GK & Current Affairs Quiz: October 14, 2018

Notes:
Annapurna Devi (91), the renowned Hindustani musician, passed away in Mumbai on October 13, 2018. Born in Maihar (Madhya Pradesh) in 1927, she was the daughter and disciple of Allauddin Khan (who was the founder of Maihar gharana). She was given the name ‘Annapurna’ by former Maharaja Brijnath Singh of the former Maihar Estate (M.P.), and it was by this name that she was popularly known. Annapurna was an Indian Surbahar (bass sitar) player of Hindustani classical music. She was married to sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, but he divorced her and went to USA in 1962. After her divorce, she never performed again in public. She had had notable disciples viz.: Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Nikhil Banerjee, Amit Bhattacharya, Pradeep Barot, Sudhir Phadke, Sandhya Apte and Saswatti Saha.

Notes:
India has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with the highest number of votes among all 18 countries in the five regional categories. It secured 188 votes in the Asia-Pacific category for a period of three years beginning January 1, 2019. It is followed by Fiji with 187 votes, Bangladesh 178, Bahrain and Philippines 165 each. This will be the fifth time that India will serve on the Geneva-based Council, the main body of the UN charged with promoting and monitoring human rights.

Notes:
On October 13, the Coffee Day Malnad Ultra Marathon 2018 has flagged off successfully from Lalbaug Estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. He event is split into three categories – 50km, 80km and 110km. Here, 811 runners from 13 countries and 22 states from across India gathered at the start line for the flag off of the ultra marathon. There were as many as 43 international runners from UK, Poland, France, USA, Maldives, Germany, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, Colombia, Japan, and Malaysia who participated in the run with USA having the highest representation of 7 endurance runners. The endurance run also had an incredible number of 143 female runners and also saw participation from people up to 75 years of age. The ultra marathon course will take the runners through the hilly and enchanting terrain of the Western Ghats while offering scenic views of the coffee plantations.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has signed pact with Microsoft India to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to address challenges various sectors such as agriculture and healthcare. As per the pact, Microsoft will support NITI Aayog by combining the cloud, AI, research and its vertical expertise for new initiatives and solutions across several core area. It will also accelerate the use of AI for the development and adoption of local language computing, in addition to building capacity for AI among the workforce through education. Under the agreement, Microsoft will provide Niti Aayog advanced AI-based solutions such as farm advisory services, healthcare screening models at primary health centers along with building capacity for AI through education.

Notes:
India’s first-ever India-Israel Innovation Centre (IIIC), an entrepreneurial technology hub, was launched at the 3rd edition of IoT India Congress in Bengaluru, Karnataka on October 10, 2018. The IIIC is a significant step towards facilitating penetration of Israeli companies in India and aims to forge local partnerships and joint ventures between companies from the two countries. It will provide an ecosystem to support entrepreneurship, partnership with vendors, mentoring and non-formal community development that will assist the growth of the companies in different verticals and covers business, technology, investors and customers. The start-ups that are part of IIIC will be given mentorship and guidance and opportunities to participate at all IIIC’s global events and experience networking avenues with potential customers. The IIIC was launched by Ramanan Ramanathan, the Mission Director of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).

Notes:
The biography of late Anumolu Ramakrishna titled ‘Building a Legacy’ is authored by city-based Chartered Accountant V Pattabhi Ram. It was recently released by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Ramakrishna, former President and MD at Larsen and Toubro (L&T), was posthumously awarded Padma Bhushan in 2014. He was instrumental in constructing several path breaking buildings including Tirumala queue complex, Hitech city, and Nehru Indoor Stadium. Ramakrishna was born in December 1939 and died on August 20, 2013 at Hyderabad.

Notes:
The IIT Kharagpur and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have signed an MoU to facilitate cooperation in research and education between the two institutes in New Delhi on October 11. NTNU is an expert in Hydro Power, Ocean Modelling, Deep Sea Resources and Marine Technology which will be key areas of focus under this MoU. IIT KGP has three departments and centers working in these areas — the Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, the Center for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Science and the Department of Civil Engineering with its core areas in Hydrodynamics, Coastal, Marine and Hydraulic Engineering and Wave Modelling .Both IIT KGP and NTNU have trans-disciplinary academic and research programs encompassing science and technology, medicine, social sciences to arts and fine arts and more areas of common interest will be explored in future.

Notes:
Sikkim has won the Gold at the 2018 FAO’s Future Policy Award (FPA) for its achievement in becoming the world’s first totally organic agriculture state. All of its farmland is certified organic. At the same time, Sikkim’s approach reaches beyond organic production and has proven truly transformational for the state and its citizens. Uniquely, the state has totally banned the sale and use of chemical pesticides. The transition has benefitted more than 66 000 farming families. The Sikkim tourism sector has benefitted greatly from the state’s transition to 100 percent organic: the number of tourists increased by over 50% between 2014 and 2017. Sikkim beat out 51 other nominees from around the world for the award. Brazil, Denmark, Quito and Ecuador shared the Silver award. Nicknamed the “Oscar for best policies”, the award is co-organised with the FAO by The World Future Council (WFC) and IFOAM — Organics International, and recognises “the world’s best laws and policies promoting agroecology”.

Notes:
The World Bank (WB) has recently released its first-ever Human Capital Index (HCI), which ranked 157 economies on parameters like child mortality, health and education. India is ranked at 115th position in the index with its score of 0.44 on a scale of 0 to 1 coming even below the average score for South Asia. Though, Government of India (GoI) has rejected the findings of the index. India’s neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were better placed at 106th, 102nd and 74th position, respectively. Singapore topped the poll after it was highly rated for its universal healthcare system, education exams results and life expectancy figures. It is followed by South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Finland.

Notes:
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has recently signed pact with the Uttarakhand government to provide access to capital to MSMEs, which will fuel growth of such entities in the state. The bourse will play an active role in nurturing the SMEs and start-ups by increasing awareness along with the government on the opportunities to raise capital, SME exchange guidelines, listing processes, compliances with listing agreement among others. As part of the pact, the exchange will support the efforts of the government in enhancing the financing opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state, through listing on NSE’s SME platform– Emerge. On its part, the government will facilitate MSMEs to get listed on the NSE Emerge, by supporting such entities financially or otherwise, in bearing the expenses related to listing.