Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
The International Army Games 2018 are being held at 24 training grounds in seven countries namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, China and Russia from July 28 to August 11. It is for the first time that Armenia and Iran are co-hosting events of the Army Games. Indian teams are taking part in two major competitions– Tank Biathlon event at Alabino ranges, Moscow region and Elbrus Ring competition in Caucasus mountains. The opening ceremony was attended by Indian Ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran along with Indian attaches attended the ceremony.

Notes:
John Sankaramangalam (84), the Veteran filmmaker and former director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTTI), has passed away in Thiruvalla, Kerala on July 30, 2018. A multi-time recipient of national and state awards, Sankaramangalam was known for his experimental movies. Some of his directorial ventures are “Aval Alpam Vaikippoyi”, “Janmabhoomi” and “Samantharam”.

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 Myanmar Government has appointed an independent 4- member commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses against the ethnic Rohingya minority. The Independent Commission will investigate the allegations of human rights violations and related issues, following the terrorist attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The commission will be comprised of two local members & two international members. It will be headed by Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo. The other members includes Japan’s former ambassador to the UN Kenzo Oshima, lawyer Mya Thein and economist and former UN official Aung Tun Thet. In August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s western Rakhine state to Bangladesh after a military crackdown started in response to attacks by ARSA on security posts.

Notes:
The Government of Odisha has launched a 360 degree nation-wide publicity campaign “Heartbeats for Hockey” to attract fans for 2018 men’s hockey World Cup. The movement attempts to get India behind the game by way of music, entertainment, fashion, pure sport and panel discussions. Each time anyone holds the custom-made hockey stick, named ‘Heart Beat’, their heart beat will be recorded as a pledge to support hockey. The ‘Heart Beat’ will take a round of the country through ‘Hockey Adda’, a curated on-ground discussion platform for hockey players and experts. The event will take place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16. The state is the title partner for the hockey event and Odisha Tourism is the host partner. The maximum players in the national team are also from Odisha.

Notes:
The Telangana government will setup a state of the art “B-Hub” for biotech and biopharma sector in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, aimed at providing much-needed support to the biopharma research and development activities, featuring a scale-up manufacturing facility along with a turnkey incubator, lab space module at GLP grade spreading over a built-up area of 40,000 sq.ft. This end-to-end biopharma scale-up manufacturing facility will give domestic companies the required impetus here on par with Korea, China and France who have taken lead in biopharma innovation. The estimated project cost of B-Hub is Rs 60 crore and the facility is to be set up through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Genome Valley, which is the India’s first organised cluster for life sciences R&D and clean manufacturing activities.

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:
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:
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:
The two week-long joint military exercise “Maitree 2018′ has started between Indian Army and Royal Thai Army in Thailand on August 6 with a focus on enhancing anti-terror cooperation between the two sides. The exercise will emphasize to hone the tactical and technical skills in joint counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations in rural and urban scenario under UN mandate. Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well developed tactical drills for neutralization of likely threats that may be encountered in urban warfare scenario. Experts from both sides will also hold detailed discussions to share their experience on varied topics for mutual benefit. Exercise Maitree will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and bonhomie between the two armies in order to counter terrorism.