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 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 first cow sanctuary in Rajasthan will be situated in Napasar, Bikaner to dedicate the entire area for cows, much on the lines of a wildlife sanctuary. It will provide shelter for 10,000 bovines spread over an area of more than 220 hectares in Bikaner district. The facilities in the sanctuary will include hospitals and Sewan grass as fodder for the animals. The state government has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private trust in this regard. The cow sanctuary will be the latest in a string of initiatives announced by the BJP government in the state for the protection of bovines since it came to power in 2013. The state already has a ministry dedicated to the welfare of cows and last year it had announced a 10% surcharge on stamp duty towards cow protection.

Notes:
Umbayee (68), the noted ghazal singer and composer from Kerala, has passed away at Aluva on August 1, 2018. Born in Mattancherry, he was a disciple of Ustad Munawar Ali Khan and was known his reinvention of several old Malayalam film songs in his own natural style. His birth name was PA Ibrahim.

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:
Lewis Hamilton, a British racing driver who races in Formula One for Mercedes AMG Petronas, has won the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit. It is his sixth Hungarian Grand Prix title and also 67th career victory.

Notes:
Raveendran Kasthuri, a Kannur native, has assumed charge as new CEO of the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd (ULCCS) on August 6. ULCCS is one of the largest Co-operative Societies in India. Earlier, he was with IBM as its vice president and head of integrated operation. The ULCCS was formed in 1925 by the eminent social reformer Guru Vagbhatananda in a remote hamlet called Uralungal in Kozhikode district, as a novel mass movement against the anarchies of the caste system prevalent in those days. The society has now grown to be one of the biggest Labour Contract Societies in the country, providing direct employment to more than 6000 workers from rural areas. It is now having an asset worth Rs 99402 lakhs.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched a rural cleanliness and sanitation campaign “Swachhameva Jayate” to make every citizen in rural Karnataka take a pledge of cleanliness. The aim of the campaign is to boost the Swachh Survkekshan Grameen 2018 (SSG 2018) survey in all the districts with the help of school children. Since the inception of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the government of Karnataka has constructed a total of 22 lakh toilets in 29,736 villages. The state needs another 5 lakh toilets in its rural areas before October 2 to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. The 2018 SSG survey will rank all Indian districts and states on the basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation of sanitation status of the villages and will run from August 1 to 31. While the survey will target 698 districts, 6,980 villages, 34,900 public places randomly across the country, Swachha Meva Jayate will aim to take messages about the parameters of the survey to every rural household in Karnataka. The survey will measure and rank villages across India on the basis of availability and access to toilets, cleanliness of public spaces, and feedback and opinions of citizens.

Notes:
M Bhakthavatsala (84), the well-known Kannada film producer, distributor and exhibitor, has passed away in Bengaluru, Karnataka on August 6, 2018. He was an officer in Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) and later turned to films through distribution and managing theatres. He was known for producing critically acclaimed movies like ‘Sandhyaraga’ and ‘Kanneshwara Rama’. Bhakthavatsala served as president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce for 7 years and was the only Kannadiga to chair the Indian Film Chamber of Commerce. He had diverse interests such as literature, mountaineering, etc.