FAQ

William Ruto was sworn in as president on September 13, following the elections held on August 9 in Kenya, which has been facing political instability for the past few years.

Important facts

• Ruto defeated longtime Leader of the Opposition Raila Odinga by a narrow margin in the election held on 9 August.
• Odinga is a very popular leader in Kenya and he has contested the presidential election 5 times and this time he has to face defeat.
• Odinga was the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013.
• Ruto was the Vice President during the tenure of outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta.
• Ruto takes power in a debt-ridden country that will challenge his efforts to fulfill promises made to Kenya's poor.

About Kenya

President - William Ruto

Capital - Nairobi

Official Languages - Swahili, English

Currency - Kenyan shilling

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is set to become the Attorney General of India again. He is set to begin his second term as the country's top law officer from October 1.

Important facts

• Current Attorney General KK Venugopal's term ends on 30 September 2022.
• 91-year-old Venugopal was appointed as the 15th Attorney General of the country on June 30, 2017, replacing Mukul Rohatgi.
• Rohatgi was the Attorney General for the Bhartiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government between 2014 and 2017.
• Mukul Rohatgi is the son of former Delhi High Court judge, Justice Awadh Behari Rohatgi.
• Rohatgi completed his law studies at Government Law College, Mumbai and started practicing law.
• He was nominated as Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court in 1993 and later as Additional Solicitor General of India in 1999.

Attorney General of India

• The Attorney General of India is the top legal officer in the country.
• He/She is assisted by 2 Solicitor Generals & 4 Additional Solicitor Generals.
• According to the Constitution of India, Article 76 deals with the Attorney General of India and Article 165 deals with the Advocate General of the States.
• Appointment - By President 

The 74th Emmy Awards - 2022, held in Los Angeles, USA, were announced on 13 September.

Facts

• Actor Lee Jung-jae won an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama for his performance in Netflix's hit South Korean series “Squid Game”.

• "Squid Game" producer Hwang Dong-hyuk became the first Asian director to win the Drama Series category and also the first director to win for a non-English language series.

• Lee took the title, beating veterans Jason Bateman (Ozark), Brian Cox (Succession), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), Adam Scott (Severance) and Jeremy (Succession).

• He has also won the SAG Award for 'Squid Game' earlier this year as well.

• The series revolves around a competition where 456 players, all of whom are facing a deep financial crunch.

About Emmy Award

• It annually recognizes excellence in leading television programming produced outside the US.

• It is also called the American Television Award.

Indian Foreign Service officer Nagesh Singh has been named as the Ambassador of India to Thailand.

IMPORTANT FACTS -

• In the past, Nagesh Singh has been Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

• Nagesh Singh was earlier the Chief of Protocol in the Ministry of External Affairs.

• He has also been the OSD to the Vice President.

• Nagesh Singh is a 1995 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, who has served as the Consul General of India in Atlanta.

• Mr. Singh holds a master's degree from the Delhi School of Economics.

India and Thailand :

• Bilateral relations between India and Thailand continued to strengthen during 2021 marked by cooperation at regional and sub-regional levels in the framework of ASEAN, Mekong Ganga Cooperation and BIMSTEC as well as in other multilateral fora.

Thailand:

• Capital: Bangkok;

• Currency: Thai Baht;

• Prime Minister: Prayut Chan-o-cha.

On 31 August 2022, Vasudha Gupta, a senior Indian Information Service officer, was appointed as the new Director General of News Services Division of All India Radio.

• Prior to this, Gupta was the Director General of the Press Information Bureau.

• He has immediately taken over the new post. Director General of All India Radio N. Venudhar Reddy retired on 31 August.

• Gupta is a 1989 batch officer and has worked in various positions in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in her career spanning 32 years.

The 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference (CPA) was held in Halifax, Canada in August 2022. In this CPA, BJP MP from Jhansi-Lalitpur parliamentary constituency Anurag Sharma has been elected as the treasurer of the CPA.

• The CPA is the largest and oldest international parliamentary association in the world.

• One more seat was added for India at this Commonwealth Parliamentary Association convention, bringing the total Indian tally to four delegates.

