GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 10, 2018

Notes:
On May 10, India is hosting the 15th edition of the Asia Media Summit (AMS-2018) in New Delhi with theme “Telling our Stories- Asia and More”. New Delhi is hosting the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) Kuala Lumpur for the first time. The 3-day summit will encourage regional and bilateral dialogue and cooperation to respond to challenges to the broadcasting sector in the region. It will also provide a unique opportunity for broadcasters in the Asian region to share their thoughts on software and hardware aspects of broadcasting. Over 200 foreign delegates representing 39 countries and over a hundred Indian delegates would participate in the event. Dignitaries attending the Summit include Minister of Information from Bangladesh and Cambodia and Standing Commissioner Korea Communications Commission. The summit is hosted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, jointly with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and public sector firm Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL).

Notes:
The 6th US-India Aviation Summit was formally inaugurated by Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu in Mumbai on May 10, 2018. The biennial Summit is jointly organised by Ministry of Civil Aviation and US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). The summit is a technical, policy and commercial forum by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation and the US Trade and Development Agency. Besides a US and India bilateral meeting, the summit will also include sessions on India’s projected aviation growth in next five years, aviation security and technologies for worldwide airspace management among others.

Notes:
Former Delhi cricketer Rajinder Pal (80), who had represented the country in one Test match, has passed away in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on May 9, 2018. A right-arm medium pacer, Rajinder Pal played his only Test match against England (then known as MCC) during the 1963-64 series at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. He bowled 13 economical overs (0/19 in 11 overs & 0/3 in 2 overs) in that Test but returned wicket-less, which forced the selectors to replace him with a much quicker Ramakant Desai for the next Test match. Incidentally, along with Rajinder Pal, the other debutant was leg spin wizard Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who went onto have a distinguished international career. However, it was domestic cricket where Rajinder Pal was a force to reckon with, scalping 337 wickets from 98 first class games with 23 five wicket hauls.

Notes:
Nisha Bhalla, a holistic coach & consultant from Mumbai, has been conferred with the ‘Excellent Woman of Excellence’ award for her spiritual service at the Women Economic Forum (WEF) 2018 in Delhi. The WEF is the largest global gathering of women entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide. This annual event recognizes the most successful women across all fields, with guests like Nobel laureate Ouided Bouchamaoui. Nisha conducts holistic courses at her institute ‘Sai Institute of Kosmic Sciences’ in Mumbai. She has received numerous national level awards in this field over the years and has appeared on popular channels like Zee TV and Star Plus, exhibiting her craft in shows. She had also received the All Maharashtra Maheshwari Trophy from the hands of legendary actors Dilip Kumar and Rishi Kapoor at the age of 12, for her work in aid of the NAB (National Association for the Blind), in 1984.

Notes:
The 2018 World Robot Conference (WRC) will be held in Beijing, China from August 15-19 under the theme of creating new intelligent power and sharing the new opening-up era. It will offer a venue where academic thoughts can be exchanged at high levels and the latest achievements demonstrated. The event will see over 12,000 competing teams and 50,000 participants from more than 10 countries and regions. A robot competition will be held during the conference where participants will compete in five categories viz. robots, artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and control systems.

Notes:
The 15th Finance Commission has constituted an advisory council to advise and assist the commission. The 6-member council will be headed by the President of Forum for Strategic Initiatives, Arvind Virmani. The role and functions of the council will be to advise the commission on any issue or subject related to the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Commission. Besides, the council will also assist the commission in the preparation of any paper or research study which will enhance the Commission’s understanding on the issues containing in its ToR. The advisory council will help in broadening the commission’s ambit and understanding to seek best national and international practices on matters pertaining to fiscal devolution and improving the quality and reach and enforcement of its recommendations.

Notes:
On May 8, the Madhya Pradesh government has launched India’s first Integrated Control and Command Centre (ICCC) for its smart cities at the Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd. (BSCDCL) facility in the Berkheda area. The ICCC will enable Madhya Pradesh State Administration to monitor and administer multiple cities civic utilities and citizen services across seven smart cities include Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Indore, Ujjain, Satna, and Sagar. It will also enable statewide monitoring of these cities from central command view and result in significant cost savings as compared to deploying full-fledged data and discovery data along with the control centers in each center in every seven cities. ICCC is a cloud-based Universal Internet of Things (UIoT) platform developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). It can run multiple city command centre operations through its multi-efficiency capabilities.

Notes:
Mahathir bin Mohamad has become the new Prime Minister of Malaysia on May 10, after scoring a historic victory at the 14th general election 2018. With this, 92-year old Mahathir became the oldest living Prime Minister of Malaysia and the world’s oldest head of government. His coalition party ‘Pakatan Harapan’ defeated the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power for more than 60 years. The victory capped a dramatic political comeback for Mahathir, who previously ruled the country for 22 years (from 1981 to 2003), and came out of retirement to take on Prime Minister Najib Razak after the leader became embroiled in a massive corruption scandal.

Notes:
Dr Nirmal Hirawat (74), the former Madhya Pradesh minister and senior Congress leader, has passed away at Katangi town in Balaghat District on May 9, 2018. The Congress leader, who was well-known as a doctor among the local residents, was instrumental in getting the status of a tehsil for Katangi. He was a member of former Chief Minister Shyama Charan Shukla’s cabinet.

Notes:
The 25 MW Mithapur Solar Power Plant is located in Mithapur, Gujarat and is spread over an area of 100 acres. The panels are of polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic technology. It is expected to produce 40,734 MWh/year.