Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

Notes:
Under article 124 of the constitution, President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the 46th Chief Justice of India (CJI). He will assume office after the current CJI Dipak Misra retires on October 2. He will have tenure of 13 months – till November 17, 2019. Currently, Justice Gogoi is heading the Bench monitoring the sensitive Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) case. Thus, Justice Gogoi will become the first CJI from North-Eastern states. He is the son of former Assam chief minister Keshab Chandra Gogoi. Justice Gogoi was one of the four senior-most judges of the court who had called an unprecedented press conference this January, when they had publicly raised concerns about the administration of the court and the formation of benches for the allocation of important cases. He is also one of 11 judges in the Supreme Court who have disclosed their assets.

Notes:
Mehlli Gobhai (87), the veteran artist, has passed away in Mumbai on September 13,2018. He is considered one of the foremost abstractionist artists in India. His paintings record the dialogue between the spare line and burnished field. Gobhai was a student at the Royal College of Art in London and the Art Students League and the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York. He worked in New York for 20 years before returning to Mumbai in the 1980s. He was part of the advisory council at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghrahalaya in Mumbai.

Notes:
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has commissioned indigenously built patrol vessel ‘Vijaya’ in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is capable of carrying limited pollution response equipment to contain oil spill in sea. The 98-metre Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) was designed and built by Larsen & Toubro India at Kattupalli shipyard and is fitted with advanced navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machinery. The ship is designed to carry one twin engine helicopter and four high speed boats, including two inflatable boats for boarding, search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol operations. The vessel is fitted with a 30 mm gun and will be fitted with a 12.7 mm gun with a Fire Control System (FCS). It will be based at Paradip Port, Odisha and be deployed in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for surveillance and other duties.

Notes:
India’s first underwater robotic drone “EyeROV TUNA” was launched and handed over to Kochi-based DRDO lab “Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL)”. The drone can send real-time videos of ships and other underwater structures to help with their repair and maintenance. It will be used by NPOL for research and development activities which in turn would result in a commercial product for defence purposes. The robotic drone can be navigated up to a depth of 50 meters to take real-time HD video images to examine ship hulls or undersea cables or bridge moorings and can eliminate the need for costlier and riskier manual inspection by divers. The first commercial Remotedly Operated Vehicle (ROV)/underwater drone “EYEROVTUNA” was developed by EyeROV Technologies, a company incubating at the Kalamassery-based Maker Village which is said to be the largest hardware incubator in the country.

Notes:
The scientist at INMAS claim to have developed India’s first indigenous medical kit that may ensure protection from serious injuries and faster healing of wounds resulting from nuclear warfare or radioactive leakage. The medical kit has been developed for the armed, paramilitary and police forces only as they are the first ones likely to get exposed to radiation. It has over 25 items, including radio-protectors that provide 80-90% protection against radiation and nerve gas agents, bandages that absorb radiation as well as tablets and ointments. The kit also has an Ethylene Di-amine Tetra acetic acid (EDTA) injection that traps uranium in the guts and blood of victims during a nuclear accident or warfare. The kit also has Ca-EDTA Respiratory Fluid, which is the inhalation formula for chelation, or grabbing, of heavy metals and radioactive elements deposited in lungs through inhalation at nuclear accident sites. The medicine reduces the body burden of radioactivity by 30-40% in controlled conditions and is highly useful for the rescue teams and victims after a nuclear accident. The acronym “INMAS” stands for “Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences”.

Notes:
The International Day of Democracy is observed every year on September 15 to highlight the values of freedom and respect for human rights as essential elements of democracy. It is an opportunity to look for ways to invigorate democracy and seek answers to the systemic challenges it faces. This includes tackling economic and political inequalities, making democracies more inclusive by bringing the young and marginalized into the political system, and making democracies more innovative and responsive to emerging challenges such as migration and climate change. The 2018 theme is “Democracy under Strain: Solutions for a Changing World”.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tourism is organizing the festival of tourism “Paryatan Parv 2018” in collaboration with other Central Ministries, State Governments and Stakeholders at Rajpath Lawns in New Delhi from September 17 and will continue across the country till 27th of this month. The idea behind the festival is to draw focus on the benefits of tourism, showcasing the cultural diversity of the country and reinforcing the principle of Tourism for All. The 2nd edition of Paryatan Parv will have three main components- Dekho Apna Desh, Tourism for All and Tourism and Governance. The 18 theme-based pavilions have been set up by the states. More than three thousand events will be organized in collaboration with other Central Ministries and States during the festival. Crafts Bazaar, food court, classical dance music, handicrafts and handlooms and cuisines from all the states will be the main highlights of the Paryatan Parv.

Notes:
Recently, Indian Mountaineers Satyarup Siddhanta and Mousumi Khatua created history by climbing Asia’s highest volcanic peak Mount Damavand in Iran. The expedition team comprised of 3 members – Siddhanta, Mousumi and Bhaswati Chatterjee. According to a release, the trio left for Iran on 6th September 2018, the team had to scale the summit within a very short span of time to avoid the Sulphur exposure related hazards. Mountain Damavand is known for its Sulphur discharge near its peak which can cause irreparable damage if exposed for a longer duration. This is the 4th volcanic summit for Siddhanta. Now, he is targeting scaling three more volcanic peaks by January 2019. He is now in the last lap of climbing the highest volcanoes of each of the continents known as climbing the 7 volcanic summits. If successful, Siddhanta will be the youngest person to complete all the 7 volcanic summits – Mount Sidley, Mount Giluwe, Mount Damavand, Pico de Orizaba, Mount Elbrus, Mount Kilimanjaro and Ojos del Salado.

Notes:
Ganpatrao Andalkar (83), the former Asian Games champion wrestler, has passed away in Pune, Maharashtra on September 17, 2018. Andalkar, who took part in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, had bagged the coveted “Hind Kesari” title in 1960. He also went on to clinch Gold and Silver medals in two different weight categories in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games. He was also a recipient of the Arjuna award (1964) and the Maharashtra government’s ‘Shiv Chhatrapati Award’ in 1982 for his contribution to wrestling.

Notes:
India’s first ‘smart fence’ pilot project was launched by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh along the Indo-Pak border at the BSF Headquarters in Ploura, Jammu on September 18, 2018. The purpose of the project is to make security system more strong and effective.The smart fencing uses a number of devices for surveillance, communication and data storage. The pilot project entails deploying laser-activated fences and technology-enabled barriers to plug vulnerable gaps along frontiers. The system provides for round-the-clock surveillance on the border and in different weather conditions be it dust storm, fog or rain. The initiative is part of the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) proposed to be deployed at these two borders by the Government of India (GoI) as part of its decision to completely seal the two borders to stop infiltration and illegal migration.