Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
Arunima Sinha, the Indian mountaineer who became the world’s first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest in 2013, has been recently awarded an honorary doctorate by a prestigious UK university ‘ University of Strathclyde’ at a graduation ceremony in Glasgow for her inspirational achievements in mountaineering. The award also recognises Ms Sinha’s charitable work through the Arunima Foundation, which seeks to empower women, disabled people and generally improve the health and social and economic situation for poorer communities.

Notes:
The Delhi government is celebrating the “Jashn-e-Virasat-e-Urdu”, a festival to promote & preserve the Urdu culture and its heritage, at Central Park, Connaught Place. The aim of the 6-day festival is to keep the language alive and ensure its growth through larger participation. The festival will witness a diverse range of artistes and artforms practising Urdu including traditional forms like Chaar Bait – a rare traditional style of singing in Urdu, Dastangoi and Kissagoi. Delhi’s culturally-rich heritage from the walled city will also be showcased at the festival with various arts and crafts including composite calligraphy styles. The Urdu festival will come to a close on November 15.

Notes:
Swati Chaturvedi, an Indian freelance journalist, has won the 2018 London Press Freedom Award for Courage for her work in exposing the “IT cell” within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for keeping an army of angry trolls. She beat shortlisted journalists from Italy, Turkey, and Morocco to wom the award. Swati, who is famous for her investigative reports, is the author of the book title “I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army”. The award was presented at the Getty Images Gallery in London’s Fitzrovia on November 8. The Prize for Courage is given to journalists who show courage in their work or in the defence and promotion of journalism.

Notes:
The National Legal Services Day (NLSD) is celebrated every year on 9th of November in India to ensure reasonable fair and justice procedure for all citizens. It was first started by Supreme court of India (SCI) in the year 1995 to provide help and support to poor and weaker sections of the society. The Article 39A of Constitution provides free legal assistance to the poor and weaker sections of the society. It directs the State to ensure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. The Right to free legal aid or free legal service is an essential fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. It forms the basis of reasonable, fair and just liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which says, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”.

Notes:
Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, launched the Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) and Annual Refresher Programme In Teaching (ARPIT) for higher education faculty in New Delhi on November 13. ARPIT is a unique initiative of online professional development of 15 lakh higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM. For implementing ARPIT, 75 discipline-specific institutions have been identified and notified as National Resource Centres (NRCs) in the first phase. LEAP is a 3 weeks flagship leadership development training programme for second level academic functionaries in public-funded higher education institutions. The main purpose of LEAP is to prepare the second tier academic heads who are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future.

Notes:
The first-ever bilateral naval exercise ‘Samudra Shakti 2018’ has started between Indian & Indonesian Navy at the port of Surabaya in Indonesia from November 12 to 18. The aim of the exercise is to strengthen bilateral relations, expand maritime co-operation, enhance interoperability and exchange best practices. From Indian side, INS Rana of the Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command is participating in the exercise.

Notes:
Twitter India has recently launched a new social initiative #PowerOf18, which aims to encourage youth to contribute in public debates and participate in civic engagement for the 2019 general elections. The #PowerOf18 will serve as a resource for young Indians to find more information about the elections, support social causes they are passionate about and join the public conversation. The initiative was launched by CEO Jack Dorsey and Maya Hari, Vice-President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Twitter during a townhall chat with the students of IIT Delhi.

Notes:
Stan Lee (95), the legendary comic book writer and former chief of Marvel Comics, has passed away in Los Angeles, United States. Lee created the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics in 1961 and went on to create titles like Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk. In collaboration with several artists—particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko—he co-created fictional characters including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther, the X-Men, and—with his brother, co-writer Larry Lieber—the characters Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor.

Notes:
On November 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in his parliamentary constituency in Varanasi and received the country’s first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata. This is the first of the four multi-modal terminals being constructed on the National Waterway-1 (River Ganga) as part of the World Bank-aided ‘Jal Marg Vikas Project’ of the Inland Waterways Authority of India. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,369.18 crore, which will be equally shared between the Government of India and the World Bank. The aim of the Centre’s Jal Marg Vikas Project is to develope the stretch of the river between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1,500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes. Its objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheap and an environment-friendly means of transportation, especially for cargo movement. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project implementing agency.

Notes:
The 9th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 is scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar from 18th to 20th January with theme `Shaping of a New India’. The `Youth Connect Forums’. The summit will provide a forum for discussion on global, national and state-level agendas with a sharp focus on all round economic development for a ‘New India’. United Arab Emirates (UAE) will participate in the summit as a partner country for the second consecutive year.