GK & Current Affairs Quiz: October 24, 2018

Notes:
India’s first domestic cruise ‘Angriya’ has recently been flagged off from Mumbai to Goa on October 20 to boost the country’s lagging cruise service sector. The cruise has six decks and 104 cabins. It can ferry 399 passengers at a time. It has eight types of rooms – from dormitories to luxury rooms. The price range of the cruise will be from Rs 7,000 to Rs 12,000 for one-way. The ship will run four times a week, except during monsoons. It is named after India’s first naval commander Admiral Sarkhel Kanhoji Angre, who served in Shivaji’s armament, and who believed one should have a separate Navy to control the waters.

Notes:
India has been ranked as the 9th most valuable nation brand in the world, according to UK-based consultancy Brand Finance’s Nation Brands 2018 report. Despite, India lost one spot to rank, its brand value increased by 5% to $2,159 billion. The US topped the list with a brand value of $25,899 billion, an increase of 23% from the previous year. China ranked 2nd position with a brand value of $12,779 billion, followed by Germany ($5,147 billion), UK ($3,750 billion), Japan ($3,598 billion) and France with $3,224 billion of brand value. The Brand Finance measures the strength and value of the nation brands of 100 leading countries using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world’s largest companies. Its research covers nation brand strength, royalty rate, revenues, Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and brand valuation, among other things.

Notes:
On October 22, renowned jurist Fali S. Nariman has been honoured with the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration for year 2018 by the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu. The award was instituted by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in 1995 in the field of Public Administration, Academics and Management. Each year, the award honours an Indian who is an exceptionally outstanding and distinguished business leader, management practitioner, public administrator, educator or institution builder for his/her sustained individual contributions and achievements.

Notes:
The Sittwe Port is a deepwater port at the mouth of the Kaladan River in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar. The port was constructed by India in 2016. Recently, it in news because India and Myanmar inked a crucial MoU for the appointment of a private Port Operator for the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of Sittwe Port, Paletwa Inland Water Terminal and associated facilities included in the Kaladan Multi Model Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) in implementation of India’s Act East Policy. That pact will boost connectivity and help in creating local job opportunities as the two sides discussed bilateral issues as well as topics of common interest, including developments in the strife-torn Rakhine state. The Sittwe port will connect India’s landlocked north-east region to the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram. It will also provide an alternate route to Kolkata.

Notes:
On October 21, the UN-backed Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved $43.4 million for enhancing climate resilience for millions of people living in India’s coastal communities in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha as part of its efforts to combat extreme impacts of climate change. The grant is a part of more than $1 billion approved by GEC board in its 21st meeting in Bahrain’s capital Manama for 19 new projects to help developing countries tackle climate change. The new project will be supported through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is an essential step for India in reaching its goals outlined in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Notes:
The National Police Commemoration Day (NPCD) is observed every year on October 21 to remember the sacrifices of ten policemen who died in Chinese firing in 1959 in Ladakh’s Hot Spring area. Indian Police personnel were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National Police Memorial (NPM) in New Delhi to the nation in recognition of the sacrifices made by soldiers from the paramilitary forces and state police since India’s independence. The Prime Minister also announced an award in the name of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, to honour the police and paramilitary personnel, involved in disaster response operations. The award would be announced every year, recognizing the bravery and courage displayed in saving lives of people, in the wake of a disaster. Since independence, 34,844 police personnel have lost their lives while protecting the country. This year, 424 lost their lives.

Notes:
The Mumbai cricket team clinched the 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy after a gap of 11 years with a 4-wicket victory over Delhi at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. It’s their 3rd title. Mumbai last won the trophy way back in 2006-07 when they defeated Rajasthan.

Notes:
Japanese-born Marine biologist Osamu Shimomura (90), who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry, has passed away in Nagasaki, Japan on 19th October 2018. Shimomura and two American scientists shared the 2008 Nobel prize for the discovery and development of a jellyfish protein (or Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)) that later contributed to cancer studies. He was born in northern Kyoto in 1928 and studied in Nagasaki, where he survived the Aug. 9, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing at age 16. In 1960, he moved to Princeton University, where he isolated the protein in samples of thousands of jellyfish taken from the U.S. West Coast. The protein known as GFP lets off a glow when it is illuminated with ultraviolet light and has become a key tool in studying biological processes in cells.

Notes:
China has officially opened the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge, which connects the Chinese city of Zhuhai to the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. It includes an undersea tunnel allowing ships to pass through the Pearl River delta, the heart of China’s manufacturing sector. The 34-mile-long bridge forms a physical link between the mainland and Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub that was handed over from British to Chinese control in 1997 with the assurance it would maintain its own legal and economic system for 50 years. The bridge is part of China’s plan to create a Greater Bay Area, including Hong Kong, Macau and nine other cities in southern China. The area is currently home to 68 million people. In the past, travelling between Zhuhai and Hong Kong would take up to four hours – the new bridge cuts this down to 30 minutes. It costs about $20bn and build in almost a decade.

Notes:
In Cameroon, Paul Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1982, won the 7th presidential term with a landslide victory in a controversial presidential election on October 23, 2018. According to the Constitutional Council of the country, Biya had won 71.3% of the ballot in the October 7 presidential election, marred by allegations of widespread fraud, a low turnout and violence in the poll run-up. The President of Cameroon is elected by first-past-the-post voting; the candidate with the most votes is declared the winner with no requirement to achieve a majority. Biya is currently the longest-ruling non-royal leader in Africa and the oldest ruler in Sub-Saharan Africa after Robert Mugabe stepped down during the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d’état.