GK & Current Affairs Quiz: February 07, 2018

Notes:
The Government of Assam has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with cab-hailing company Ola for a pilot project of app-based river taxi services in Guwahati. This MoU was signed during the ongoing Global Investors Summit: Advantage Assam. According to the MOU, bringing water taxis on the online platform will strengthen the transportation ecosystem. The river taxi will be a machine-operated boat, a faster and safer mode of travel than its conventional alternatives. Ola will pilot high-speed taxis on the Lachit Ghat, Machkhowa to North Guwahati route, bringing the commute time down to 2-5 minutes from 45 minutes by road.

Notes:
The first-ever Pelican Bird Festival-2018 was held at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru lake in Andhra Pradesh on February 4, 2018. Over 5,000 pelican birds from various countries reach Kolleru Lake every year during winter by travelling over 3500 km. The Kolleru lake is located between Krishna and Godavari delta and is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country. The fest was jointly organised by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) and Krishna district administration.

Notes:
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport has become the world’s busiest single-runway airport, after creating a new world record for single-runway operations by handling 980 arrivals and take-offs in 24 hours, or almost one flight every minute on January 20, 2018.

Notes:
The Ministry of Railways has signed MoU with Ministry of AYUSH in New Delhi on February 6, 2018 to augment Ayush services in Railway hospitals i.e. New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Guwahati. As per MoU, Ministry of Railways will provide logistics and infrastructure in the form of Land & building, Equipments, Furniture, AYUSH medicines and consumables as well as Manpower. It will organize and provide orientation training to newly recruited AYUSH Doctors and AYUSH Paramedicals. Ministry of AYUSH in turn will provide all other technical inputs required for introduction of AYUSH Systems in the five identified Railways Hospitals. The Ministry will also provide technical knowhow regarding the pharmacopoeia, medicine inventory, hospital planning. Presently, Indian Railways is running 126 Homeopathic Clinics and 40 Ayurvedic Clinics through Staff Benefit Fund under Welfare Section of Establishment Directorate.

Notes:
Suresh Prabhu, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has launched the Start-up-India ranking framework in New Delhi to help the Startup India initiative to drive economic growth of the country. The tools are: the State and Union Territory Startup Ranking Framework, the Compendium of Good Practices for Promoting Startups in India and the Startup India Kit. These will act as catalysts to help the Startup India initiative to drive India’s economic growth. The key objective of the Startup States and Union Territories ranking framework is to encourage States and Union Territories to take pro-active steps towards strengthening the Startup ecosystems at the local level. The Ranking Framework will measure the impact of each step initiated at the local level for building a strong Startup ecosystem. The Ranking Framework will also enable continuous learning through the dissemination of good practices.

Notes:
In the 6th Bi-monthly Monetary policy statement for 2017-18, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the key interest rate “repo rate” unchanged at 6% and reverse repo at 5.75%. Also, the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate kept at 6.25%. The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is consistent with the neutral stance of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth.

Notes:
Shubhankar Sharma from Chandigarh has become the highest ranked Indian golfer after grabbing 72nd position in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). He has won the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sharma now also has the rare distinction of leading both the European Tour Race to Dubai and the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Shubhankar’s latest success also helped him join the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved two wins in the same European Tour season, the others being Jeev Milkha Singh (2006) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).

Notes:
The 5th edition of the South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference (SARPPC-2018) was inaugurated by Arun Jaitley, the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, in New Delhi on February 5, 2018. The theme of the conference is “Public Procurement and Service Delivery”. The purpose of the 3-day Conference was to enable the Heads of Public Procurement and other key stakeholders in the eight South Asian countries to meet and learn from one another and from experts in the field of public procurement. The conference was hosted by Government of India (GOI), through the Public Procurement Division (PPD) of the Ministry of Finance and All India Management Association (AIMA). It is held under the auspices of the South Asia Region Public Procurement Network (SARPPN), which is sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank.

Notes:
The World Wetlands Day (WWD) is observed every year on February 2 to mark the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in the city of Ramsar in Iran in 1971. The 2018 theme is “Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future”. It highlights the value of wetlands in securing local livelihoods through activities as fishing, rice farming, tourism and water provision. The day is observed to promote, create awareness and ensure positive and affirmative action for conservation of wetlands.

Notes:
The Kandeleru Dam is an irrigation project built on the Kandaleru River in Rapur Mandal, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh. The project is part of the Telugu Ganga project which supplies drinking water to Chennai city from the Srisailam reservoir on Krishna River.