Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
Prabhat Koli (19) from Maharashtra, who crossed the English Channel when he was 16, has become the first Asian to swim the choppy water from Jersey (an Island in the UK) to France in cold weather. The long-distance sea swimmer covered 25km in 6 hours and 54 minutes. He started off from La Coupe Point of Jersey, behind St Catherine’s backwater and touched the shore of St Germain Plage on the Normandy coast of France. As part of his seven seas challenge, Prabhat is now training to cross the North Channel in Ireland in first week of August.

Notes:
The Myanmar Government has appointed an independent 4- member commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses against the ethnic Rohingya minority. The Independent Commission will investigate the allegations of human rights violations and related issues, following the terrorist attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The commission will be comprised of two local members & two international members. It will be headed by Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo. The other members includes Japan’s former ambassador to the UN Kenzo Oshima, lawyer Mya Thein and economist and former UN official Aung Tun Thet. In August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s western Rakhine state to Bangladesh after a military crackdown started in response to attacks by ARSA on security posts.

Notes:
The first cow sanctuary in Rajasthan will be situated in Napasar, Bikaner to dedicate the entire area for cows, much on the lines of a wildlife sanctuary. It will provide shelter for 10,000 bovines spread over an area of more than 220 hectares in Bikaner district. The facilities in the sanctuary will include hospitals and Sewan grass as fodder for the animals. The state government has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private trust in this regard. The cow sanctuary will be the latest in a string of initiatives announced by the BJP government in the state for the protection of bovines since it came to power in 2013. The state already has a ministry dedicated to the welfare of cows and last year it had announced a 10% surcharge on stamp duty towards cow protection.

Notes:
The Meenakshi Amman temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Recently, it is in news because the famous Goddess Meenakshi temple has got its first non-Brahmin as ‘archaka’ (priest), 12 years after the Tamil Nadu government passed an order for appointment of people from any caste as priests. The new priest, belonging to a backward caste, was among the 206 people who had undergone training conducted by the ancient temple administration. The temple has appointed the priest with conditions which included that he could be suspended if he violated the ‘Agama’ rules, a manual for worship of the deity, rituals and construction of temples.

Notes:
Akshay Venkatesh, a renowned Indian-Australian mathematician, has won the 2018 Fields Medal for his profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics. Venkatesh is one of four winners of mathematics’ top honour known as the Nobel prize for math. The Fields medals are awarded every four years to the most promising mathematicians under the age of 40. Each winner receives a 15,000 Canadian-dollar cash prize. The other three winners are: Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin; Germany’s Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has launched a global mobility hackathon ” Move Hack” to crowdsource solutions for future of mobility in India. Focused on 10 themes and open to individuals from all nationalities, the hackathon will have an online leg, followed by a Singapore leg, and the finals in New Delhi. The purpose of MoveHack is to bring about innovative, dynamic and scalable solutions to problems pertaining to mobility. It has two-pronged campaign approach: (a) “Just Code It”: aimed at solutions through innovations in technology / product / software and data analysis, and (b) “Just Solve It”: innovative business ideas or sustainable solutions to transform mobility infrastructure through technology. The hackathon is organized in partnership with Government of Singapore and is powered by Hacker Earth. PwC is the Knowledge Partner and NASSCOM is the Strategic Partner.

Notes:
The Telangana government has signed pact with Tech Mahindra to establish the Blockchain district in Hyderabad, a first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence for Blockchain. The MoU was signed during the 3-day International congress at HICC in Hyderabad. Initially it would be a virtual cluster, connecting with the stakeholders working in the emerging technology. It would have a physical building at a later phase. Tech Mahindra, as a founding member of the Blockchain district, will provide platform and technology assistance to all the incubators in the district. Eleven01 Foundation will develop an India-specific protocol that will define the standards for usage of Blockchain. Besides, the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) will make part of its protocol development research to the virtual cluster of Blockchain district.

Notes:
In the 14th edition of Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018, defending champions the Netherlands recorded a stunning 6-0 victory over Ireland in the summit clash at London on August 5 to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 32 matches. It must be noted that the Netherlands have been crowned the world champions for a record 8th time. Kitty van Male, who was among the 6 different goal scorers, finished the tournament as the top scorer with 8 goals. Spain won the third place match by beating Australia 3-1 to claim their first ever World Cup medal. India finished the tournament at the 8th spot.

Notes:
On August 6, the world’s first-ever facility to create thermal batteries has been inaugurated in Andhra Pradesh by the state’s Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati. The thermal battery plant, which is manufactured by the Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST), is expected to start commercial operations by May 2019. The technology will help in mitigating carbon emissions and is best suited for grid balancing and stabilisations. It will also be used to store energy for telecommunication, commercial establishments, electric vehicles and highway charging stations. It can also be effectively used in remote locations, such as hilly terrains and islands. The BEST also aims to set up a Greenfield Project in India, at an estimated cost of Rs 660 crores, through which nearly 3000 jobs are expected to be created within three years’ time. It must be noted that the thermal battery technology was patented in India by Dr Patrick Glynn in 2016.

Notes:
As per Section 8 (1) (c) of the RBI Act 1934, Chartered Accountant Swaminathan Gurumurthy has been appointment as non-official director on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of 4 years. He is associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch and is also the editor of Tamil magazine Thuglak. Besides him, the government has also appointed businessman Satish Kashinath Marathe as another non-official director on the RBI board for 4 years.