Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
The Chhattisgarh government has launched a smartphone distribution scheme ‘Mobile Tihar’ under the Sanchar Kranti Yojna (SKY). The scheme is for distribution of smartphones to women and students, covering over 50 Lakh beneficiaries. As part of the scheme, 556 new mobile towers will be installed across the state. ‘Mobile Tihar’ was launched by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, along with National Award-winning actress Kangana Ranaut on July 31.

Notes:
The United States has recently granted Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status to India that will ease export of high-tech items. The designation authorises the export, re-export and transfer (in-country) of specified items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to destinations posing a low risk of unauthorised or impermissible uses. Currently, there are 36 countries on STA-1 list, almost all from the Nato and ANZUS alliance. India is the only South Asian country to be on the list. Other Asian countries designated as STA-1 are Japan and South Korea. Till recently India was designated as STA-2 countries along with seven others. According to the Department of Commerce, items that are eligible for export to STA1 destinations or nationals include items that are subject to control for: national security (NS), chemical or biological weapons (CB), nuclear nonproliferation (NP), regional stability (RS), crime control (CC) and significant items (SI).

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched a desktop software ‘e-Aksharayan’ for converting any scanned or printed Indian language documents into a fully editable text format in Unicode encoding. The text can be also saved separately. The application is free of cost and supports editing in 7 Indian languages viz. Hindi, Bangla, Malayalam, Gurmukhi, Tamil, Kannada & Assamese.

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:
Following the publication of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Manipur government has constituted two committees – state and district level – to deal with a possible influx of illegal immigrants. The State Level Monitoring Committee will monitor the entry or presence of illegal immigrants in the state and take steps for creating adequate public awareness to counter the situation. It will be headed by Special Secretary (Home) while the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police as its members. The district level committee will be headed by the concerned deputy commissioners while Superintendent of Police, SDOs, SDPO, SDCs, OCs will be the members. The committee with local bodies would likely to conduct headcounts if needed.

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 Himachal Pradesh government has launched “Horn Not Ok’’ awareness campaign in Shimla and Mandi along with a statewide mobile application ‘shaur nahin’ (no noise). The main aim of the campaign is to spread awareness of unnecessary blowing horn as it creates unnecessary noise pollution. The other towns of the state will also be brought under the purview of no honking zones after the successful execution of this campaign in the two tourist places for 2 months. Though, no-honking rule will not be applicable on emergency vehicles, including ambulances and fire tenders. The “Shor Nahin” application has been developed to report any noise pollution complaint to the authorities. It’s an initiative of the Department of Environment, Science and Technology in association with the NIC of Himachal Pradesh. It allows a user to lodge a complaint with the officials concerned, including deputy commissioner, superintendent of police and sub divisional magistrate, who can upload the action taken report on the app.

Notes:
In Uttar Pradesh, the iconic Mughalsarai junction has been formally renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU), who was found dead in mysterious circumstances near the station in February 1968. The DDU station is more than 150 years old and one of the busiest railway stations in India. The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia. It was inaugurated by BJP national president Amit shah. Beside this, he also flagged off a passenger train with an all-women crew and a goods train at the DDU station. As per Railway officials, it will be the first time in India that an all-woman crew will run a train. Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. It is a part of the Chandauli Parliamentary seat which is presently held by UP BJP president Mahendra Nath Pandey.

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.