Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
The Gangrel Dam, also known as the R.S. Sagar Dam, is built across the Mahanadi River in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. It is the longest dam in Chhattisgarh. This dam supplies year round irrigation, allowing farmers to harvest two crops per year. The dam also supplies 10 MW of hydro-electric power capacity.

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Stephen Hawking (76), the legendary British theoretical physicist, has passed away in Cambridge, United Kingdom on March 14, 2018. Known for his unique way of speaking while living his life in a wheelchair, Hawking became an emblem of human determination and curiosity. He is known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity. He contracted motor neurone disease in 1963 and was given two years to live but he went on to study at Cambridge and became one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein. Mr Hawking was the author of several popular science books, including ‘A Brief History of Time’, which sold more than 10 million copies and was translated into 40 different languages. The physicist had won the Albert Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. His life story was the subject of the 2014 film ‘The Theory of Everything’, starring Eddie Redmayne.

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Narendra Jha (55), the noted film and television actor, has passed away in Nashik, Maharashtra on March 14, 2018. He was born in Madhubani, Bihar. He began his small screen journey with Mandira Bedi’s Shanti and went on to model in TV ads. He is best known for his performances in films such as “Raees”, “Kaabil”, “Mohenjo Daro” and “Haider”.

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The first regional conference on ‘Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) for Urban Areas – Opportunities and Challenges was held in Kolkata, West Bengal on March 13, 2018. The conference was jointly organized by Ministry of Finance, AIIB, ASSOCHAM and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). Before the 3rd annual meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to be held in Mumbai from June 2018, eight such regional conferences will be held on the issues relating to infrastructures development, sustainable infrastructure, mass rapid transportation system, port and coastal infrastructure, urban development and the like in eight different cities of India.

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The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is observed every year on March 15 to promote basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected. It also gives people a chance to protest against the market abuses and social injustices. On this day in 1962, President John F Kennedy formally addressed the issue of consumer rights in US Congress. He was the first world leader to do so, and the consumer movement now marks that date every year as a means of raising global awareness about consumer rights. The first World Consumer Rights Day was observed in 1983 and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action. The 2018 theme is ‘Making Digital Marketplaces Fairer’. In India, besides the World Consumer Rights Day, we observe the National Consumer Day on 24th of December every year.

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The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has developed a coded drug AYUSH QOL-2C for improving the quality of life in cancer patients. The clinical studies were conducted at St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru and AIIMS, New Delhi in breast cancer patients and at Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Jaipur in lung cancer patients. This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on March 13, 2018.The CCRAS is an autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH and is headquartered at New Delhi.

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The Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (Janaagraha) has released the 5th edition of its Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2017 report. The study evaluated quality of governance in cities by assessing laws, policies and institutional processes currently in place. In its 2017 edition, the survey covered 23 major cities in India across 20 states based on 89 questions. In it, Pune scored 5.1 out of 10 & topped the chart for the first time. It was followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat, with scores in the range of 4.6 to 4.5. The report addresses five major issues, and suggests solutions at the local body, State and Central government levels. It underlines the need for sharp focus on City-Systems or institutional reforms to city governance in our cities.

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Actor Jackie Shroff’s short film ‘Shunyata’ has won the best film award at 2018 Best of India Short Film Festival at Mack Sennett Studios in Los Angeles, United States on March 3. The 22-minute fiction film directed by Chintan Sarda was selected to be in top 6 from amongst thousands of entries and was played at a theatre in Los Angeles. An industry based jury then adjudged it the best film. The prize includes a cash prize of $1,000. In “Shunyata”, Jackie is seen as hitman Madhur, who leads a gloomy existence with regrets. He is friendly with a child, who lives on the street and sees him getting into the world of crime.

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NITI Aayog has recently released roadmaps for ‘Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital in Education (SATH-E)’ project to introduce system-wide governance transformation in school education. These roadmaps, which operate between 2018 to 2020, lay out detailed interventions which will taken by the 3 participating states – Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – aiming to become ‘Role Model States’ in school education. To increase learning outcomes in schools across the country, NITI Aayog’s project SATH-E is promoting vocational education, skill development, teacher training and introducing technology in classrooms. Besides, the project will promote data-driven analysis to strengthen academic monitoring across schools in the country. These roadmaps present the customised, action-oriented programmes, outlining interventions at the individual, district and State level. The roadmaps were jointly prepared by NITI Aayog, the three States and the knowledge partners of the SATH Initiatives, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Piramal Foundation For Education Leadership (PFEL).

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The 17th Annual Conference of International Competition Network 2018 (ICN2018) has started in New Delhi from 21st March 2018. This is the first time India is hosting the ICN Annual Conference since it joined International Competition Network (ICN) in 2009. The 3-day conference will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and strategies for effective enforcement of competition law and for strengthening cooperation amongst the competition authorities as they strive to promote and sustain competition in rapidly changing markets. ICN is an international body comprising 132 members from 120 competition jurisdictions exclusively devoted to international competition enforcement. It’s main purpose is to improve and advocate for sound competition policy and its enforcement across the global antitrust community.