Important Days in year

· National Youth Day: 12th January

· International Custom Day: 26th January
· National Science Day: 28th February
· International Women’s day: 8th March
· World Health Day: 7th April
· World No Tobacco Day: 31st May
· World Environment Day: 5th June
· International Yoga Day: 21st June
· World Population Day: 11th July
· World Youth Skill Day: 15th July
· International Youth Day: 12th August
· National Sports Day: 29th August
· World Tourism Day: 27th September
· World AIDS Day: 1st December
· Human Rights Day: 10th December

Books and Authors

· Solo: Rana Dasgupta

Awarded Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2019
· The Overstory: Richard Powers
Winner of Pulitzer Prize 2019 for fiction
· Obama The Call of History: Peter Baker
· Ramachandra Guha: “Gandhi: The years that changed the world (1914-1948)”
· Sridevi: Girl Woman Superstar: Satyarth Nayak
· Listening, Learning and Leading: Venkaiah Naidu
· Whispers of Time: Dr. Krishna Saksena
· Cricketer VVS Laxman: 281 and Beyond
· Indian Fiscal Federalism: Dr. Y.V. Reddy and G.R. Reddy
· We are Displaced: Malala Yousafzai
· Pyjamas are forgiving: Twinkle Khanna
· The Rule Breakers: Preeti Shenoy
· Darkness to light: Former American professional basketball player, Lamar Odom
· Runs and Ruins: Sunil Gavaskar
 Cabinet Ministers List

Here is the full list of allocation of portfolios of the Union Council of Ministers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in-charge of:

· Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions,

· Department of Atomic Energy,
· Department of Space, all important policy issues, and all other portfolios not
allocated to any minister.

Full list of Cabinet Ministers:

· Raj Nath Singh - Minister of Defence.
· Amit Shah - Minister of Home Affairs.
· Nitin Jairam Gadkari - Minister of Road Transport and Highways; and Minister of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
· D.V. Sadananda Gowda - Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
· Nirmala Sitharaman - Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs.
· Ramvilas Paswan - Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
· Narendra Singh Tomar - Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Minister of
Rural Development; and Minister of Panchayati Raj.
· Ravi Shankar Prasad - Minister of Law and Justice; Minister of Communications; and
Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
· Harsimrat Kaur Badal - Minister of Food Processing Industries.
· Thaawar Chand Gehlot - Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.
· Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar - Minister of External Affairs.
· Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ - Minister of Human Resource Development.
· Arjun Munda - Minister of Tribal Affairs.
· Smriti Zubin Irani - Minister of Women and Child Development; and Minister of
Textiles.
· Dr. Harsh Vardhan - Minister of Health and Family Welfare; Minister of Science and
Technology; and Minister of Earth Sciences.
· Prakash Javadekar - Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and
Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
· Piyush Goyal - Minister of Railways; and Minister of Commerce and Industry.
· Dharmendra Pradhan - Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister of
Steel.
· Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi - Minister of Minority Affairs.
· Pralhad Joshi - Minister of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Coal; and Minister of
Mines.
· Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey - Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
· Arvind Ganpat Sawant - Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.
· Giriraj Singh - Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries.
· Gajendra Singh Shekhawat - Minister of Jal Shakti.

12th Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019

· Host: England
· Teams: 10 Teams
· Matches: 48 Matches Played
· Winner: England (1st Time Winner)
2nd: New Zealand
· Man of the tournament: Kane Williamson
· Most Runs made by: Rohit Sharma (648)
· Most Wickets taken by: Mitchell Starc (27)
· The final was played at Lord's in London, where England beat New Zealand on
boundary count (26-17) after both the match and the subsequent Super
Over finished as ties.

BWF Badminton World Championship 2019

· P.V Sindhu became the first Indian player to win the historic Badminton World
Championship (BWF) gold by crushing Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in a dominating
one-sided final. In the titan clash, she won the gold with 21-7, 21-7 that lasted only
38 minutes.
· Sindhu finishes with her fifth medal at the world championships. In an earlier edition
of BWF, she had won Bronze in 2013, again Bronze in 2014, Silver in 2017 and again
Silver in 2018. And now in 2019 - GOLD.

Economy of India
· The country is classified as a newly industrialized country, and one of the G-20 major
economies, with an average growth rate of approximately 7% over the last two
decades.
· Maharashtra is the wealthiest Indian state followed by UP and Tamilnadu.
· India's largest trading partners are China, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland,
Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia.
 · GDP is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a
country's borders in a specific time period.
· India's Nominal GDP ~2.972 trillion dollars. (2019)
· India's rank in world economies by size of GDP (nominal): 5th
India's rank in world economies by size of GDP (PPP): 3rd
· GDP Growth forecast for 2019-20: 7.0% by IMF, ADB and 7.5% by World Bank

There are 3 sectors in Indian Economy:

Contribution of different sectors in Indian GDP:

· Primary sector (Agriculture): around 16%
· Secondary sector (Industry): around 30 %
· Tertiary sector (Service): around 54%

Ease of doing business rank of India 2019: 77

Trade partners in decreasing order:

· India's main export partners: - Arab league, European Union, USA, ASEAN, China,
Hong Kong and Japan.
· India's main import partners: - Arab League, China, ASEAN, European Union, USA,
Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
Inflation in India is measured by Consumer Price Index.

There are 8 core industries in India-

· Electricity
· Steel
· Refinery products
· Crude oil
· Coal
· Cement
· Natural gas
· Fertilisers
The eight core industries of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel,
cement and electricity, which have a 40.27% weight in the Index of Industrial Production.

The output of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products recorded negative growth in
July 2019.

These eight-core sector industries had expanded by 7.3 per cent in July last year.
During April-July, the eight sectors grew by 3 per cent compared to 5.9 per cent in the same
period previous year.

11. India has one of the fastest growing service sectors in the world with an annual growth
rate above 9% since 2001.

Important World Organizations & Head Quarters

· World Bank: Washington DC, USA

· International Monetary Fund [IMF]: Washington DC, USA
· World Health Organization [WHO]: Geneva, Switzerland
· World Trade Organization [WTO]: Geneva, Switzerland
· International Labour Organization [ILO]: Geneva, Switzerland
· United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD): Geneva,
Switzerland
· New Development Bank (BRICS Development Bank): Shanghai, China
· Asian Development Bank: Manila, Philippines
· United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): New York, USA
· United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA): New York, USA
· United Nations Education Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO): Paris,
France
· International Atomic Agency: Vienna, Austria
· Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): Vienna, Austria
· Amnesty International: London, UK
· International Maritime Organisation: London, UK
· Commonwealth of Nations: London, UK
· South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): Kathmandu, Nepal
· Association of South East Nations (ASEAN): Jakarta, Indonesia
· Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO): Rome, Italy
· International Court of Justice: The Hague, the Netherland
· International Solar Alliance: Gurugram, India