GK & Current Affairs Quiz: April 06, 2018

Notes:
Teenager Deepak Lather from Haryana has become the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal by clinching a bronze in the men’s 69kg weightlifting category at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG-2018) in Gold Coast, Australia on April 6. He lifted a total of 295kg (136kg+159kg). The youngster, competing in his first Commonwealth Games, holds the distinction of being the youngest to hold the national record as well. He held the 62kg category national record at 15. Lather trained at the Army Sports Institute as a diver before being pushed into weightlifting by the coaches there. Earlier, 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. The Indian weightlifters have so far claimed four medals in the event.

Notes:
Julius Maada Bio has recently taken oath as the new President of Sierra Leone in the capital Freetown on April 4, 2017. Mr Bio is a former soldier who briefly ruled Sierra Leone in 1996. He defeated ruling party candidate Samura Kamara, an economist by training. President Ernest Bai Koroma has stepped down after serving two five-year terms. Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s known for the white-sand beaches lining the Freetown Peninsula.

Notes:
Indo-Korean joint anti-piracy, search and rescue exercise ‘Sahyog-Hyeoblyeog 2018’ was conducted off the Chennai coast, in Tamil Nadu on April 6. The Korean Coast Guard ship ‘BADARO’ took part in the exercise. Indian Coast Guard deployed a Dornier aircraft to carry out sea-air coordinated search along with ICG Shaurya, Rani Abbakka, C-423, C-431 in the exercise. Director General of Indian Coast Guard Rajendra Singh and Commissioner of Korean Coast Guard General Park Kyung reviewed the exercise. The mission of the joint exercise is to develop working level co-operation and enhance inter-operability in the fields of maritime search and rescue, anti-piracy operations.

Notes:
The Global Logistics Summit (GLS-2018) was held in New Delhi on April 5-6 to improve logistics and connectivity which are vital for increasing intra-state and international trade flows. It was organised by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the World Bank Group. The Summit acts as a platform to hold discussions for global experts, academics, government officials and private sector and industry representatives. According to the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, 56 new airports will be ready for operation in the next few years.

Notes:
The joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise ‘Chakravath 2018’ is organised by the Indian Navy in coordination with the Kerala government at Kochi Airport. The exercise is conducted by the Southern Naval Command from April 5 to 8. The highlight of the 4-day disaster management exercise is Skill Demo, which was conducted in the Mattancherry Channel off the BTP Jetty. The skill demo showcased the capabilities and prowess of the Armed Forces, as well as all state agencies, in tackling an emergency using all available resource.

Notes:
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has constituted the 10-member committee to frame rules to regulate the functioning of news portals and media websites, including platforms like YouTube. The committee will be headed by Narendra Kumar Sinha, the I&B Secretary. The committee has been mandated to frame and suggest a regulatory framework for online media, news portals, digital broadcasting and entertainment and infotainment (information and entertainment) sites and for media aggregators. Apart from I&B Secretary, the panel will have secretaries of Ministry of Electronics and IT and Home Ministry, and CEO of government’s citizen engagement platform MyGov. It will also have representatives of the Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association and Indian Broadcasters Federation, and the head of government outreach portal MyGov.

Notes:
Subrata Bhattacharjee, an IFS officer of 1989 batch, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Serbia. Currently, he is Joint Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.

Notes:
The National Maritime Day (NMD) is celebrated every year in India on 5th April since 1964 to commemorate the maiden voyage of the first Indian –owned ship “SS Loyalty” sailed from Bombay to London on 5th April 1919. This was a crucial step for Indian shipping history when sea routes were controlled by the British. The theme of the 55th edition of the NMD 2018 is ‘Indian Shipping – An Ocean of opportunity’. The United Nations’ World Maritime Day (WMD) is observed every year on September 29 to highlight the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment.

Notes:
Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister for Railways and Coal, has launched UTTAM App for Coal Quality Monitoring. UTTAM stands for – Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal (uttam.coalindia.in). The app is developed by the Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL). The purpose of the app is to provide an app for all citizens and coal consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across CIL subsidiaries. UTTAM App ensures accountability, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in coal ecosystem. It provides a platform for monitoring of sampling and coal dispatches. The App is designed with an aim to make the citizens a stakeholder in the coal ecosystem. UTTAM is an example of leveraging technology to facilitate a bidirectional channel between Coal India Limited and a common citizen. It ensures transparency and efficiency in the coal quality monitoring process and brings coal governance closer to people.

Notes:
Weightlifter Sanjita Chanu from Manipur has clinched the India’s second gold at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG-2018) in the women’s 53 kg weightlifting category in Gold Coast, Australia on April 6. She lifted a total of 192kg (84 kg in Snatch + 108 kg in Clean and Jerk).Beside her, Deepak Lather became the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal by clinching a bronze in the men’s 69 kg category. With this, India has won 2 Gold, a silver and a gold. India is placed at third place in the Medal’s tally now. Earlier, on April 5, P Gururaja bagged India’s first (silver) medal in the men’s 56 kg weightlifting category and Saikhom Mirabai Chanu clinched the first gold for India in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting category.