GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 07, 2018

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected India to remain the fastest growing Asian nation with 7.3% growth in 2018-19, and 7.6% in 2019-20. ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada has stated that India should not worry about not achieving 8% growth but focus on increasing domestic demand by reducing the income inequality. He said growth is driven more by domestic consumption than exports. Mr Sawada further said inequality and poverty reduction would play a very important role in achieving higher growth because consumption can stimulate more production and that can create more employment. 

Notes:
The 2018 International Children’s Theatre Festival will be held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, West Bengal from June 17 to 21. Children of various theatre groups from eight countries besides host India will take part in fest. The participating countries are France, Slovenia, Swaziland, Mexico, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Children of theatre groups from Indian states such as Kerala, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha and West Bengal will also be participating in the 5-day festival. There will be no entry free and the festival will be open for everybody.

Notes:
Ramit Tandon from India has won the Abu Dhabi Open squash title on May 6, 2018. In an exciting one-hour final in Abu Dhabi, Ramit toppled number one seed Omar Abdel Meguid of Egypt with scores of 11-6, 6-11, 11-3, 11-2. It was their first meeting on Professional Squash Association (PSA) tour. This is Ramit’s third title on PSA tour. In world rankings, the Indian holds the 65th position, while the Egyptian is placed higher at the 41st spot.

Notes:
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which plays a pivotal role in infrastructure development in border areas, has celebrated its 58th Raising Day on May 7, 2018. Since its inception in 1960, the BRO has grown from 02 to 19 projects. The works executed have ensured the territorial integrity and the socio-economic upliftment of the most inaccessible regions of the country as well as India’s neighbourhood. Currently, the organisation maintains operations in 21 states, one UT (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), and neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. The BRO operates and maintains over 32,885 km of roads and about 12,200m of permanent bridges in the country. Presently, BRO is also involved in the construction of a tunnel at the Rohtang pass which is estimated to be ready by 2019. It is currently headed by Lt General SK Shrivastava who is the 25th Director General Border Roads (DGBR).

Notes:
The bi-annual Naval Commander’s Conference will be held in New Delhi from May 8, 2018. During the 4-day conference, the Navy will review its new mission-based deployment philosophy aimed at ensuring peace and stability in the region. The philosophy of the conference will be at sustained, peaceful and responsive presence of Indian Naval ships in critical areas and choke points. During the conference, measures to ensure safety, continued training and checks and balances on crew proficiency on-board its frontline warships will be reviewed.

Notes:
The first organised census of Indus Dolphins will be carried out by the Punjab government along with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) -India for the conservation of Indus dolphins, which are one of the world’s rarest mammals. This is India’s first organized Dolphin Census, which will be completed within a span of five years. The main purpose of this census is to find out the exact population of this species of dolphins. After this, their protection program will be run. The Indus dolphins are found only in India and Pakistan and are confined to only a 185 km stretch between Talwara and Harike Barrage in India’s Beas river in Punjab.

Notes:
The first apex conference for the CEOs of Smart Cities will be held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on 8th May 2018. It will be inaugurated by Minister of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri. The 2-day apex Conference is being organized with an objective to provide momentum to the cities and a platform for cross-learning, sharing and disseminating the experience gained over the past two and a half years. The conference will enable the CEOs to learn from the experiences of all city leaders to understand in greater details both successes and failures. The convergence of all the best practices in Smart city missions across the country on a single platform will help the city leaders to not waste time in ‘reinventing the wheel’ but use the collective learning to accelerate the progress of work.

Notes:
China has successfully launched a new communication satellite “APSTAR-6C” into orbit by the Long March 3B launch vehicle from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at Sichuan province of China. The satellite is based on the Dong Fang Hong 4 (DFH-4) platform and with a designed life of 15 years. It will provide TV transmission, communication, internet, and multimedia services to customers across the Asia-Pacific region. The user of the satellite is Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Co. Ltd. Both the satellite and the rocket were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).

Notes:
In Shooting, Olympian Gagan Narang and Pooja Ghatkar clinched a Silver medal in the 10-meter Air Rifle Mixed Team event in the Grand Prix of Liberation International competition at Pilsen in the Czech Republic on May 6, 2018. Beside this, Shri Nivetha Paramanantham and Amanpreet Singh claimed the Mixed Air Pistol Silver after topping the qualification with a score of 775. Earlier in the tournament, Nivetha had bagged a Gold medal in the Women’s Air Pistol, while Mihika Poore took home the top honours in the Women’s Air Rifle event.

Notes:
The Tiroda Thermal Power Station is a coal-based thermal power plant located at Tirora in Gondia district, Maharashtra. The power plant is operated by the Adani Power. It has a planned capacity of 3300 MW.