IMPORTANT FACTS -

• The convention is divided among the nine geographical regions of the Commonwealth. It was attended by 180 MPs from 55 countries, Speakers and elected representatives of Legislative Assemblies, around 18000 members.

• A 100-member delegation has joined the leadership of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from India.

• This conference will enable the community of regions to build strong, powerful and effective parliamentary institutions that are able to meet and adapt to the challenges of the present and the future.

Anurag Sharma :

• The election of Jhansi-Lalitpur MP Anurag Sharma as the treasurer of CPA has not only increased the pride of the parliamentary constituency and Uttar Pradesh but also the pride of the country.

• Anurag Sharma, MP from Jhansi, Lalitpur, did his management studies at the internationally renowned Harvard Business School, Boston and then took over as Executive Director at Shri Baidyanath Ayurvedic Bhavan, a reputed industrialist.

World number one Badminton player Viktor Axelsen of Denmark won his second BWF World Championships title after beating Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final held at Tokyo, Japan on 28 August 2022.

It is his third major title in a year, he won the Tokyo Olympics and followed it up with the All England title.

Akane Yamaguchi wins women’s single title

The women's singles title has been retained by Japan's reigning champion Akane Yamaguchi.

Top-seeded Yamaguchi defeated China's Olympic champion Chen Yufei in the final. This win gave Yamaguchi her second title of the year, after lifting the trophy at the All England Open in March.

The 27th BWF World Championships 2022 was held in Tokyo, Japan from 22-28 August 2022.

Mikhail Gorbachev, last Soviet Union leader who ended the Cold War without any bloodshed died on 30 August 2022 at the age of 91 in Moscow, Russia.

Person blamed for disintegration of Soviet Union :

• Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985.
• He introduced Perestroika and Glasnost in the Soviet Union to reform the country. Perestroika in Russian means restructuring and Glasnost means openness. It led to a limited political and economic reform in the Soviet Union, which many believe led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.However it opened the fault line in the communist bloc and the Soviet Union leading to popular movement against the communist rule.
• The Soviet Union or USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic) was founded in 1922 by Lenin composed of 15 Soviet Republics including Russia.  Many Russian nationalist believe that Gorbachev was responsible for the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to the emergence of 15 Independent countries.  

Person who ended Cold war :

• He concluded a series of Arms control agreements with the United States that led to the end of the cold war between the US led western alliance and the communist  bloc led by the Soviet Union . 
• Cold war refers to a period in International relations that emerged after the end of the second world war .
• It was a period of intense ideological rivalry between the United States of America led Western alliance which professed liberal democratic order and a Communist order led Soviet Union. Both the blocs were nuclear armed and the fear of nuclear war was ever present.   

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1990.

The European football body Union of European Football Association (UEFA) every year stages an annual awards ceremony at the start of a new season to recognise the best player and coach performances from the previous editions of the UEFA men’s' and women's club competitions.

The men's and women's player of the year awards are given based on voting by a jury composed of coaches of the clubs which played in the group stages of the previous edition of UEFA club competitions as well as a group of journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM).

UEFA Award 2021-22 

• Best Male player of the year: Karim Benzema of France. He plays for Real Madrid club of Spain 
• Best Female player of the year: Alexia Putellas of Spain. She plays for Barcelona football club.
• Best Men coach of the year: Carlo Ancelotti of Italy. He is the coach of Spanish football club Real Madrid.
• Best Women coach of the year: Sarina Wiegman of Netherlands. She is the coach of the English national women football team.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal has won the award for the maximum number of 3 times.

United European Football Association (UEFA)

UEFA is the governing body of football in Europe.

It has 55 member 

Headquarters: Nyon, Switzerland .

President : Aleksander Ceferin 

India and Brazil have agreed to revive the Joint Working Group engagements in the areas of education and skill development. 

This was agreed during the meeting between the Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the visiting Brazilian Minister of Education Victor Godoy held in New Delhi on 30 August 2022.

Dharmendra Pradhan said that research collaborations in priority areas like energy security, collaborations in traditional medicine, preventive healthcare, yoga, Ayurveda and digital technologies can immensely benefit both India and Brazil.

Both the ministers will be flying to Bali, Indonesia to participate in the G20 4th Education Working Group Meeting & Education Ministers’ Meeting from 31 August-1 September.