Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has launched the digital platform ‘Pocket Cop Project’ in order to ensure that the police force of the state is equipped with modern day technology. Under the project, every officer in charge of the police station, Investigating Officer, PCR van and officials handling the passport verification process shall be equipped with a smartphone enabled with internet connectivity. The government has made a provision of 4900 such phones. These phones will have the information of as many as 69 lakh criminals and their crimes at fingertips. In Gandhinagar, the CM also handed over these smartphones to each and every police officer of various districts during the event.

Notes:
Bhimsain (81), the veteran filmmaker and animation pioneer, has passed away in Mumbai on April 17, 2018. Born in 1936 in Multan (modern-day Pakistan), Bhimsain obtained his diploma in Fine Arts and Classical Music from Lucknow University. In 1970, he made his directorial debut with his first animation short “The Climb”, which earned him the Silver Hugo Award in the Chicago Film Festival. ‘Ek chidiya, anek chidiyaan’ is one of the most popular songs from animation film ‘Ek Anek Ekta’, which he made with Vijaya Mulay in 1974. A versatile artiste who enriched the medium of both television and films with his contribution, Bhimsain was primarily known for his work in the world of animation during the golden period of Doordarshan. He also directed and produced several animation and ad films such as ‘Na’, ‘Ek-Do’, ‘Fire’, ‘Munni’, ‘Freedom is a Thin Lie’, ‘Mehman’, ‘Kahani Har Zamane Ki’ and ‘Business is People’. He is best known for his film “Gharaonda” and animation short films like “Ek Anek Ekta”.

Notes:
The Tilaiya Dam is a concrete gravity dam build across the Barakar River at Tilaiya in Koderma district of Jharkhand. It has a maximum height of 30.2 metres above the river bed. The dam has a catchment area of 984 square kilometres comprising mainly forests, pastures, cultivated lands and waste lands. The annual rainfall in the area is 127 cm. It was inaugurated on 21 February 1953. It has a power generation capacity of 2 x 2 MW.

Notes:
The much-awaited river bridge ‘Ib Setu’, which is built over the Ib river in Sambalpur district , has been opened to the public by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The 2.5-km-long bridge, which is the State’s second longest bridge, has been built in 3 years at a cost of Rs. 117.50 crore. The bridge has helped establish direct road connectivity between Sambalpur and Brajarajnagar and the distance has now been reduced by 50 km.

Notes:
The 2018 Global Malaria Summit was held alongside the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom on April 18 to make game-changing commitments towards beating malaria at a time when efforts to end the preventable disease had stalled. The summit expected the world leaders to renew their financial and political commitments to continue the fight against malaria, which is showing signs of fighting back. Malaria cases rose to 216 million globally in 2016, five million more than a year ago. The summit featured collective commitments worth over $4.1 billion dollars from governments, private sector, philanthropists and international organisations. There was no India representative to participate in the summit because there is no India commitment.

Notes:
Rajinder Sachar (94), the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, has passed away in New Delhi on April 20, 2018. Son of veteran freedom fighter and former Chief Minister of Punjab Bhim Sen Sachar, he served as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from August to December, 1985. After retirement, Mr Sachar was associated with rights group, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. He was also the chairperson of a committee, set up during the UPA government to look into the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India.

Notes:
The National Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) is celebrated every year in India on April 24 by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. On this day, in 1993, the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force that has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the village, Intermediate and District level Panchayats.

Notes:
The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has signed Information Utility (IU) pact with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL) to share financial and security information under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IU) regulation 2017.. With this agreement, the IOB branches will be able to provide high-quality, authenticated information about debts and defaults; which will have more transparency in maintaining the list of borrowers, debtors, creditors and loan defaulters. The NeSL is the India’s first IU registered by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for bankruptcy cases under the ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016’ in October 2017. IU stores financial information that helps to establish defaults as well as verify claims expeditiously and thereby facilitates completion of transactions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in a time bound manner.

Notes:
The coastal security exercise ‘Sagar Kavach’ was held along Kerala shores on April 24, 2018 to strengthen and assess the loopholes in the coastal security mechanism. Apart from the Indian Coast Guard, the Indian Navy, Coastal Police and Marine Enforcement wing and various other security stakeholders were also participating in the 2-day exercise. Three ships of the navy, 10 of Coastguard, four fishing boats, besides 20 coastal police stations from Vizhinjam to Kasaragod are among those took part in the drill held twice a year.

Notes:
The World Malaria Day (WMD) is observed every year on April 25 to recognize global efforts to control malaria, which affects and claims millions of lives annually. Malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. According to the World Malaria Report 2017 released by World Health Organisation (WHO), there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria in 91 countries in 2016, an increase of 5 million cases over 2015. Also, deaths caused by the vector-borne disease were estimated around 445 000 in 2016, a similar number (446 000) to 2015. The 2018 theme “Ready to beat malaria” mark the importance of collective responsibility and commitment of global community in bringing together people on working towards making world free of malaria.