Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
John Sankaramangalam (84), the Veteran filmmaker and former director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTTI), has passed away in Thiruvalla, Kerala on July 30, 2018. A multi-time recipient of national and state awards, Sankaramangalam was known for his experimental movies. Some of his directorial ventures are “Aval Alpam Vaikippoyi”, “Janmabhoomi” and “Samantharam”.

Notes:
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind presented the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award (OPA) for the years 2013-2017 in New Delhi on August 1, 2018. Dr Najma Heptullah, the Manipur’s governor and 5-times Rajya Sabha member, won the award for 2013. Meanwhile, BJP’s Lok Sabha member Hukum Dev Narayan was the recipient of OPA for 2014, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for 2015, Trinamool Congress’ Dinesh Trivedi for 2016 and Bhartruhari Mahtab of the Lok Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for 2017. The OPA is an award given by the Indian Parliamentary Group (IPG) to an outstanding sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for overall contribution in the Parliament. It was instituted in 1992 by Shivraj Patil, who was the Speaker of Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996.

Notes:
The Telangana government will setup a state of the art “B-Hub” for biotech and biopharma sector in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, aimed at providing much-needed support to the biopharma research and development activities, featuring a scale-up manufacturing facility along with a turnkey incubator, lab space module at GLP grade spreading over a built-up area of 40,000 sq.ft. This end-to-end biopharma scale-up manufacturing facility will give domestic companies the required impetus here on par with Korea, China and France who have taken lead in biopharma innovation. The estimated project cost of B-Hub is Rs 60 crore and the facility is to be set up through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Genome Valley, which is the India’s first organised cluster for life sciences R&D and clean manufacturing activities.

Notes:
Lewis Hamilton, a British racing driver who races in Formula One for Mercedes AMG Petronas, has won the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit. It is his sixth Hungarian Grand Prix title and also 67th career victory.

Notes:
Following the publication of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Manipur government has constituted two committees – state and district level – to deal with a possible influx of illegal immigrants. The State Level Monitoring Committee will monitor the entry or presence of illegal immigrants in the state and take steps for creating adequate public awareness to counter the situation. It will be headed by Special Secretary (Home) while the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police as its members. The district level committee will be headed by the concerned deputy commissioners while Superintendent of Police, SDOs, SDPO, SDCs, OCs will be the members. The committee with local bodies would likely to conduct headcounts if needed.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched a rural cleanliness and sanitation campaign “Swachhameva Jayate” to make every citizen in rural Karnataka take a pledge of cleanliness. The aim of the campaign is to boost the Swachh Survkekshan Grameen 2018 (SSG 2018) survey in all the districts with the help of school children. Since the inception of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the government of Karnataka has constructed a total of 22 lakh toilets in 29,736 villages. The state needs another 5 lakh toilets in its rural areas before October 2 to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. The 2018 SSG survey will rank all Indian districts and states on the basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation of sanitation status of the villages and will run from August 1 to 31. While the survey will target 698 districts, 6,980 villages, 34,900 public places randomly across the country, Swachha Meva Jayate will aim to take messages about the parameters of the survey to every rural household in Karnataka. The survey will measure and rank villages across India on the basis of availability and access to toilets, cleanliness of public spaces, and feedback and opinions of citizens.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the iconic Mughalsarai junction has been formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU), who was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the station in February 1968. The DDU station is more than 150 years old and one of the busiest railway stations in India. The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia. It was inaugurated by BJP national president Amit shah. Beside this, he also flagged off a passenger train with an all-women crew and a goods train at the DDU station. As per Railway officials, it will be the first time in India that an all-woman crew will run a train. Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. It is a part of the Chandauli Parliamentary seat which is presently held by UP BJP president Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Notes:
India has been elected as the President of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) for a period of 2 years. India got elected against Iran during voting which took place at the 44th annual gathering of AIBD in Colombo, Sri Lanka on August 4, 2018. Director General of All India Radio (AIR) F. Sheheryar was re-elected as chair of the executive board while Sri Lanka was elected as vice-chair. The broadcasters from 26 countries in the region including India are full members of the organization. AIBD, established in 1977 under the auspices of UNESCO, is a unique regional inter-governmental organisation and is mandated to achieve a vibrant and cohesive electronic media environment in the Asia-Pacific region through policy and resource development.

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:
In Madhya Pradesh, the elephants at the Kanha National Park (KNP) are on a week-long picnic. This picnic, which is arranged every year, includes massaging for the elephants and a delicious menu. The purpose of a picnic is to provide family time to Jumbo. The Kanha National Park management has been organizing such picnic for the service of more than a dozen elephants for the past 7-8 years. Picnic includes bathing of elephants, massaging as well as special health tests and treatments. Elephants are given their favourite food like mango, sugarcane, pineapple, banana, coconut and Jaggery. During this period, all the elephants of National Park are residing in one place as a bigger family. Picnic is also helpful in increasing the population of elephants.