GK & Current Affairs Quiz: February 09, 2018

Notes:
Justice Antony Dominic has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of Kerala on February 9, 2018. Kerala Governor P. Sadasivam administered the Oath of Office in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanthapuram. Chief Secretary Paul Antony read out the Presidential order appointing Justice Dominic as the Chief Justice of the state. Senior High Court judges, judicial officers, cabinet ministers, political leaders and other officials filled the audience.

Notes:
Haryana has topped the overall medal tally at the first-ever Khelo India School Games (KISG-2018) in New Delhi after winning the 102 medals which include 38 gold and 26 silver. Maharashtra has acquired the 2nd position with 111 medals while Delhi with 94 medals came third. The Khelo India School Games was a part of the Khelo India programme which has been introduced by the Union Sports Ministry to revive the sports culture in the country at the grassroots level and make India a sporting nation. The 16 sports disciplines including Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Football, Hockey, Judo, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Shooting, Weightlifting and Wrestling were the part of the weeklong event. It was organized at multiple venues across Delhi including Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

Notes:
Kerala has topped the list of larger states on overall health performance in the Health Index report released by Niti Aayog while Uttar Pradesh appeared at the bottom among larger states in terms of overall performance. As per the index “Healthy States, Progressive India’ report for large states, Kerala was followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Besides Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Odisha are among the states that performed poorly in the health index. Among small states, Mizoram ranked first, followed by Manipur and Goa in terms of annual incremental performance. The Health Index will act as a tool to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism, accelerating the pace of achieving health outcomes. It has been evolved through comprehensive study and inputs from World Bank India and Ministry of Health.

Notes:
Indra Nooyi, the PepsiCo Chairman and CEO, has been appointed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board as its first independent female director. She will join the Board in June 2018 to align with the term of the ICC Independent Chairman. The Independent Director will be appointed for a two-year term although she may be re-appointed for two further terms with a maximum six-year consecutive period of service.

Notes:
The 2nd edition of Thespis 2 – National Micro Drama Festival (NMDF-2018) will be held at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi on February 11, 2018. With a total of 30 dramas, each not longer than 10 minutes, will pay tribute to theatre artistes and activists including Tom Alter, Vallabh Vyas, Mangalam Swaminath and Radhakrishnan Wayanad. The participants will also be awarded under 10 different categories including best production, best direction, and best script. The fest is to be organised by Delhi-based theatre group ‘Vriksh the Theatre’, which will be based on different themes and titles around the current situations witnessed by our society. The festival is named after ‘Thespis of Icaria’, who lived in the 6th Century BC and was the first Actor ever appeared on stage to perform alone. The plays will take place in different languages which include regional languages like Punjabi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam etc.

Notes:
B.G. Banakar (91), the former speaker of Karnataka legislative assembly, has passed away in Haveri district, Karnataka on February 7, 2018. He was elected thrice to the Legislative Assembly and was Minister for Animal Husbandry in the Devaraj Urs Cabinet. He served as Speaker of the Assembly for four years from 1985 to 1989.

Notes:
Writer T.D. Ramakrishnan has been chosen for the 2nd edition of Akbar Kakkattil Award 2018 for his novel “Sugandhi Enna Andaldevanayaki”. According to a press release by the secretary of the Akbar Kakkattil Trust, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will present the award comprising a purse of Rs 50,000, a citation and a memento to Mr. Ramakrishnan at a function to be held in Kozhikode on February 17, 2018.

Notes:
India has been ranked 44th out of 50 countries in the 6th edition of Intellectual Property Index (IPI-2018), which is released by U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC). As per report, India’s ranking reflects a relatively strong performance in the new indicators as well as positive reform efforts on patentability of computer-implemented inventions (CIIs) and registration procedures for well-known marks. The United States has topped the list, followed by the U.K and Sweden.

Notes:
The Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) is an Indian institute of national importance, headquartered at the CSIR Campus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The institute is established for the purpose of granting doctoral and post-doctoral degrees. It is a meta-university with study centres in 37 laboratories and 6 units of CSIR, spread across 23 cities of India.

Notes:
Justice Abhilasha Kumari has been sworn-in as new Chief Justice of the High Court of Manipur on February 9, 2018. Governor Dr. Najma Heptulla administered her the oath of office at Raj Bhavan in Imphal. Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh, former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, Ministers, MLAs and Judges attended the swearing-in ceremony. Earlier, Justice Abhilasha was a judge of the Gujarat High Court.