GK & Current Affairs Quiz: September 01-02, 2018

Notes:
Justice Tahira Safdar has been sworn-in as the first woman Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Balochistan. She will remain in this post until 4 October 2019. With this, she became the first female chief justice of any court in the history of Pakistan. Earlier, Safdar created history in 1982 when she became the first female civil judge in Balochistan. Currently, Justice Tahira is a member of the 3-judge special court conducting the trial of former president Pervez Musharraf for committing treason by proclaiming a state of emergency on 3rd November 2007.

Notes:
The 4th International Ayurveda Congress (IAvC) 2018 has been inaugurated by Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik at Leiden, the Netherlands on September 1. The congress would focus on promotion and propagation of Ayurveda in the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries of Europe. The 2-day congress is jointly organized by International Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation (Netherlands), All India Ayurvedic Congress (New Delhi) and the International Academy of Ayurveda (Pune) in association with the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands. A special Seminar is also organized by the Indian Embassy titled “India-Netherlands collaboration in Healthcare, including Ayurveda”.

Notes:
Pranab Bardhan (60) and Shibnath Sarkar (56) have created history by clinching India’s first-ever gold in bridge at the Asian Games. They finished at the top after scoring 384 points in the final of the men’s bridge pair event at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. The Chinese pair of Lixin Yang and Gang Chen won the silver with a score of 378 and the Indonesian combination of Henky Lasut and Freddy Eddy Manoppo bagged the bronze scoring 374 here. The card game has been featured as a sport at the Asian Games for the first time, in the 2018 edition.

Notes:
Sunil Mehta, the MD &chief executive of Punjab National Bank (PNB), has been elected as the new chairman of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) for 2018-19. Apart from him, Dinabandhu Mohapatra, MD & CEO of Bank of India (BoI), has been elected as IBA’s Deputy Chairman. The IBA is a representative body of management of banking in India and has its headquarters in Mumbai.

Notes:
Binoy Kumar, the 1983 batch IAS officer of the Telengana cadre, has assumed charged as the new Secretary of the Ministry of Steel on September 1, 2018. He had been posted as Officer on Special Duty in the Steel Ministry since May 21, 2018. He succeeded Aruna Sharma, who recently superannuated. Prior to this, Binoy Kumar held the post of Special Secretary, Logistics, in the Department of Commerce, where he continued to hold additional charge till 31st July 2018. He also held the post of Director General (Supplies & Disposals), where he developed the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) as a one-stop online public procurement platform, in line with the digital initiatives of the Government of India (GoI).

Notes:
Two Indians, Dr. Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2018 on August 31. The award, which is regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize, was established in 1957. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, in its citation, stated that Wangchuk was recognised for his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth. Vatwani was recognised for his tremendous courage and healing compassion in embracing India’s mentally-afflicted destitute. Beside them, Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Howard Dee from the Philippines and Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam are the other winners of the 2018 award.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated a 400-bed Nepal-Bharat Maitri Pashupati Dharamshala in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a rest house for pilgrims, which is located on the banks of the Bagmati River. The Dharmashala is build with the Indian assistance and has provision for family rooms, kitchen, dining hall, library and some multipurpose halls to meet the requirements of the travellers and families on pilgrimage to Pashupatinath Temple.

Notes:
Renowned Digambar Jain Muni Tarun Sagar ji (51), who was popularly known for his sermons titled ‘Kadve Pravachan’, has passed away in New Delhi on September 1, 2018. He was born as Pawan Kumar Jain on 1967 in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh, and accepted celibacy and decided to lead a life of a monk in the year 1981. Unlike most other Digambar jain monks, his audience often includes a majority of non-Jains. His discourses often address family or society issues, topics generally avoided by other Jain monks. All his life, he spread the message of peace and non-violence in the society.

Notes:
On September 1, Indian boxer Amit Panghal from Haryana won a historic gold after beating Rio Olympics gold medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov in the final of Men’s Light Flyweight 49kg category at the Jakarta Asian Games 2018. It is India’s only boxing gold at the 18th Asiad. With this, Panghal became the 8th Indian boxer to claim the gold medal at the Asian Games. Beside him, Vikas Krishan Yadav (75kg) settled for the bronze in the ongoing event. In the 2014 Asian Games, M.C. Mary Kom was the lone gold medallist for India. While, Vijender Singh and Vikas Krishan were the last set of male gold medallists for India at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Notes:
Well-known neurosurgeon Dr. Basant Kumar Mishra from Odisha has been named for prestigious Dr B.C. Roy National Award for year 2018 as Eminent Medical Person of the Year. It is the highest medical honour of India, which will be given away by President Ram Nath Kovind on July 1, 2019. It was instituted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 1962. Presently, Mishra is leading the Department of Neurosurgery & Gamma Knife Radio surgery at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai. He is also the secretary of International Neurosurgeon Council. During his career, Misra has several firsts to his credit, including image guided aneurysm microsurgery, first doctor in South Asia to perform gamma knife radiosurgery and first in the country to perform awake craniotomy for brain tumours.