GK & Current Affairs Quiz: August 25-26, 2018

Notes:
On August 23, the International Water Colour Festival 2018 has started at Audrey House in Ranchi, which is organized by the Jharkhand Art Culture and Tourism Department in Audrey House. The aim of the 5-day fest is to bring local artists in touch with the international art and promote the rich art and culture of Jharkhand. During the water colour festival, the visiting artists will interact with school students and local artists on various themes including “nature” and “modern/abstract”. Approx 56 internationally renowned artists — from 24 countries and 25 Indian states are participating in the festival. The list of artists from different countries include names like Anna Massinissa (Fabriano), Zhou Tianya and Mong Sho (China), the Indian art diaspora in the festival will be represented by Milind Mulick, Sailesh Meshram, Nirupam Konwar, Ramesh Jhawar and Praween Karmaker, among others.

Notes:
Renowned aerospace scientist Dr G Satheesh Reddy, who is scientific adviser to the Defence minister, has been appointed new chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for a period of two years. He will also be secretary in the Department of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D) for the same period. The post of DRDO chief was lying vacant since May 2018 after the then Chief Dr. S. Christopher stepped down. Dr. Reddy is the first defence scientist working in India to receive the Silver Medal of Royal Aeronautical Society, UK, and has also been selected for the first IEI (India) and IEEE (USA) joint award for Engineering Excellence.

Notes:
On August 23, the annual festival at Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil has started in Jaffna, Sri Lanka with the sacred flag hoisting ceremony and is attracting thousands of Hindu pilgrims from within the country and abroad. During the 25-day festival, thousands of Tamil Hindu devotees will attend the rituals in worship of Lord Murugan, Valli and Devanai Amman. The colourful festival includes vibrant chariot processions, rhythmic drumming, dancing and acts of self-mortification. The Ther Thiruvila (chariot festival) is the most popular of all events is very colourful.

Notes:
The 2018 Krishi Kumbh International Conference and Exhibition will be held at Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (Telibagh) in Lucknow from October 26, which will be organized by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. The aim of the 3-day conference is to provide a platform to farmers, technical experts and entrepreneurs for exchange of knowledge and expertise in the field of agriculture sector. It also aims at increasing the agriculture production by adopting advance technologies. In it, farmers from all 75 districts National & International agriculture scientist, representatives from industries & policy maker from Central and State govt. will participate.

Notes:
The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to organize a youths’ conclave “ATAL – Arunachal Transformation & Aspirational Leadership” in Itanagar on 22nd September 2018. The aim of the 3-day ATAL conclave is to engage youths in the age group of 18 to 30 years of the state pro-actively in the areas of public policy and governance. For this, they have to register themselves at www.atalconclave.in. Participants shall brainstorm and present their ideas, proposals and solutions for government policies and existing challenges faced by the state before expert panels. Further, interactive sessions with key policy makers, bureaucrats, sectoral experts, thought leaders, grass-root change-makers are also planned to be hosted in the Conclave. The conclave will see participation of 1000 youths of the state.

Notes:
Indian shot putter Tejinder Pal Singh Toor from Punjab has clinched Gold in men’s Shot-Put event with a record-shattering throw at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games on August 25. He threw the iron ball to 20.75m to win the gold and set a national as well as Asian Games record. The previous mark of 20.57m was set by Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi of Saudi Arabia at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games in China. With this, Tajinder became the first Indian to win the men’s shot put gold at the Asian Games since Bahadur Singh Sagoo, who had thrown a best of 19.03m to win the gold in Busan in 2002. This is the 8th gold medal for India in men’s shot put in the history of the Asian Games.

Notes:
The world’s first blockchain bond “bond-i” has recently launched by World Bank (WB), which is to be created, allocated, transferred and managed through its life cycle using distributed ledger technology. The “bond-I” stands for Blockchain Operated New Debt Instrument and is also has reference to Sydney’s most famous beach ‘Bondi Beach’. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the sole arranger of the issuance for the bond. It was the first time that the World Bank bond raised capital from public investors through a legally valid bond issuance that uses blockchain from start to finish. This 2-year maturity bond has successfully raised 110 million Australian dollars (USD 80.48 million). The World Bank, whose bonds hold an AAA rating, regularly uses its borrowing power to help develop new bond markets as well as pioneering new means for selling and trading the securities. The bond-i blockchain platform was built and developed by the CBA Blockchain Centre of Excellence, housed in the Sydney Innovation Lab.

Notes:
On August 24, the National Electoral Transformation (NETA) mobile application has been launched by former President Pranab Mukherjee wherein voters can review and rate their elected representatives (MPs& MLAs) as well as hold them accountable. Apart from this, the application is being seen as an instrument to track voter sentiment across various constituencies in India. The purpose of app is to foster political accountability by being an indicator of the ways in which a leader’s performance is being perceived. To ensure participation, the app requires a combination of mediums like the app itself, IVR calls, SMS and even offline activation leveraging ASHA and anganwadi workers to collate data on evolving political inclinations. The app is the brainchild of an entrepreneur Pratham Mittal and is inspired by the US approval system.

Notes:
The multi-nation counter-terror exercise Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Peace Mission 2018 has started at Chebarkul, Russia on August 24 to provide an opportunity to the armed forces of SCO nations to train in counter terrorism operations in urban scenario in a multinational and joint environment. The scope of the exercise includes professional interaction, mutual understanding of drills & procedures, establishment of joint command and control structures and elimination of terrorist threat in urban counter terrorist scenario. It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise, though the armies of the two nations have worked together in UN peace keeping missions. All 8 SCO member nations – Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan – are participating in this exercise.

Notes:
Moody’s Investors Service has recently released its Global Macro Outlook for 2018-19. In it, the Indian economy is expected to grow by about 7.5% in 2018 and 2019 as it is largely resilient to external pressures like those from higher oil prices. However, the rating agency expects the India’s economy to grow at a higher rate of 7.7% in the first quarter of 2018. Apart from this, Moody’s put G-20 growth at 3.3% in 2018 and 3.1% in 2019. The advanced economies will grow 2.3% in 2018 and 2% in 2019.