GK & Current Affairs Quiz: December 27, 2018

Notes:
Late music composer Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar has been bestowed with the Mohammed Rafi Lifetime Achievement Award, which consists of Rs. 1 lakh and a trophy. Kudalkar formed a successful and long partnership with Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma and as music composers they belted out hit tracks like ‘Bindiya Chamkegi’, ‘Main Shayar Toh Nahin’ and ‘Hansta Hua Noorani Chehra’ among others. The award was instituted by an NGO headed by Mumbai BJP Chief Ashish Shelar. While playback singer Usha Timothy was honoured with the Mohammed Rafi award and Rs. 51,000 at a programme held in suburban Bandra She has sung 1,000 songs in multiple Indian languages such as Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bhojpuri and Marathi, among others.

Notes:
Mount Etna, the active volcano in quake-stricken Italian island of Sicily, has recently erupted on 24th December 2018. A chain of around 130 earthquakes have rocked the volcano with the strongest posting a magnitude of 4.0. The quake was the strongest in the region after Mount Etna erupted, spewing ash and forcing the temporary closure of Sicilian airspace. Despite the closure of a part of the highway running along the coast, the airport at the eastern city of Catania, the capital of the province, was open. Mount Etna, which is Europe’s highest and most active volcano, is 3,300m high with frequent eruptions recorded in the past 2,700 years. Its most recent eruptions occurred in the spring of 2017 and its last major eruption in the 2008/2009 winter.

Notes:
Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will resume commercial whaling in July 2019. As per officials, leaving the IWC means Japanese whalers will be able to resume hunting in Japanese coastal waters of minke and other whales currently protected by the IWC. However, Japan will not be able to continue the so-called scientific research hunts in the Antarctic that it has been exceptionally allowed as an IWC member under the Antarctic Treaty. The withdrawal also means Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC’s ban on commercial whale hunting. Tokyo argues that whaling is an important part of Japan’s traditions, and the withdrawal would allow fishermen to pass country’s rich whaling culture onto the next generation. The IWC, established in 1946 to conserve and manage the world’s whale and cetacean population, introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government has launched Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Schools in Mumbai on the occasion of 94th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister. The school is affiliated to the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) with an aim to achieve higher education standards in rural areas.

Notes:
The Haryana government has recently decided to renamed Child Care Institutes as Jagannath Ashrams. This was announced by the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar while addressing the people during a dance competition organised by women wing of All India Vaish Federation (AIVF) in Karnal on December 25, 2018.