GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 04, 2018

Notes:
Indian-American Deepa Ambekar has been appointed as the interim judge to a US civil court of New York City. She has become the 2nd Indian-American woman judge in the city after Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari. In 2015, Rajeswari was sworn in as a criminal court judge and became the first India-born woman to be appointed a judge in the city. Judge Ambekar served with the New York City Council for 3 years as Senior Legislative Attorney and Counsel to the Committee on Public Safety. Prior to that, she was a Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society, Criminal Defense Division, and a litigation associate at a private firm.

Notes:
B. N. Vijay Kumar (60), the sitting BJP MLA from Jayanagar in Karnataka, has passed away in Bengaluru due to cardiac arrest while campaigning in his constituency on May 3, 2018. He was contesting the Assembly election for the third time. A two-time MLA from Jayanagar, Vijay Kumar was a bachelor and a civil engineering graduate. He was known for his simplicity and mild manners.

Notes:
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has announced additional grants of $3 million to two Indian non-profit organisations – Central Square Foundation and The Teacher App. The grants are a part of Google.org’s mission to help provide quality education access and learning for all. With a $1 million grant to The Teacher App in India, Google.org aims to provide teachers with training and resources on the concepts of math, science, language, and pedagogy. The funds are expected to scale the platform to reach 500,000 teachers in two years. With online video emerging as a popular medium of learning, Google.org will provide a $2 million grant and technical assistance from the YouTube Learning team to Central Square Foundation, a policy think tank focused on improving the quality of school education. The grant will support a minimum of 20 content creators to produce at least 200 hours of quality science, technology, engineering and Math content in Hindi and vernacular languages.

Notes:
The 4th edition of ‘Vibrant North East 2018’ has started in Guwahati, Assam on 3rd May 2018 in which people would be made aware of central government’s schemes and programmes. It is organised by Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) and is supported by the North Eastern Council, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and All India Farmers Alliance. The main purpose of the event is to disseminate information about the schemes, grants and projects of the Central government to ensure that they are implemented as envisaged officially.

Notes:
Indian pugilist Neeraj Goyat has been conferred with theWBC Asia Boxer of the Year Award. Neeraj is the current WBC Asia champion in welter weight category. Since turning pro in 2011, Neeraj has won nine fights including two knockouts.

Notes:
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah from Egypt has been named the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year for 2017/18. With this, Salah became the first African to be given the accolade after edging out Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne by less than 20 votes in a ballot of more than 400 FWA members. Beside this, Salah also became the first Egyptian player to won the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) player of the year award in April 2018.

Notes:
Radhakrishnan Nair, the former IRDAI member, has been appointed to ICICI Bank’s board as an Additional (Independent) Director. His appointment will be for a period of five years and is subject to shareholders’ approval. Nair has around 40 years of experience in the banking industry and in the field of securities and insurance regulation. He is already an independent director of three subsidiaries of ICICI Bank — ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd; ICICI Prudential Trust Ltd and ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank Limited (IBN) has appointed Dr. Tushaar Shah as a non-executive Director effective May 3, 2010

Notes:
Keyur Bhushan (90), the well-known Gandhian, freedom fighter and writer, has passed away in Raipur, Chhattisgarh on May 3, 2018. Bhushan, born at Janta in Bemetara district, took part in the 1942 Quit India movement as a student in Raipur, and was incarcerated. During the 1980s, when terrorism was raging in Punjab, he had undertaken a foot-march to promote peace. He penned novels, collections of short stories and poems. He also edited `Sapthahik Chhattisgarh’ and `Antyoday’. Bhushan represented Raipur constituency in the Lok Sabha in the 1990s.

Notes:
The 4th Regional Conference on ‘Futuristic, Resilient and Digital Infrastructure’ was held in Bengaluru on May 4, 2018. The 2-day Conference was organized by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), andResearch and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). The conference is a lead-up event to the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) which is going to be hosted by the Government of India on 25th and 26th June 2018 in Mumbai. The Conference saw eminent delegates representing partner institutions, academia, civil society organizations and experts from various fields expressing their views on how to bring about institutional approaches for futuristic and digital infrastructure in India.

Notes:
The Vindhyachal Thermal Power Station, which is one of the coal-fired power stations of NTPC, is located in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh. It is the largest power station in India with an installed capacity of 4760 MW. The coal for the power plant is sourced from Nigahi mines, and the water is sourced from the discharge canal of Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station.