Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
The first-ever bilateral air exercise “EX SHINYUU Maitri-2018 “ has started between Japanese Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) and Indian Air Force at A F Station Agra in Uttar Pradesh from 03-07 Dec 18. The IAF is participating with An-32 and C-17 aircraft with aircrew & observers. The theme of the exercise is joint Mobility/Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR) on Transport aircraft. The focus of the exercise is set for the IAF and JASDF crews to undertake Joint Mobility/ HADR operations. Display of heavy loading/ off loading are also planned to be practiced during this exercise.

Notes:
Ullas Narayan has created history by winning India’s first ever International medal in Ultra Running. He finished third at the 2018 International Association of Ultra Running (IAU) 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championship in Taipei. A group bronze medal was also won by the Indian team which had Narayan (250 km), Sunil Sharma (202 km) and LL Meena (192 km). Ultra races involve running over extremely long distances which are far longer than the traditional races. These races take place over two modalities – either over a set distance like 50 km, 100 km and longer events or a set time (like 6 hr, 24 hr, and multi-day events).

Notes:
On December 4, ISRO’s heaviest and most advanced high throughput communication satellite ‘GSAT-11’ was successfully launched by an European Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA246) rocket from Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana. Initially, the satellite is placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and will be raised to the Geostationary Orbit (36,000 km above the equator) through phase-wise orbit-raising manoeuvres in the days ahead, using its on-board propulsion systems. GSAT-11 will be positioned at 74-degree east longitude in the geostationary orbit.The mission of the 5,854-kg giant ‘bird’ is to provide high data rate connectivity to users of Indian mainland and islands through 32 user beams in Ku-band and 8 hub beams in Ka-band. It will boost the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible Gram Panchayats under BharatNet Project which is part of the Digital India initiative. The satellite is capable of providing high bandwidth connectivity with speeds of up to 16 gigabytes per second. GSAT-11’ s co-passenger is South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2A, a meteorology satellite.

Notes:
The book titled ‘Blue Waters Ahoy!’ has been authored by Vice Admiral Anup Singh, who retired as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command in 2011. The book, which chronicles the Indian Navy’s History from 2001-10, has recently released by Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of the Naval Staff. This is, in fact, the 6th volume of the Navy’s history; the first five having covered the period from 1945 to 2000. This unique undertaking by the Indian Navy can be traced back to 1968, when the Service established a History Cell. The idea was collation and subsequent analysis of historical data relevant to the evolution of the Navy. Generally, each such volume has covered the period of a decade, and it has been a tradition to release it on the occasion of Navy Day (4th December).

Notes:
Noted agriculturalist Nel Jayaraman (54), who pioneered the protection and propagation of indigenous paddy varieties in Tamil Nadu, passed away in Chennai on December 6, 2018. Hailing from Thiruthuraipoondi, in the heart of Tamil Nadu’s delta rice bowl, Jayaraman has been credited with documenting and protecting more than 170 paddy varieties.His diligent work in the field of protecting the gene prototypes of indigenous paddy varieties won him the National Award in 2015 and a state award in 2011.

Notes:
The Indian Coast Guard has conducted the Regional Level Marine Oil Pollution Response Exercise titled ‘Clean Sea – 2018’ at sea off Port Blair on December 6. Coast Guard ships Viswasth, Vijith, Rajveer, Rajshri, 4 interceptor boats and its air assets Dornier and Chetak helicopters participated in the exercise.The preparedness of all agencies during the exercise was conducted under observation of Inspector General Maneesh V Pathak, Commander Coast Guard Region (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and was overseen by Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Administration Shri Chetan B Sanghi, who embarked onboard Coast Guard Ship Vijith.

Notes:
The World Soil Day (WSD) is observed every year on December 5 to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocating for the sustainable management of soil resources. The 2018 theme is ‘Be the Solution to Soil Pollution’. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Soil holds 3 times as much carbon as the atmosphere and can help meet the challenges of a changing climate. It further stated that 815 million people are food insecure and 2 billion people are nutritionally insecure, but it can be mitigated through soil. 95% of food comes from soil and 33% of the global soils are already degraded. In wake of this cause, the Government of India (GoI) has launched nationwide Soil Health Card Scheme (SHCS) to take care of Soil Health for the first time in a uniform manner to evaluate the soil fertility across the country. Soil health card provides information to the farmers on fertility status of their soil and enables them to apply soil health card based recommended dosages of fertilizers including micro-nutrients, bio-fertilizers, manures as well as soil ameliorants. It is helpful in checking the declining fertility of agriculture land and improve the fertility of soils to increase productivity besides enhancing farmers income.

Notes:
Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been appointed the new Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) for a period of three years. The post of CEA had been lying vacant since Arvind Subramanaian left the finance ministry after a four-year stint. Dr Krishnamurthy is currently working as an Associate Professor and the executive director at the Indian School of Business (IBS), Hyderabad. The CEA is the ex-officio cadre controlling authority of the Indian Economic Service (IES) & is under the direct charge of the Minister of Finance.

Notes:
India is expected to retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances with $80 million in 2018, as per latest World Bank’s report ‘Migration and Development Brief’. India is followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each) and Egypt ($26 billion). The bank estimates that officially recorded remittances to developing countries will increase by 10.8% to reach US$528 billion in 2018, , against a 7.8% growth in 2017. The Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, are projected to grow by 10.3% to $689 billion. For 2019, it is projected that remittances growth for the region will slow to 4.3% due to a moderation of growth in advanced economies, lower migration to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the benefits from the oil price spurt dissipating.

Notes:
On December 10, the Tamil Nadu government launched a 24-hour helpline ‘181’ for women facing domestic violence and sexual harassment at home or workplaces. Through this initiative, they can contact the toll-free helpline to get assistance ranging from police help, legal aid or medical services including ambulance. The service will be available round-the-clock on all days of the week. • Apart from offering authorities aid to victims of domestic violence, the helpline would assist ladies in receiving information on welfare schemes aimed at their advantage. The helpline initiative has been made at a expense of Rs 62.70 lakh.