Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
Pradip Choudhury, who formed the central defensive pair with Subroto Bhattacharya when Mohun Bagan took on Pele’s Cosmos team in 1977, has been conferred the Mohun Bagan Ratna 2018 at the annual day of the 129-year-old club on July 29. On the occasion of Mohun Bagan Day 2018, Shilton Paul was given the Best Footballer for the Year award and Sudip Chatterjee was handed the Best Cricketer of the Year honour. Sourav Das was the Best Youth Footballer . Rahim Ali received a special award for his performance for Indian team in the FIFA under-17 World Cup 2017. The day is celebrated to commemorate the Mariners’ victory over East Yorkshire Regiment 2-1 in the IFA Shield final on July 29, 1911.

Notes:
The first ‘Nepal-India Think Tank’ Summit was held in Kathmandu on July 31 to foster greater collaboration and knowledge-sharing among the think tanks of the two countries. It was inaugurated by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the former Prime Minister of Nepal and Co-Chairman of ruling Nepal Communist Party. The summit was jointly organized by the Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDA) and Nehru Memorial Museum Library (NMML). The purpose of the summit was to support the networks and promote mutual understanding through institutional collaboration on resource sharing for joint events / publications among think tanks of the two countries. The participants including think tanks, policy makers, diplomats, academicians, businesspersons and journalists deliberated on the Indo-Nepal ties and its dimensions in different sessions.

Notes:
The Meenakshi Amman temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Recently, it is in news because the famous Goddess Meenakshi temple has got its first non-Brahmin as ‘archaka’ (priest), 12 years after the Tamil Nadu government passed an order for appointment of people from any caste as priests. The new priest, belonging to a backward caste, was among the 206 people who had undergone training conducted by the ancient temple administration. The temple has appointed the priest with conditions which included that he could be suspended if he violated the ‘Agama’ rules, a manual for worship of the deity, rituals and construction of temples.

Notes:
On August 10, the NITI Aayog will host an Investors’ Conference for the Holistic Development of Islands at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra and will be inaugurated by Amitabh Kant (CEO of NITI Aayog). The purpose of the conference is to attract investments for the sustainable development of eco-tourism projects on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis in the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. Approx 11 anchor tourism projects are proposed to be implemented with private sector participation under suitable risk-sharing model and through open-competitive bidding.

Notes:
Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar has won the 2018 Fiji International title. It is his first win on the European Tour, ninth Asian Tour and 10th international title overall. Thus, he became the most successful Indian player on Asian Tour and the first Indian to win on Australasia Tour. Bhullar joined Arjun Atwal, Jeev Milkha Singh, SSP Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri as the only Indians to win on the European Tour as this was sanctioned by Asian, Australasia and European Tours. The victory also granted him an exemption on all three Tours till end of 2019. Other Indian in fray, Ajeetesh Sandhu scored 71 in the final round to end his campaign at the tied 43rd spot.

Notes:
On August 3, the 10th International conference on oral implantology was held in New Delhi to enhance the awareness and knowledge on the latest innovations and technologies in oral implantology world over. The 3-day conference hosted by Academy of Oral Implantology (AOI) has representations by doctors from the UK, the US, Israel, Austria, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain. Oral implantology is a highly dynamic specialty and has over the years, introduced innumerable modifications and improvements for dental treatment of patients. The vision is to promote latest technologies and encourage younger doctors, in the field of innovation. Experienced professionals will share their work, expertise with the younger crop and this translates into sharing of knowledge from different parts of the globe. Various companies from the medical field have also showcased their advanced products and technologies. Teeth decay, loss of teeth due to old age, diseases or accidents, bad and crooked teeth, teeth decay happen due to bad oral hygiene. The event also seeks to raise awareness about oral hygiene for better dental care.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has conducted the first-ever Orientation Workshop on Election Management for IAS Asstt Secretaries in New Delhi on August 3, 2018. The aim of the workshop is to familiarize the Assistant Secretaries with all facets of Electoral Management before they are required to handle crucial assignments in conducting Elections in their field postings soon. In it, Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat advised the officers to be prepared for facing the newer challenges like Data harvesting; targeted messaging & profiling; money and media influencers.

Notes:
The group of computer scientists and a team of students from the IIT- Madras have developed the first of a family of six industry-standard microprocessors under Project Shakti. The initial batch of 300 chips, named ‘RISECREEK’, has been fabricated for free at the Intel facility in Oregon (US), which was used to run the Linux operating system. The design of microprocessors is open source. They optimize power use and compete with international units such as the Cortex A5 from Advanced RISC Machines (ARM). The entire team was lead by Dr. Neel Gala, who is an alumnus of IIT-Madras. The team had used a BlueSpec System Verilog language, which helped them capture the processor functionality. At a frequency of 350 MHz, RISECREEK can meet the demands of defence and strategic equipment such as NAVIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite) and Internet of Things (IoT) electronics.

Notes:
In the 14th edition of Women’s Hockey World Cup 2018, defending champions the Netherlands recorded a stunning 6-0 victory over Ireland in the summit clash at London on August 5 to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 32 matches. It must be noted that the Netherlands have been crowned the world champions for a record 8th time. Kitty van Male, who was among the 6 different goal scorers, finished the tournament as the top scorer with 8 goals. Spain won the third place match by beating Australia 3-1 to claim their first ever World Cup medal. India finished the tournament at the 8th spot.

Notes:
Muthuvel Karunanidhi (94), the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK patriarch, was the author of the Tamil historical novel “Thenpandi Singam”. The novel was based on a legendary story of Valukku Veli, a Petty chief ruling Paganeri Nadu. Karunanidhi, who passed away in Chennai on 7th August 2018, became the chief minister in 1971, 1989, 1996 and 2006. He was a legislator for six decades since 1957, when he won for the first time from Kulithalai constituency, till 2016, when he emerged victorious from Tiruvarur as a 92-year-old, barring the period between 1986 and 1989. Apart from politics, Karunanidhi penned screenplays and dialogues for over 50 movies. He also wrote the stories of some of them like Marudanattu Ilavarasi (1950) Mandiri Kumari (1950), Tirumbipar (1953) and Arasilangkumari (1961).