicle’s electrical supply, etc.
- Hemant Pandey, a senior scientist from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), developed ‘Lukoskin’, an herbal drug to treat leucoderma (also called ‘vitiligo’), a condition in which white patches develop on the skin. For his achievement, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded him ‘Science Award’ in May 2019. He had also won Agri Innovation Award in 2015.Drug was manufactured and marketed by Delhi-based AIMIL Pharma Ltd. Mr. Pandey heads the Herbal Medicine Division of DRDO’s Defence Institute of Bio-energy Research (DIBER) at Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.
- India’s junior Boxing women’s team was won best team trophy in 5th Black Forest Cup held in Villingen, Schwenningen, Germany. The team won 7 medals, including 5 gold. Haryana’s Neha (54kg) claimed the honour of best boxer and Karnataka’s Anju Devi (50kg) claimed the honour of promising player of the tournament. Tamanna (48kg), Anju, Neha, H. Ambeshori Devi (57kg), and Preeti Dahiya (60kg) won gold medals out of the 13-member Indian squad. India, Ukraine, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Mongolia, Greece, and Poland participated in the tournament.
- The Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell has included four archers namely Archers Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav and Atul Verma in Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The decision was taken by SAI Director General Neelam Kapur. The trio: In June 2019, Rai, Das, and Jadhav were part of Indian men’s recurve team that had won a silver medal in the World Archery Championships in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, thus earning a 2020 Olympic quota. Verma is a bronze medal winner in boys recurves in the 2014 Youth Olympics.
- Former Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar authored a book named as “A Prime Minister to Remember- Memories of a Military Chief” released. The book is published by Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. The book talks about his distinguished career in the Indian Navy during the Kargil War and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee when Operation Parakram was launched after the terror attack on the Indian Parliament. It also talks about the Admiral, who served with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2001.
- Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) and Ministry of Planning, Rao Inderjit Singh inaugurated the 13th Statistics Day on June 29, 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in the presence of Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, President of Indian Statistical Institute, Shri Pravin Srivastava, Chief Statistician of India-cum-Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation along with senior officers of Central/ State Governments and other stakeholders. The theme for Statistics Day 2019 is “Sustainable Development Goals”.
- The Prof. C.R. Rao Award 2019 was conferred to Dr. Subhra Sankar Dhar, Associate Professor, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kanpur for his contribution in the field of Statistics. It launched the revamped portal of Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) Dashboard, Baseline Report on SDGs and Study report on Revamping Project Management Practices conducted by Project Management Institute (PMI).MoSPI will institutionalize Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics to recognize and honour the outstanding contribution and meritorious work of Official Statisticians working in the Central Government, State Governments and their Institutions.
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