GK & Current Affairs Quiz: January 25, 2018

Notes:
India has been ranked 177th out of 180 countries in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The report was released on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The Index stated that deaths attributed to ultra-fine PM2.5 pollutants have risen over the past decade and are estimated at 1,640,113 annually in India. Switzerland has topped the index, followed by France, Denmark, Malta and Sweden in the EPI, which found that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. The 10th EPI report ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

Notes:
The National Voters’ Day (NVD) is observed every year by India on January 25 with an aim to increase the enrolment of voters, especially of the newly eligible ones. The day is also observed to mark the establishment of the Election Commission on this day in 1950, a day before India became a republic. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has celebrated the 8th National Voters’ Day 2018 with theme ‘Accessible Elections’ across the country, which will be used to spread awareness among voters regarding effective participation in the electoral process.

Notes:
The 2018 India-ASEAN commemorative summit has started in New Delhi on January 25 with theme “Shared Values, Common Destiny”. The focus of the Summit, which marks the 25 years of Indo-ASEAN ties, will be counter-terrorism, security, trade and connectivity. All 10 leaders of ASEAN countries will attend the Summit. The 2018 summit will mark the conclusion of a series of events held over the last one year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Dialogue Partnership. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Notes:
Ursula K. Le Guin (88), the award-winning science fiction and American author, has passed away in Portland, Oregon on January 22, 2018. She explored feminist themes and her best-known works are the 1969 science fiction novel “Left Hand of Darkness”, which explore themes of gender by featuring characters with no fixed sex, and the 1968 coming-of-age story “A Wizard of Earthsea”.

Notes:
The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has recently signed a MoU with National Housing Bank (NHB) for implementing the Rural Housing Interest Subsidy Scheme (RHISS) of the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). The purpose of the RHISS is to provide subsidy for housing loans taken by those living in rural areas for construction and modifications of their dwelling units. The interest subsidy under the scheme is 3% for a loan amount of Rs 2 lakh for 20-year tenure. With this MoU, IOB will be able to extend the benefit of RHISS to its rural home loan customers of its 923 rural branches spread across India.

Notes:
The 7th Asia Steel International Conference (ASIC-2018) will be held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha from February 6 to 9.The announcement was made by Tata Steel, in association with the Indian Institute of Metals. The conference is held every three years and provides a platform for exchange of knowledge on various aspects of the global steel industry. Around 70 keynote speakers, half of them from overseas countries such as China, Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Germany, Belgium, Canada, etc. will address the conference. The 2018 conference will address and focus on different challenges faced by the steel industry viz., optimising specific consumption of raw materials, especially coke and iron ore, how to use low-grade raw materials, along with decreasing the energy consumption in various iron-making and steel making operations. The last Asia Steel conference was held in 2015 at Yokohama, Japan.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has signed $120 million loan agreement with World Bank (WB) that will help increase access to improved water supply services in peri-urban areas in Uttarakhand. The Uttarakhand Water Supply Program for Peri-Urban Areas will develop and implement a service-oriented and efficient water supply policy for peri-urban areas, strengthen the current monitoring and evaluation systems, and provide dedicated incentives for preparation and adoption of water supply ‘master-plans’ in peri-urban areas. The program will focus on increasing coverage, quality and reliability of water supply services in all peri-urban areas of the state. The loan agreement has a grace period of 5-years and a maturity of 17 years.

Notes:
Rakesh Srivastava, Secretary of Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), has launched the Phase -1 i.e. the beneficiary module of the Rapid Reporting System for the Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) in New Delhi on January 24, 2018. It is a web based on line monitoring for the SAG. The RRS will facilitate the monitoring of the scheme and taking corrective measures by ensuring faster flow of information, accurate targeting of the beneficiaries and reduction of leakages. This Portal has been developed in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC). The URL for the portal is http://sag-rrs.nic.in. Presently, MoWCD is implementing the Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) in selected 508 districts across the country.

Notes:
The book ‘Staniya Svasasan Mei Addhi Aabadhi’ has been authored by Dr. Sadhana Pandey, which is released by the Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, in New Delhi on January 25, 2018. Naidu stated that the book is an empirical study that captures the voices of the rural women who are occupying positions of authority at the local level. It can help the policy makers to understand the perspectives of women representatives and address the key issues of education, health, nutrition, information sharing, economic independence and empowerment.

Notes:
The Jawai Bandh is a dam built across the Jawai river, a tributary of Luni river near Sumerpur town in Pali District of Rajasthan. The dam has capacity of 7887.5 million cubic feet and covers an area of 102,315 acres of cultivable command area. Its height is about 61.25 feet. Sei dam and Kalibor dam are the feeder dams of the Jawai dam.