Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

Notes:
The Government of Nepal has appointed former Member of Parliament and renowned Indian actress Jaya Prada as Goodwill Ambassador for tourism and culture for four years. Tourism is one of the important sources of employment and income generation in Nepal and India is the biggest source market for Nepal. As per officials, the appointment of Jaya Prada will strengthen age old cultural ties between the two countries and help in promoting Nepal’s tourism in India. The Govt. of Nepal has decided to observe the year 2020 as the ‘Visit Nepal Year’ with a target of at least two million international arrivals every year.

Notes:
India has recently celebrated the 100 years of Battle of Haifa with a grand function in New Delhi on September 23, 2018. It is being commemorated in Israel, Delhi and Jaipur. On this day, in 1918, the Indian soldiers from the Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers liberated the strategically important city of Haifa, known for its deep water bay in the eastern Mediterranean. The sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers is honoured and memorialized in 7 cemeteries across Israel, from Jerusalem to Haifa. Close to 900 Indian soldiers are buried in these cemeteries, which act as an immortal testimonial for their heroism. The Indian Army commemorates September 23 every year as Haifa Day to pay its respects to the two brave Indian Cavalry Regiments “Mysore and Jodhpur Lancers” that helped liberate the city following a dashing cavalry action by the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade.

Notes:
India will host the Women’s Boxing World Championships after more than a decade, which is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from November 15-24, 2018. The teams will have to be in the national capital by November 13, with the competition starting two days later. The marquee tournament was last held in India in 2006 and remains the best for the country in terms of performance. India had topped the medal tally with four gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

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The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries has approved a $525-million loan to Madhya Pradesh for infrastructure projects. The loan will be used by the Indian government for on-lending to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitating major district roads with a total length of about 2,000 km to improve the connectivity of the rural interior with the national and state highway networks. The project will improve the road conditions and enhance the transport capacity, which will lead to a less travel time, reduced vehicle-operating cost, reduced emissions and improved road safety. The NDB will also provide a $ 175-million loan to the Madhya Pradesh Bridges Project, under which 350 bridges will be built or upgraded. The NDB was set up by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations to promote green and infrastructure projects in the member countries.

Notes:
Carolina Marin from Spain has won the women’s singles 2018 China Open badminton title. In the final, she defeated Chen Yufei in Changzhou, China. Earlier, in 2018, she won the BWF World Championships for the third time and became the first ever female badminton athlete to have achieved this feat. Apart from this, Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting beat Japan’s Kento Momota to take the 2018 Men’s singles China Open title.

Notes:
Dr. Shamsher Singh Bisht (71), the noted statehood agitator of Uttarakhand, has passed away in Almora on September 22, 2018. Apart from being actively involved in the Uttarakhand statehood movement, he struggled all his life to save the forests and rivers of the state. He was a prominent social activist and journalist who played a vital role in the famous Chipko Andolan. He led the ‘Nasha nahi rozgar do’ movement in the 1980s and spent 40 days in jail. Dr. Bisht was the president of the Uttarakhand Lok Sanghrash Vahini, an outfit that took up fight against social issues, including corruption and felling of trees.

Notes:
Dr Harsh Vardhan, the union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate change (MoEF&CC), has inaugurated air pollution control device – Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit (WAYU) at ITO in New Delhi. WAYU is developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research –National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) to mitigate air pollution at traffic junctions. The prototype device has the capacity to purify air in an area of 500 meter square. It consumes only half a unit of electricity for 10 hours of running and has a maintenance cost of only Rs. 1500 per month. Along with particulate matter, the device will remove poisonous gases such as volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide. This device works on two principles mainly wind generation for dilution of air pollutants and active pollutants removal.

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The Japanese space agency JAXA has made history by successfully landing two robotic rovers on the surface of an asteroid Ryugu. The rovers are collectively known as MINERVA-II1 (MIcro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid, the second generation), which were separated from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft on 21st September 2018 . The space agency reported that the small compact MINERVA-II1 is the world’s first mobile exploration robot to land on the surface of an asteroid. This is also the first time for autonomous movement and picture capture on an asteroid surface. Therefore, MINERVA-II1 is the world’s first man-made object to explore movement on an asteroid surface. Asteroids are believed to have rich information about the formation of the solar system billions of years ago. The third rover called MASCOT will be launched from Hayabusa2 in early October 2018. If successful, MASCOT will be the world’s first sample return mission to a C-type asteroid.

Notes:
India has made alliance with United States in public and private sectors to combat the menace of Tuberculosis (TB). The formation of ‘USAID-India End TB Alliance’ was formally announced by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Mark Green in presence of Union Health Minister J P Nadda in New York on September 26, 2018. The experts in the alliance will offer innovative approaches to combat tuberculosis in India. Alliance members include industry and civil society leaders, academics, scientists, innovators, investors, and members of the diaspora.

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The Union government has recently constituted an 8-member Lokpal Search Committee under the Chairmanship of former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to recommend the chairperson and members of the anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. The committee has former chief of State Bank of India (SBI) Arundhati Bhattacharya, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash and ISRO head S Kiran Kumar as members.