GK & Current Affairs Quiz: April 07, 2018

Notes:
The Centre, Maharashtra Government and the World Bank have signed a $420 million project to help small and marginals farmers in the Marathwada and Vidarbha region of the state. The project will help in increasing climate resilient practices in agriculture and ensuring that farming continues to remain a financially viable activity for them. The project will benefit over 70 lakh farmers cultivating 30 lakh hectares of land in 15 districts. The Maharashtra Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture will be implemented in rural areas largely dependent upon rain-fed agriculture. The project will take up a series of activities at the farm and watershed level and implement micro irrigation systems, expand surface water storage and facilitate aquifer recharge. This would help to a more efficient use of scarce water resources. By adopting climate-resilient seed varieties with short maturity and drought resistance, the project will help the farmers in reducing risks of climate-related crop failure and increase their income.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will carry out one of its biggest combat exercises named ‘Gaganshakti 2018’ from 8th April to check its operational preparedness with a focus on dealing with any possible security challenges from China and Pakistan. The two-week long exercise will involve almost the entire assets of the IAF including its fighter squadrons and the main objective of the day and night drill will be to check war waging capability of the force. The first phase of the exercise will focus on northern borders and second phase will be carried out to check preparedness in case of a war-like situation along the western borders. It will also focus on flexible use of airspace, joint maritime air operations with the Indian Navy, joint operations with the Indian Army, simulated combat search and rescue for effective extraction of downed aircrew behind enemy lines, mass casualty evacuation from highway among others.

Notes:
Munin Barua (72), the National award winning Assamese film-maker, has passed away in Guwahati, Assam on April 7, 2018. He is popularly known as Bhaimon da. Recipient of National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese in 2005 for his film ‘Dinabandhoo’, Barua’s popular films include ‘Pratima’, ‘Pita Putro’, ‘Pahari Kanya’, ‘Prabhati Pokhir Gaan’, ‘Hiya Diya Niya’, ‘Daag’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Kanyadaan’, ‘Bidhata’, ‘Barood’, ‘Rong’, ‘Raamdhenu’ and ‘Priyar Priyo’. He was also awarded the state award for best director for his film ‘Nayak’ for the year 2001-02 and had received the Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 from Prag Cine Awards for his immense contributions to Assamese film industry.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Government has launched the Ganga Hariteema Yojana (also known as Ganga Greenery scheme) on 7th April 2018 in 27 districts of the state located on the bank of river Ganga. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched the scheme at Allahabad in a function organised on the bank of Sangam the confluence of rivers of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati. The purpose of the scheme includes enhancing green cover in the catchment areas of the river Ganga and to control the land erosion. Plantation will be carried out in 1 Km areas from the banks of river under the scheme. General people will also be encouraged for plantation on their private lands under ‘One Person One Tree’ slogan. A high power committee under chairmanship of Chief Minister has been set up to monitor the implementation of the scheme. The scheme will be carried out by September 16 Ozone Day of this year. Department of Forest has been nominated as nodal department for the scheme.

Notes:
The World Health Day (WHD) is observed every year on 7 April to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organization (WHO) and to spread awareness about health and well being. As this year (2018) is WHO’s 70th Anniversary year too, the organization has appealed the world leaders to live up to the pledges they made and agreed to in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 and for taking concrete actions to progress towards Health For All. The 2018 theme “Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere” is an indication that nations around the world are aspiring to provide higher accessibility of healthcare to their citizens.

Notes:
Niranjan Thomas Alva (78), a Supreme Court lawyer and husband of Congress leader Margaret Alva, passed away in Bengaluru on April 7, 2018. Son of Joachim and Violet Alva, freedom fighters and the first couple in the Indian Parliament, Alva was also a former Director of the State Bank of India. He had played a key role in expanding the footprints of the All India Catholic University Federation as its president across the country in late 1950s. As a Supreme Court lawyer, one of the landmark litigations he led resulted in air hostesses in Air India getting the same rights and privileges as their male counterparts, including full retirement benefits and the right to bear children.

Notes:
Weightlifter Venkat Rahul Ragala claimed India’s fourth Gold medal in 85-kg category at 21st Commonwealth Games with a total lift of 338 Kg in Gold Coast on April 7, 2018. Earlier, Weightlifter Sathish Sivalingam won India’s third gold medal. Apart from this, Mirabai Chanu (48kg) and Sanjita Chanu (53kg) won gold medals in the women’s competition and P Gururaja claimed a silver in the men’s 56kg category. Teenager Deepak Lather became the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal by clinching a bronze in the men’s 69kg weightlifting category. India have so far won 4 Gold, One Silver and one bronze, and all the medals have come from the weightlifting arena.

Notes:
Santosh Kumar Mohanty has been appointed a whole-time member of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a period of three years. At present Executive Director in SEBI. Prior to this assignment, he was serving as Director in the erstwhile commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission. An officer from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Mohanty has earlier served in the Income Tax Department in various capacities in Kolkata, Nagpur and Mumbai.

Notes:
The Kamuthi Solar Power Project is a solar park spread over an area of 2,500 acres in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu. The project was commissioned by Adani Power. With a generating capacity of 648 MW at a single location, it is the world’s sixth largest (as of 2018) solar park.

Notes:
Actor Raj Kishore (85), Yesteryear Bollywood actor , passed away in Gurgaon on April 6, 2018. He played the role of one of the prisoners in Ramesh Sippy-directed “Sholay”. Some of Raj Kishore’s notable performances were in the films “Padosan”, “Deewar”, “Ram Aur Shyam”, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”, “Karishma Kudrat Kaa”, “Aasmaan”, “Bombay To Goa” and “Karan Arjun”.