Current Affairs 23 September 2019

1. Kerala Tourism receives three PATA Gold Awards

• Kerala Tourism has won three prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold awards in Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan.
• The awards are given for an ethnic food restaurant run by women at Kumarakom(Kerala) under its Responsible Tourism(RT) mission, the second one for Kerala tourism campaign advertisement ‘Come Out and Play’ and the third one was for its website www.keralatourism.org.
• This year(2019), Kerala Tourism won the highest number of PATA awards in the South Asia region.

Foot Notes:
About Kerala
Capital of Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram
Governor: Arif Mohammad Khan.
Chief Minister of Kerala: Pinarayi Vijayan

2. India and Bangladesh to boost maritime ties

• India is to join Bangladesh to commemorate 100 years of Bangabandhu, the founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 2020. It also commemorates an International Fleet Review in 2021 to mark 50 years of the Liberation of Bangladesh.
• Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh is on a four-day visit to Dhaka. His visit aims to further consolidate maritime cooperation between the two countries. He will also be holding discussions with his Bangladeshi counterpart Admiral Aurangzeb Chowdhury on other maritime and security issues.
• He will be visiting Khulna Shipyard Limited Bangladesh's naval bases in Chattogram and Khulna. During his visit, he will participate in the first-anniversary celebration of Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development (BIMRAD).

About Bangladesh
Capital: Dhaka
Currency: Bangladeshi taka
Prime minister: Sheikh Hasina

3. Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Gully Boy’ India’s official entry to Oscars 2020

• The Film Federation of India (FFI) has chosen ‘Gully Boy’ as India’s official entry to the Oscars.
• “Gully Boy”, produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar and directed by Zoya Akhtar’, featured Ranveer as an up-and-coming rapper who sets out to achieve his dream by rhyming about his life on the Mumbai streets.
• Assamese film “Village Rockstars”, directed by Rima Das, was India’s official submission to the Oscars last year.

Foot Notes:
President of Film Federation of India: Shri  Firdausul Hasan

4. Ravi Shankar inaugurated Bihars first all women employee post office

• Union Minister of Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated Bihar's first all-women employee post office on the campus of Bihar Public Service Commission.
•  The post office will deal with all correspondent materials of BPSC competitive examinations. It will also help aspirants in providing required postal services. It is a move to encourage the empowerment of women.
• Bihar's first all-women employee post office will be dealing with all correspondent materials of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) competitive examinations and help the aspirants in providing required postal services.

Foot Notes:
About Bihar
Governor: Phagu Chauhan
Chief minister: Nitish Kumar
Capital: Patna

5. International Day of Sign Languages is observed on 23 September 2019

• International Day of Sign Languages is observed on 23 September 2019 globally. The day aims to create awareness to bring out the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf. It also aims to preserve the sign languages as a part of linguistic and cultural diversity.
• The theme for the 2019 International Day of Sign Languages is Sign Language Rights for All!
• The International Day of Sign Languages on 23rd September was observed proclaimed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The resolution was passed by UNGA to acknowledge that early access to sign language and services in sign language, including quality education available in sign language.

About UN General Assembly
President: María Fernanda Espinosa
Headquarters: New York, United States
Founder: United Nations
Founded: 1945, New York, United States

6. Report says period from 2015 to 2019 is the hottest since 1850

• A report by the world’s leading climate agencies said that the period from 2015 to 2019 is likely to be the hottest five-year period on record since 1850. The report was released ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit which is to be held in New York.
• The report pointed out that the gaps between agreed targets to combat global warming and the ground reality.
• The report pointed out that the gaps between agreed targets to combat global warming and the ground reality.
  The report said that the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have risen to record levels. This will cause locking in the warming trend for decades to come.

7. Rahul Aware wins bronze in 61 kg free-style category at World C’ship

• Indian wrestler Rahul Aware has won a bronze medal in men’s 61-kilogram freestyle category at the World Championship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
• He beat 17th seeded American Tyler Lee Graff 11-4 to ensure he finished on the podium. It was India’s fifth medal at this edition of the World Championships with a total haul of 1 silver and 4 bronzes.

8. Veteran actor and multi-faceted artiste S.K. Padmadevi passes away

• Veteran actor and multi-faceted artiste S.K. Padmadevi passed away. she was part of the first Kannada talkie film ‘Bhakta Dhruva’ (1934).
• She also starred in ‘Samsara Nouke’, first Kannada social film (1936).
• She was the recipient of R. Nagendra Rao award for lifetime achievement by Karnataka Chalanchitra Academy in 2016.

9. Ladakhi Shondol dance creates history by entering into Guinness book of records

• Shondol dance, which is known as the royal dance of Ladakh, has created history by entering into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Ladakhi dance.
• Shondol is a famous dance, which artistes used to perform for the king of Ladakh.  The event was held on the concluding day of the ongoing Buddhist carnival Naropa festival near the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh.
• As many as 408 women attired in traditional dresses and beautiful headgears performed the dance, which broke the previous record of 299 artists dance of Shondol in the 2018 festival.

About Ladakh
Districts: Kargil District, Leh District
Headquarters: Leh and Kargil (Joint)
Largest city: Leh

10. Israel cuts off power to parts of West Bank

• Israel cut off power to some parts of occupied West Bank . The national electricity company of Israel announced that it was cutting off power to some parts of West Bank due to outstanding payments.
• The Israel Electric Corporation said that the outstanding electricity payments from the region amount to almost US$483 million.
• The company said that it was owed 1.7 billion shekels in debts from Palestine's main power distributor for the West Bank. The power distributor is based in east Jerusalem.

About Israel
President: Reuven Rivlin
Capital: Jerusalem
Currency: Israeli new shekel