Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
Gita Gopinath, professor at Harvard University, has been appointed chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The India-born economist will succeed Maurice (Maury) Obstfeld, who is to retire at the end of 2018.With this, Gopinath will become the 2nd Indian after former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to be appointed to the position. According to the IMF statement, Gopinath who is a US citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India, is co-editor of the American Economic Review and co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). She is co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics with former IMF Economic Counsellor Kenneth Rogoff. Currently, Gopinath is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is the third woman in the history of Harvard to be a tenured professor at its esteemed economics department and the first Indian since the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to hold that position.

Notes:
The nationwide Action Research Project of Gram Panchayat development scheme has been inaugurated by the Minister of Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar at a function organized at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on October 1. The project is designed for the sustainable and holistic development of rural areas of the country. According to official information, the Project is currently being implemented in 467 Gram Panchayats covered in 98 clusters of 19 States of the country. Through this project, special efforts will be made to raise the standard of living of the poorest people of the society and to enhance human development. The main purpose of this project is to ensure the overall development by capacity building, administrative reform and public participation.

Notes:
The International Day of Older Persons is observed on 1st October every year to reaffirm the commitment to promoting the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons. The 2018 theme is, ‘Celebrating Older Human Rights champions’. The purpose of the day is to recognise the contributions of older persons and to examine issues that affect their lives. According to the United Nations, almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60, and by 2050, 2 billion people, over 20% of the world’s population, will be 60 or older. The increase in the number of older people will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, with Asia as the region with the largest number of older persons, and Africa facing the largest proportionate growth. With this in mind, enhanced attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by older people is clearly required.

Notes:
On the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign – Udyam Abhilasha, in 115 aspirational districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States. The purpose of the campaign is to inspire rural youth in aspirational districts to be entrepreneurs by assisting them to set up their own enterprise. The 6-day campaign would run parallel from 3rd October across India. It would create and strengthen cadre of more than 800 trainers to provide entrepreneurship training to the aspiring youths, encouraging them to enter the admired segment of entrepreneurs. The SIDBI has partnered with Common service centres, e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and IT for implementing the campaign. SIDBI is the principal financial institution for the promotion, financing and development of the MSME sector.

Notes:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 with one half to Frances H. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and British scientist Sir Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”. Dr. Arnold and Dr. Smith are American scientists. Now, Dr. Arnold is only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize for chemistry. The methods developed by the laureates have been put to work to create new enzymes and antibodies used in promoting a greener chemicals industry, mitigating disease and saving lives. The prize highlights the narrowing of the gap between biology and some fields of chemistry as chemists turn to nature for inspiration.

Notes:
The IIT Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) has decided to establish an ‘Academy of Leadership’, which intends to develop innovative programmes combining the core curricula in science and engineering disciplines with philosophy and liberal arts. This academy will be based not only on scientific and technical training, but the teachings of ancient philosophies, reasoning, systems engineering and the past successes and failures of humanity. It will be called ‘Partha S Ghosh Academy of Leadership’, named after management consultant/strategist and philanthropist Partha S Ghosh. The institute has already received donation of $1 million from Ghosh, who is often addressed as a ‘creative problem solver’ and a ‘visionary leader’ by the government and industry leaders across multiple nations in Asia Pacific, Europe and America. Under this academy, programmes would be developed to nurture leadership qualities in individuals and organisations.

Notes:
Pravin Srivastava, the 1983-batch Indian Statistical Service officer, has been appointed as new Chief Statistician of India (CSI). This appointment comes into effect from the date of his assuming charge of the post till the date of his superannuation (August 31, 2020) or until further orders, whichever is earlier. He has worked in the ministries of statistics and health in various positions, and briefly in the Union Public Service Commission, in his 35-year career. He was a secretary to the Indian Statistical Commission, popularly known as the Rangarajan Commission, which laid the foundation of the modern statistical system. The National Statistical Commission was set up in 2005 on its recommendations.

Notes:
In Assam, the Namrup-based Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL) rolled out Asia’s first cannisters based and India’s first “Methanol Cooking Fuel Program” on 5th October 2018. The project has been promoted by NITI Aayog. The safe handling cannister based cooking stoves are from Swedish Technology and through a Technology transfer a large-scale cooking stove manufacturing plant will come up in India in the next 18 months producing 10 lakh Cookstoves and 1 Crore Cannisters per year. This technology is very unique, it handles methanol extremely safely, does not need regulator or any piping system. In it, Ritu Bordoloi of Namrup has become the India’s first owner and user of a cooking stove fuelled by methanol. She was one of 500 people who were handed over a stove with two 1.2-litre canisters of methanol, as part of a pilot project by APL. The APL is the India’s first public sector producer of methanol and formalin from natural gas as feed stock.

Notes:
On October 7, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) of India Region, Zone III has started in Guwahati, Assam. The four-day conference will discuss on several issues on North East region. During the conference, Women empowerment, Skill development, connectivity are some of the topics that would be discussed. Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker will also launch the North East chapter of Speaker’s Research Initiative during the conference. The MPs and MLAs from the North-East are likely to attend the conference.

Notes:
The 2018 Under-19 Asia Cup cricket tournament was held in Bangladesh from September 29 to October 07 at Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar. In the final, India defeated Sri Lanka by 144 runs to win the tournament for the 6th time. India outplayed Sri Lanka in all departments by first scoring an imposing 304 for six after skipper Prabh Simran Singh won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (85) and Anuj Rawat (57) made solid foundation with 121-run stand. Ayush Badoni’s unbeaten knock of 52 off 28 balls helped India to reach a mammoth total. The island nation were never in the chase as they were all out for 160 in 38.4 overs losing wickets at regular intervals with left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi’s registering brilliant figures of 6 for 38 in 10 overs. For his consistency (318 runs in the tournament), Jaiswal was adjudged man-of-the-tournament.