GK & Current Affairs Quiz: August 11-12, 2018

Notes:
The Punjab Government will start ‘Tatkal Sewa’ for property registration across the state from 13th August 2018. The state government has fixed the sum of Rs 5,000 as facilitation charges to seek appointment for ‘tatkal’ (instant) registration for properties. Beside this, an hour-long slot from 9 am to 10 am has been reserved for availing the service under instant mode. People could seek an appointment by visiting the website “www.revenue.punjab.gov.in”. So far, over 1.62 lakh online documents have been registered under the new system. This service comes on the heels of the State starting on line property registration in June 2018.

Notes:
Annie Zaidi, an Indian author, has won the 2018 Hindu Playwright Award 2018 for her play ‘Untitled’ at the 14th edition of The Hindu Theatre Fest at the Taj Coromandel. The award was presented by Ratna Pathak Shah, actor and director. The award, instituted in 2008, carries a prize of Rs 2 lakh for the best original, unpublished and unperformed play script in English.

Notes:
The document ‘Digital North East Vision 2022’ has been released by Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad in Guwahati, Assam. Under this vision, the Union government will invest nearly Rs. 10,000 crore in the region over the next 4 years to implement more than 400 projects. The vision document has identified a total of 8 thrust areas to enhance connectivity, including telecom infrastructure, electronics manufacturing units, BPOs and cyber security, besides promotion of digital innovations. The state-wise roadmaps for implementing digital initiatives in the North East States have also been developed. Through these, the Vision Document aims to empower the people of the North Eastern region. As part of the initiative, Mr. Prasad also inaugurated the first electronics manufacturing cluster in the northeastern region in Guwahati on 10th August 2018.

Notes:
India’s first all-woman Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team for anti-terrorist operations has been inducted in Delhi Police. The 36 elite women commandos, hailing from north-eastern states, have undergone rigorous training of around 15 months from specialists all across India and abroad to handle urban situations as well as jungle operations. Their expertise includes unarmed combat, ambush and counter-ambush and urban operations like building interventions, vehicle intervention and VVIP security. They will be deployed at Red Fort and India Gate during the 2018 Independence Day celebrations. The SWAT team is the brainchild of Amulya Patnaik, the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Notes:
Axis Bank has become the India’s first bank to introduce Iris Scan Authentication feature for Aadhaar-based transactions through its micro ATM tablets. As per study conducted by the International Centre for Biometric Research (ICBR), Iris scan technology is completely contactless and provides up to 98.2% authentication success rate and offers an edge over other prevalent biometric modes. The highly secure iris powered micro ATM tablets are Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) certified and UIDAI compliant registered devices with completely integrated iris sensors. The process of transaction through iris scan is very simple. Customer need to select the desired service (funds transfer, cash withdrawal) and feed-in their Aadhaar numbers in the micro ATM. Next, they will have to choose ‘IRIS’ as the desired mode of authentication. Verification will be done by scanning the eyes of the customers through the tablet’s iris sensor camera in 3-5 seconds. The transaction will be completed after the biometric details are verified from the UIDAI database.

Notes:
The International Youth Day (IYD) is celebrated every year on August 12 to recognize the efforts of the world’s youth in enhancing global society. The day is the brainchild of the United Nations to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding the youth of today. The 2018 theme is “Safe Spaces for Youth”. The UN has taken this initiative to drive attention towards youth development and protection and the areas that include education, employment, environment, HIV/AIDS, girls and young women, and intergenerational relations.

Notes:
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (85), the Trinidad-born Indian origin author, has passed away in London, England on August 12, 2018. He was known for his critical commentary on colonialism, idealism, religion and politics. Born in 1932 in Trinidad into an Indian Hindu family, he wrote more than 30 books of fiction and non-fiction including ‘A Bend in the River’, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’, The Writer and the World, Magic Seeds, etc. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.

Notes:
The 9th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit-2019 is scheduled to be held between January 18 and 20 in Gandhinagar with theme `Shaping of a New India’. The `Youth Connect Forums’ at the summit will facilitate interactions between young achievers, successful businessmen and traders and the youth. There would be discussions on success of sectors like pharma, diamond, manufacturing and SEZ in the state.

Notes:
The Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting will offer 3-year Santoor women’s scholarship for higher education to girls from economically weaker families in the three southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Approx 900 girls from the 3 states will be given Santoor scholarship, with Rs 24,000 for each of them per annum to do under-graduation.. The students can apply for the scholarship on “www.santoorscholarships.com” till September 15 or in state-run colleges across the three states. The scholarship is an attempt to empower women to change their life and the world. Enrollment ratio of women pursuing higher education in the country is low and many give up higher study due to lack of financial support. Santoor is the leading brand name of Wipro’s toilet soap.

Notes:
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched an initiative “RUCO (Repurpose Used Cooking Oil)” that will enable collection and conversion of used cooking oil to biodiesel. Under this initiative, 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable collection of used cooking oil. According to FSSAI regulations, the maximum permissible limits for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) have been set at 25%, beyond which the cooking oil is unsafe for consumption. Beside this, FSSAI is also working in partnership with Biodiesel Association of India and the food industry to ensure effective compliance of used cooking oil regulations.