Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
India’s first in-phone tourism guide and mobile application “Go whats That” has launched by Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, at Rock Garden in Chandigarh on July 28, 2018. This is first of its kind app where tourist can scan QR code at a heritage site to download the history & details of that place in multiple languages. Initially, 1,100 tags have been placed at different tourist spots, which will give accurate information on each artifact. The app will also help the UT Administration in data analytics by getting real-time updates on each place, including the number of tourists visiting the places, scan details, etc.

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:
Prabhat Koli (19) from Maharashtra, who crossed the English Channel when he was 16, has become the first Asian to swim the choppy water from Jersey (an Island in the UK) to France in cold weather. The long-distance sea swimmer covered 25km in 6 hours and 54 minutes. He started off from La Coupe Point of Jersey, behind St Catherine’s backwater and touched the shore of St Germain Plage on the Normandy coast of France. As part of his seven seas challenge, Prabhat is now training to cross the North Channel in Ireland in first week of August.

Notes:
The Union Government has constituted a high level empowered committee to address the issues of stressed thermal power projects. The committee will be headed by Cabinet Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha with representatives from the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and the lenders having major exposure to the power sector. The Committee would look into the various issues with a view to resolve them and maximize the efficiency of investment including changes required to be made in the fuel allocation policy, regulatory framework, mechanisms to facilitate sale of power, ensure timely payments, payment security mechanism, changes required in the provisioning norms/Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Asset Restructuring Company (ARC) Regulations and any other measures proposed for revival of stressed assets so as to avoid such investments becoming NPA.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government will set up ‘iHub’ (the intelligent hub), a first-of-its kind global research centre for scientific learning with an initial investment of Rs 245 crore spread over five years. For this purpose, the state government has already collaborated with UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). Some of the social and economic objectives of iHub will be to create 50,000 future-ready skilled manpower, reduced school dropouts and capture the EdTech market. The initial staff will be about 40 International researchers in disciplines such as neuro-science, education, psychology, digital instructional design, educational technology, Artificial Intelligence, data sciences, and gamingamong others. The centre will also issue “Global Certification” for digital educational content.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has recently approved an unemployment allowance scheme “Mukhyamantri Yuva Nestam” through which an allowance of Rs 1000 per month will be provided to unemployed youth in the state. Unemployed youths with a degree or diploma between the ages of 22 and 35 years are eligible to avail the benefit. The state government will set up a website for the scheme by the end of August, where a 15-day registration window will be open for potential beneficiaries of the scheme. The amount will be directly transferred into their bank account. The state government decided to implement this scheme to benefit as many as 12 lakh youths of the state. It has also been decided that 20,000 job vacancies, 9,000 teacher posts and other department vacancies will be filled.

Notes:
Jalees Sherwani (70), the veteran screenplay writer, has passed away in Mumbai. Maharashtra on August 1, 2018. He had penned lyrics for several Salman Khan films like “Dabangg”, “Wanted” and “Tere Naam”. Apart from writing dialogues for “Sangam” and “Loafer”, Sherwani also penned lyrics for films like “Partner”, “Hello”, “Garv” and “Hello Brother”.

Notes:
Ranjit Srivastava, the Ranchi-based software developer, has claimed to develop the world’s first Hindi speaking realistic humanoid robot and India’s first lip-synching robot. The robot “Rashmi” has developed in 2 years at a minimum cost of Rs 50,000. In simple words, Srivastava developed an Indian version of a social humanoid robot ‘Sophia’ that was developed by a Hong Kong based company. The robot can speak Hindi, Bhojpuri and Marathi along with English. It uses Linguistic Interpretation (LI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), visual data and facial recognition systems. It functions under a specially designed software and linguistic interpretation system. The LI programme analyses the feeling of the conversation while AI program analyses the conversation to extract the response from the device.

Notes:
Rajinder Kumar Dhawan (81), the veteran Congress leader and a former Union minister, has passed away in New Delhi on August 6, 2018. As personal secretary and confidante to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dhawan was a witness to Indira Gandhi assassination in 1984. During his years as Indira Gandhi’s personal secretary, from 1962 to 1984, Dhawan reportedly wielded immense clout, with some claiming that he controlled information and access to the then prime minister. During the Emergency years (1975-77), Dhawan was among Indira Gandhi’s inner circle of leaders. However, Indira’s son, Rajiv, after initially removing Dhawan from his post, cleared him of all charges. He continued to retain enormous clout in the Congress even after Rajiv Gandhi’s death and was subsequently elected twice to Rajya Sabha and was a member of the Congress Working Committee. He was Minister for Urban Development when P V Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister.

Notes:
Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain has become the first woman shuttler to win the women’s singles World Badminton Championships thrice with an emphatic victory over P.V. Sindhu of India in Nanjing, China on August 5, 2018. Earlier, Marin won the title in 2014 and the 2015 Jakarta edition. Sindhu didn’t have answers to Marin’s blistering pace in the 45 minutes that the match lasted. The second silver meant Sindhu is the only Indian to have four world championships podium finishes. She had won two bronze medals at the 2013 Guangzhou and 2014 Copenhagen editions. In men’s singles, Kento Momota of Japan won the title with an easy 21-13, 21-11 victory over local boy Shi Yuqi. With this victory, Kento Momota became the first Japanese man to win the Championships.