Correct Answer :   Australia

The 11th meeting of the joint working group on counter-terrorism between India and Australia held at Canberra, Australia on May 2, 2019. Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary (Counter-Terrorism) led Indian delegation while Paul Foley, Australia's Ambassador for Counter Terrorism led Australian delegation for the meeting. The objective of this meeting is to discuss the counter-terrorism challenges which both countries are facing such as financing of terrorism, the use of the internet for terror purposes, radicalisation and foreign terrorist fighters. The Joint Working Group also agreed to further deepen counter-terrorism cooperation through mutual capacity building efforts, regular exchange of information, mutual legal assistance, regular exchange of information, sharing of best practices on counter-terrorism and radicalization.

Correct Answer :   Telangana

Prominent writer and academician, Maramraju Satyanarayana Rao passed away following a cardiac arrest. He was 84. He was born at Jayyaram village in Mahabubabad district in Telangana. He had worked as professor of political science and registrar of Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. He has also authored several books.

Correct Answer :   Iraq

For the second year in a row, Iraq has become India's top crude oil supplier in 2018-19 fiscal year and meet more than a fifth of the country's oil needs. According to official data sourced from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Iraq sold 46.61 million tonnes (mt) of crude oil to India during April 2018 and March 2019, which is 2% more than 45.74 mt it had supplied in 2017-18 fiscal. Saudi Arabia also maintained its position as the 2nd-largest crude supplier to India during the year followed by Iran and United Arab Emirates (UAE) which toppled Venezuela to become India's fourth largest crude supplier. Despite US sanctions on Iran, the country's crude oil supply to India increased 6.24% to 24 MT in 2018-19. India managed to import a sizeable amount of Iranian crude last year primarily due to waivers and winding down period provided by US.

Correct Answer :   SIPRI

Stockholm International peace research institute (SIPRI) has launched a new initiative named Global Registry of Violent Deaths (GReVD) to establish the annual number of violent deaths worldwide.GReVD will count deaths caused by all forms of violence and display these in an open-source database and enable monitoring of progress on the world's commitment to 'significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere' by 2030 as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-Goal 16. The database will enable policymakers and researchers and the general public to track trends in violence at global, regional, national, provincial, city and municipal levels. GReVD will hold a single entry for every violent death, including perpetrator, time, location, victim and type of violence. The sources will be verifiable news reports of lethal events and processing will involve machine coding to manage the volume of entries, as well as human coding to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Correct Answer :   Asian Development Bank

Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched 5$ billion Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for the Asia and Pacific region. This will support ADB's developing member countries' efforts for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), inclusive of the SDG 14: Life Below Water. Among the 10 rivers that transports 88% to 95% of plastics into the sea globally, 8 are in Asia and Pacific region. The Healthy Oceans Action Plan was launched at the 52nd Annual Meeting of ADB's Board of Governors, Fiji.

Correct Answer :   France

India will be attending the Group of 7 industrialised nations meet organised by France in Biarritz in August along with Australia, Chile, and South Africa. the French ambassador to India Alexandre Zeigler stated that one of the issues on the agenda of the G-7 meet would be fighting terrorism in cyberspace.

Correct Answer :   Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Nirmala Sitharaman, the current Defence Minister of India held a bilateral meeting with General Wei Fenghe, Honourable Defence Minister of China, in which they discussed regional and bilateral security issues. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers' Meet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Nirmala Sitharaman was in Kyrgyzstan on a 3-day visit to attend the SCO meet and to hold bilateral meetings with the member-countries on the summit's sidelines. In the SCO ministerial meeting, the 8 member-states discussed on the different facets to raise cooperation to curb terrorism. The present SCO meeting is being held before the SCO summit, which would take place from 14th June to 15th June, 2019.

Correct Answer :   Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections in Times of Disinformation

World Press Freedom Day is observed annually on May 3 to raise awareness among the international community that freedom of the press and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights. This day also pay tribute to media professionals who risked or lost their lives in the line of duty. This year marked the 26th celebration of World Press Freedom Day which was observed with a theme "Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections in Times of Disinformation". The day was initiated by the UN General Assembly in December 1993 after the recommendation of 26th UNESCO's General Conference in 1991 which led to the adoption of Declaration of Windhoek.

Correct Answer :   Mumbai, India

World Laughter Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May of every year. The first celebration was on May 10, 1998, in Mumbai, India. The celebration of World Laughter Day was meant to be a positive manifestation for world peace and to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter and run-on sentences. Its popularity has grown exponentially with that of the Laughter Yoga movement, which is now counting over 6000 Laughter Clubs worldwide on all 5 continents. World Laughter Day was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. Laughter Yoga movement in part by the facial feedback hypothesis, which postulates that a person's facial expressions can have an effect on their emotions. World Laughter Day is now celebrated in every year in most large cities around the world. Hundreds of people gather worldwide on that day to laugh together.

Correct Answer :   Cyclone Fani

Cyclone Fani with a maximum wind speed of 240-250 kmph, is one of the most biggest and fiercest cyclonic storm over the east coast in nearly two decades. Several villages nearby Puri in Odisha have submerged due to heavy rains and till now at least 3 people have lost their life. Central government has released Rs 1086 crore advanced financial assistance to four states for undertaking preventive and relief measures to deal with cyclone 'Fani'. Out of this sanctioned amount, Odisha will receive Rs 340.87 crore, West Bengal Rs 235.50 crore, Tamil Nadu Rs 309.37 crore and Andhra Pradesh will get Rs 200.25 crore. ii. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has started helpline number 1938 for Cyclone Fani. The people can call this helpline number and can ask for help from the government.