GK & Current Affairs Quiz: November 21, 2018

Notes:
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi (India)-based independent research and advocacy think tank, has won the prestigious 2018 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. The CSE has been awarded for its pioneering pioneering work over almost four decades on various burning issues from air and water pollution, food safety, waste water management, climate change and so on. The award is conferred by Indira Gandhi Trust each year on the late Prime Minister’s birth anniversary. The international jury for the awards was headed by former President Pranab Mukerjee. The CSE was established in 1980 under leadership of the late Anil Agarwal and is presently headed by Sunita Narain.

Notes:
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has rolled out its Online Open Learning training platform ‘KOOL’. The platform can be used to train teachers, students and the general public. It is a six week course, which includes many features for learners in the form of animated learning assistants, video tutorials and check lists for practicing the activities. The other features includes creation of word documents, spreadsheet, presentation, image editing, video-audio editing, development of digital resources, Malayalam typing, internet, educational applications. KOOL has been designed in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model. It is compulsory for teachers to successfully complete 45 hours of computer course in order to clear their probation. Teachers who successfully complete the course would be awarded certificates.

Notes:
Jalaj Srivastava, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has been appointed the new chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). Prior to this post, he was working as Additional Secretary in Ministry of Agriculture. He is known for launching the “Shakti Cab” project and “URJA” project for women when he was with the Delhi government as chairman of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Principal Secretary in Department of VAT. He is also considered as the man behind the start of “Rahagiri” event that takes place every Sunday in the national capital to promote culture and sports. Jalaj is also the writer of a crime thriller novel titled ‘The Perfect Suicide’. The IWAI comes under the Union Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, currently headed by Nitin Gadkari.

Notes:
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has been honoured with the 2018 Sumitra Charat Ram Award for Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of Indian Classical Music at the Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi. He received the award for his “immense contribution to the enrichment and promotion of the Indian classical music”. Born in 1945 in Gwalior, Khan is best known for his clear and fast ‘ekhara taans’. He is sixth in the lineage of a family devoted to Indian classical music’s Senia Bangash Gharana. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan (2001), and is among the tallest Indian classical musicians.

Notes:
Dr. Thanjavur Santhanakrishna Kanaka (86), who was Asia’s first & world’s third female neurosurgeon, has passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on November 14, 2018. She served in the Indian Army as a commissioned officer during the 1962-1963 Sino-Indian War. Beside this, she was the first neurosurgeon in India to perform chronic electrode implants in the brain; having performed deep brain stimulation as early as in 1975. Dr. Kanaka, who retired as professor of Neurosurgery in Madras Medical College (MMC) in 1990, was known to have inspired many women to take to the field of neurosurgery in the country. She used her own funds to establish a hospital, named after her parents as Sri Santhanakrishna Padmavathi Health Care and Research Foundation, which offers free healthcare to the needy.