Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
The 16th Federation Cup Junior National junior (under-20) athletics championship was held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on April 20, 2018. Over 800 athletes from 32 states, including 72 athletes from Tamil Nadu, participated in the championship. It is jointly organised by the State Athletic Association, Coimbatore District Athletic Association and Sri Krishna Educational Institutions. The three-day meet, which features athletes aged between 16 and 20, will serve as selection trial for three championships viz. 3rd South Asian junior championship in Colombo (May 5-7), 18th Asian junior championship in Gifu, Japan (June 7-10) and the IAAF World under-20 championship in Tampere, Finland (July 10-15).

Notes:
The United Nations (UN) has officially declared April 21 as the World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID) to encourage people to use creativity in problem-solving. The first official WCID was celebrated on April 21, 2018. The day is marked as well positioned to encourage creative multidisciplinary thinking to help us achieve the sustainable future we want.

Notes:
Two 12-year-old football enthusiasts — Surya Varikuti and Rudresh Gaudnour — have been selected as India’s representatives at the global Football For Friendship (F4F) social programme in Russia. The F4F programme, supported by Gazprom and FIFA aims at developing youth football and a healthy lifestyle, as well as promoting tolerance, open-mindedness and respect for different cultures and nationalities between children from across the globe. This year, the F4F programme has expanded to 211 countries and regions. This is the second time that Surya will join young footballers from around the world in Moscow in June. The children will be part of the 32 International Teams of Friendship and play against each other in the Gazprom F4F International Championship. Rudresh will act as the young journalist and report on all the local and global activities of the F4F programme as part of the International Children’s Press Center. Surya and Rudresh will also participate in the Football for Friendship International Children’s Forum in Russia, where the youngsters will get a chance to meet their peers from other countries and share their experiences.

Notes:
Rafael Nadal, a Spanish professional tennis player, has won the 2018 Monte-Carlo Masters tennis tournament by defeating Kei Nishikori in the final by 6–3, 6–2 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. With this, he became the first man to win a single tournament 11 times in the Open era with his 76th ATP Tour title. By winning the title, Nadal also retained the ATP no. 1 singles ranking. Apart from this, Nadal also overtook Serbia’s Novak Djokovic to clinch most Masters 1000 titles (31).

Notes:
The Ministry of Finance has signed a loan agreement for IBRD credit of $125 million (equivalent) with the World Bank for the ‘Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project in New Delhi on April 24, 2018. The purpose of the project are to nurture indigenous innovation, foster local product development and accelerate the commercialisation process by bridging critical skill and infrastructure gaps to promote affordable and innovative healthcare products generation for inclusive development and increasing competitiveness in India. The closing date ofproject is June 30, 2023. 

Notes:
The bilateral joint training exercise “Harimau Shakti 2018” will be conducted between India and Malaysia in the dense forests of Sengai Perdik in Hulu Langat district of Malaysia from April 30 to May 13, 2018. The Indian Army will be represented by 4 Grenadiers, one of the oldest infantry battalions which have rich operational experience in conventional as well as counter- insurgency warfare. The aim of the exercise is to bolster cooperation and coordination between armed forces of both the nations and to share the expertise of both the contingents in conduct of counter insurgency operations in jungle terrain.

Notes:
On April 26, Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Google India has launched a 360° Virtual Reality (VR) experience video on Incredible India https://t.co/H1VdcNXBUR. As part of the partnership, Google Arts and Culture will provide users with an immersive 360-degree view of India’s heritage festivity spirituality and adventure. The video will showcase users a 360-degree view of some of the most iconic destinations in India including Qutub Minar Amritsar’ s Golden Temple Vitthala Temples at Hampi and Goa’s easygoing vibe. The video has been created using the best of 360-degree video capture technology including Google s Yi Halo camera and the music is inspired by the rhythms and melodies of the regions depicted in the video.

Notes:
Siddhant Banthia from Pune has won the Indian leg of the junior French Open wild card tournament in New Delhi on April 27, 2018. He beat reigning Under-16 national champion Mann Maulik Shah 6-4, 2-6, 7-6. The girls event was won by Rashmikaa S Bhamidipaty, who defeated Tanisha Kashyap 6-4, 6-4. Banthia will now compete with winners from China and Brazil in the final Qualifier to get an entry into the main draw of the junior French Open.

Notes:
The Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in New Delhi on April 24, 2018 to build the capacity of the Asia-Pacific Region to monitor and report on land degradation. The workshop was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and UNCCD Secretariat. The 4-day workshop trained the participants in the use of an innovative land degradation monitoring tool by Conservation International, for the reporting process of UNCCD. The participants included delegates from about 40 Asia Pacific countries, as well as representatives from 12 Indian states affected by land degradation, scientists and researchers from scientific institutions of national importance and line-Ministries. The UNCCD is the only legally binding international agreement on land issues. The convention promotes good land stewardship.

Notes:
Indian fencer C A Bhavani Devi from Tamil Nadu has won a silver medal in the sabre event of the Tournoi World Cup Satellite Fencing Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland on April 29,2018. In the final, she went down 10-15 to USA’s Alexis Browne. Bhavani beat Parede Torres 15-9 in the quarterfinal and followed it up by getting past Guila Arpino of Italy 15-10 in the semifinal. Bhavani Devi had won a gold at the 2017 Reykjavik tournament to become the first Indian win to do so in an international fencing event.