Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2017

Notes:
The Ministry of Power is hosting the 13th Executive Committee (ExCo) Meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) at powergrid corporate center in Gurugram, Haryana from March 6, 2017. This is the first-ever ISGAN ExCo Meeting in India. In the 3-day event, a total of 36 representatives from 18 countries viz. Germany, Korea, Norway, Russia, South Africa, US and UAE, etc., has participated. The purpose of the meeting is to improve the understanding of smart grid technologies, practices and promote adoption of related enabling government policies.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated the India’s longest cable-bridge over the Narmada River on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai section of NH-8 (New NH-48) in Bharuch, Guajarat. The four-lane extra-dosed bridge is 20.8m wide, with 14.5m carriageway and 3m footpath. It is supported on 9 Pylons of 36 meter height on pile foundation of 1.5m diameter. The bridge will be lit by more than 400 LED lights. The bridge is built by Larsen and Turbo, as a part of the Rs. 379 crore project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

Notes:
The Jammu and Kashmir government will organise a first-of-its-kind “Tulip festival” from April 1, 2017 in the summer capital of Srinagar. The 15-day mega tulip festival will be part of Bahaar-e-Kashmir (Spring in Kashmir) event to showcase Asia’s largest tulip garden “Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden”. The garden has more than 20 lakh tulips of 46 varieties and its opening marks the beginning of tourism season in the Valley. At the festival site, decorated kiosks and stalls will showcase rich handicrafts and cuisine of the Valley with traditional and ethnic touch. Apart from this mega festival, an ‘Aalmi Mushaira’ event will be held wherein world famous poets will enthral the audience with their latest Urdu compositions. This too would be first-of-its-kind in the Valley.

Notes:
Indian Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has been officially appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as the UNICEF and Cricket For Good Ambassador for the Women’s World Cup 2017, which will be hosted in the United Kingdom from June. Both UNICEF and the ICC will engage the broader cricketing community to empower adolescent girls in particular, during the many ICC events over the next 5 years, develop and implement various community outreach programs and initiatives in collaboration with coaches, cricketers and cricketing personalities.

Notes:
Iran has successfully test fired naval strike ballistic missile “Hormuz 2”, which is intended to hit moving targets at sea with high precision and has a range of nearly 300 kilometers (186 miles).

Notes:
The Chief minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik has recently launched a 24X7 toll free helpline number 181 for distressed women in all the 30 districts of the state on the occasion on International Women’s Day. The helpline will facilitate quick response of various services including lodging police complaint to provide medical, legal and counselling to women victims.

Notes:
The 22nd edition of Asian Athletics Championship will be held in India at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha from July 2017. With this, Bhubaneswar will become the 3rd city in India to host the athletics championship after New Delhi in 1989 and Pune in 2013. Nearly 800 athletes from 45 countries are expected to take part in the tournament.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched a Rs 10-crore Idea2POC (Idea to Proof of Concept) fund for women entrepreneurs. Under the fund, the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology can sanction upto Rs 50 lakhs for any woman innovator looking for funds for proof of concept validation, certification, and for other purposes such as to cover costs in manufacturing pilot devices. The new fund for women entrepreneurs was set up by the IT, BT and S&T Department, under the MultiSector Startup Policy of Karnataka. Apart from this, Karnataka already has three other Idea2POC funds, one for all technology sectors (Rs 10 crore), one focused on agriculture (Rs 2.5 crore) and another focused on tourism (Rs 2.5 crore).

Notes:
The National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has recently installed India’s largest floating solar Photo-Voltaic (PV) plant at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (RGCCPP) in Kerala’s Kayamkulam district. This 100 kWp (kilowatt peak) floating solar generation plant has been indigenously developed by NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA) in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai. The system was installed by Swelect Energy Systems Ltd, Chennai with support from NETRA & NTPC Kayamkulam station in a short span of 22 days. The solar PV plant has various benefits like conserving water through reduction of evaporation, increased generation due to cooling effect on the panels, reduced installation time etc and could be installed on saline water environment.

Notes:
The book “So You Want to Know About the Environment” has been authored by Bijal Vachharajani. The book will make children analyze, explore, love and respect the environment. It looks at climate change, food, waste, water and wildlife; explains scientific concepts and asks important questions. It is packed with facts, jokes, activities and stories from people working in the field in different parts of the world.