Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
Angela Ponce from Seville has created by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to be crowned Miss Universe Spain, after beating 22 contestants. She will representing her country at the 67th Miss Universe 2018 pageant in Philippines in December 2018. This comes six years after the Miss Universe organisation put an end to the ban on transgender contestants in the competition in 2012.

Notes:
“Pandharichi Wari” is the most important pilgrimage of Maharashtra. It is more than 700 years old tradition in which devotees of Lord Vitthala called Varkari trace the route to Pandharpur. This year, in 2018, Wari will resume from July 6. For this holy function, thousands of devotees will trace WARI route from Dehu and Alandi, the native places of Sant Tukaram Maharaj and Sant Dnyaneshvar Maharaj in Pune district, on foot. Both the sants were the renowned devotee of Lord Vitthala. Dnyaneshwar’s palakhi leaves from Alandi, while Tukaram’s begins at Dehu. The chants of Vitthal Vitthal Jay Hari Vitthal will resonate in the air next 20 days when Wari will resume from Dehu. It will reach its final destination at the Vithoba temple in Pandharpur on July 22 for Ashadhi Ekadashi celebration. Upon reaching Pandharpur on Ashadi Ekadashi, these devotees take a holy dip in the sacred Chandrabhaga River/Bhima River before proceeding to visit the Vitthal temple.

Notes:
Justice L Narasimha Reddy, the former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, has been appointed as Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad for a period of three years. President Ram Nath Kovind in his capacity as Visitor of the University appointed Justice Reddy as Chancellor of of UoH. Justice Reddy, who is also the Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal, served as a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, between 2001 and 2015.

Notes:
India will operate the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport as a Sri Lanka-India joint venture in Hambantota. The $210 million facility, 241km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the “world’s emptiest airport” due to a lack of flights. Mattala airport, named after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was funded through high interest Chinese commercial loans. The airport was officially opened in March 2013. It has the capacity to handle one million passengers a year and is expected to handle five million passengers, 50,000 tonnes of cargo and 6,250 air traffic operations per annum by 2028.

Notes:
Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan has been sworn in as new Chief Justice of the Hyderabad High Court for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad. Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ESL Narasimhan administered the oath at a function in the Raj Bhavan on July 7, 2018. Justice Radhakrishnan was Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court before being shifted to Hyderabad. He was the Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court for a brief period.

Notes:
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, who retired from the Supreme Court on 7th July 2018, has been appointed the new chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). His tenure as NGT Chairperson has been specified as being for a period of 5 years from the date he assumes office, or till he reaches the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier. He will succeed Justice Jawad Rahim, who is the acting chairperson of NGT. The NGT was established on October 18, 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. The tribunal’s principal bench is located in New Delhi while its zonal benches are in Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai and its circuit benches are in Shimla, Shillong, Jodhpur and Kochi.

Notes:
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will set up a state-of-the-art Civil Aviation Research Organisation (CARO) at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad to find indigenous solutions to meet the challenges posed by the growing air traffic and for enhancing safety, capacity and efficiency of aircraft operations in the country. Union aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has recently laid the foundation stone for CARO which will be spread over 27 acres and cater to air navigation services and airport/engineering research. It will houses latest infrastructure and be equipped with simulators. The CARO will take up research work on 4 priority areas: increasing airport throughput with the existing infrastructural limitations; airspace optimization; cost-effective infrastructure solutions for the upcoming 56 RCS airports and integrating drones in civil airspace.

Notes:
Uday Kumar Varma, the former Information and Broadcasting secretary, has been appointed as new member of the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), a self-regulatory body for general entertainment channels. Varma, who is former IAS officer of 1976 batch from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, succeeded Wajahat Habibullah. The 13-member council, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice Vikramajit Sen, has actor Sharmila Tagore, theatre person Arundhati Nag and JNU professor Ira Bhaskar as some of its members, besides representatives of the National Commission for Women, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the National Commission for Minorities, among others. The BCCC is an independent self-regulatory body set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) in June 2011 to look into complaints pertaining to all non-news general entertainment channels in India.

Notes:
On July 6, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) declared the 438 sq. km. of area around Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) as an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). The move will prohibit construction and commercial mining activities and restrict hotels and resorts near the reserve in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. The area supports an ecologically sustainable habitat in the Western Ghats landscape for about 60-65 tigers, 600 to 800 Asian elephants and gaur apart from other animals of significance. This reserve harbours 227 species of birds, 50 species of fish, 21 species of amphibians and 34 species of reptiles. The reserve, comprising the wildlife sanctuary and the national park, extending over an area of 321 sq. km, was declared a core/critical tiger habitat in 2007. The reserve is a critical part of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve spread over 5,500 sq. km.

Notes:
Indian lifter Jhilli Dalabehera from Odisha bagged the bronze medal in the 48 kg category at the 2018 IWF Junior World Weightlifting Championships at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on July 7, 2018. She lifted 167 kg (75 kg + 92 kg) in 48kg to finish third on the podium. With this, Jhilli has become the second woman lifter after Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (in 2013) to win a medal in the Junior World Championships.