Correct Answer :   Shane Dowrich

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Former West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich has retired from international cricket and withdrawn from the squad for a one-day international series against England, the country's cricket board (CWI) said on Thursday (30th Nov 2023).

Dowrich this month earned a surprise recall to the West Indies squad, three years after he played his last test and four years since he featured in his only ODI.

The 32-year-old played in 35 tests, scoring 1570 runs with a high score of 125 not out against Sri Lanka in 2018. He also had 85 catches and five stumpings as a wicketkeeper.

"We want to thank Shane for contribution when he played for West Indies. He is a disciplined, hard-working cricketer who always gave his utmost in front and behind the stumps," CWI Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe said.

"We respect his decision to retire and appreciate it is not an easy one to make. We wish him all the best as he steps away from the international stage.".

Source : Reuters

Correct Answer :   Deoghar

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the 10,000th Jan Aushadhi Kendra at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Deoghar on Thursday (30th Nov 2023) via video conferencing. He pledged to set up altogether 25,000 such facilities in near future in the country.

The PM also interacted with a few beneficiaries of Jan Aushadhi Kendra, which provides medicines to poor at discounted rates.

“I had to incur expense between Rs 12,000-13000 per month on medicines which has now got reduced to Rs 3,000," one of the beneficiaries from Deoghar, who eke out living by selling pakodas, shared his experience with Modi.

“Due to proactive support of the people, the government’s initiative has turned into a campaign and has become so popular that we could set up 10,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras in the country even before the deadline of March 2024," the PM said.

He also announced the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Mahila Kisan Drone Kendra aimed to help women SHGs. Under the scheme 15,000 drones will be provided to SHGs on rent for assistance in farming. Using the drones, they could spray manures and pesticides in their farmlands.

"The farmers of the country will be able to get their hands on the modern technology and equipment like drones at a very low cost thereby helping them to save time, medicines and fertilizers," the PM said.

Union minister of health, chemicals and fertilizers, Mansukh L Mandaviya, Godda BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and AIIIMS officials were among those present on the occasion on the AIIMS premises in Deoghar. Mandaviya also visited the under-construction factory of the IFFCO's Nano fertiliser plant in Jasidih..

Source : Times of India

Correct Answer :   Riyadh

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The Expo 2030 world’s fair will be held in Riyadh in another hosting victory for a Gulf country after Qatar put on football’s World Cup last year.

South Korea’s Busan and Italy’s Rome were also in the running to host the world’s fair, a once-every-five-year event that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment.

Saudi Arabia’s capital won 119 votes, Busan 29 and Rome 17, results from 182 members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) showed on Tuesday (28th Nov 2023). Saudi Arabia needed to garner two-thirds of the votes to win in the first round.

The Italian contestants were scathing in their criticism of the result.

“This huge result for Saudi was unexpected in those proportions,” Giampiero Massolo, head of the Italian Expo bid, told reporters. “It is no longer about the merits but about transactions.”

“27th Nov 2023 it was a soccer championship. Tomorrow (28th Nov 2023) it will be the Olympics,” he added.

Saudi Arabia, as the only declared candidate, is set to host the 2034 World Cup and is also planning an Olympics bid.

Riyadh had enlisted football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for the capital’s Al Nassr club, to persuade BIE members in a video shown before the vote. The city has proposed to host the event from October 2030 to March 2031.

The win is the icing on the cake for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious Vision 2030 programme, which aims to wean the country off its oil dependency.

“We had a fantastic team of ministers going around the world, engaging our counterparts in a very, very active way to understand what they expected, what they were looking for and what we should deliver in order to gain their trust,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said.

Critics said the crown prince wants to use the expo to improve his country’s image after the 2018 murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a team of Saudi agents..


Source : Aljazeera