Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - 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:
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:
Michelle Bachelet, the former two-time President of Chile, has been officially appointed new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for a period of 4 years. She will succeed Jordanian diplomat Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein in September 2018. The High Commissioner is the principle official who speaks out for human rights across the whole UN system. It strengthens human rights mechanisms, enhance equality & fight discrimination in all its forms. It also strengthens accountability & the rule of law and widens the democratic space & protecting the most vulnerable from all forms of human rights abuse.

Notes:
The Indian Army has launched the major rescue and relief operation “Operation Sahyog” at Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Idukki after incessant rain and landslides hit various northern districts of Kerala. The army constructed temporary bridges for the evacuations of the stranded people from the isolated villages. Apart from the Army, the Southern Naval Command of Indian Navy has also launched ‘Operation Madad’ to assist the state administration and undertake disaster relief operations due to unprecedented flooding in many parts of Kerala following incessant rainfall and release of excess water from Idukki and other dams. Naval helicopters are also deployed for ferrying divers, power tools, axes and relief material to the flooded areas to augment ongoing relief operations.

Notes:
On August 12, the US space agency NASA has successfully launched the Parker Solar Probe mission to send a satellite closer to the Sun than any before. The rocket carrying the Parker Solar Probe lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida in the US. It is the world’s first mission to touch the Sun that will unlock the mysteries of star’s fiery outer atmosphere and its effects on space weather during the 7-year long journey. The car-sized spacecraft will travel directly into the Sun’s atmosphere, about four million miles from its surface and more than 7 times closer than any spacecraft has come before. The US $1.5 billion mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. It is the first space craft to be named after a living person – astrophysicist Eugene Parker (91), who first described solar wind in 1958.

Notes:
Prasar Bharati has tied up with Google and its video sharing platform YouTube to telecast the 72nd Independence Day programme live online on 15th August 2018 to increase digital presence. Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has stated that the live stream window will be seen on the homepage of Google itself so that people do not have to look for a separate link to go to the Youtube channel. In a first-of-its-kind digital drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech from Red Fort will be live streamed on both Google and YouTube. This year, Doordarshan anchors will introduce the programme from Red Fort instead of the studios. Doordarshan will also translate the PM’s speech in over 20 regional languages. The Independence Day coverage will open with a song composed by Shankar Mahadevan. This service was first used by Google to telecast the inauguration ceremony of US President Donald Trump in January 2017.

Notes:
Ramesh Powar, the former Indian off-spinner, has been appointed the head coach of the Indian Women’s National Cricket team on an interim basis till 30th November 2018. His term will include the tours to Sri Lanka in September, a bilateral series in West Indies in October followed by the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 in West Indies in November. This was informed by BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary. As per the Supreme Court directive, only a Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) – now functional – can appoint a fulltime coach on a long-term basis. Powar has played 31 ODIs and two Tests from 2004 to 2007, picking 34 wickets with a best of 54 in the 50-over format.

Notes:
The Central government has constituted a coordination committee headed by the Central Water Commission Chairman “Narendra Kumar” to coordinate the discharge of floodwaters from inter-State projects involving Kerala and Tamil Nadu, including Mullaperiyar and Aliyar. The Chairman of the CWC will monitor the situation at Mullaperiyar dam in view of rising water level and continued heavy inflow.

Notes:
Austrian capital Vienna has been ranked as the world’s most liveable city in a list of 140 global cities at the 2018 Global Liveability Index, which was released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Melbourne has secured 2nd position followed by Osaka, Calgary and Sydney. Delhi (112) and Mumbai (117) are only two Indian cities that are included in the EIU’s annual index. The Syrian capital ‘Damascus’ was ranked the least liveable city in the list of 140 cities, followed by Dhaka, Lagos and Karachi. The index assigns cities scores on five broad parameters — stability, healthcare, culture/environment, education, and infrastructure using 30 indicators. The EIU is part of UK magazine The Economist and provides forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis.

Notes:
Nihal Sarin (14) from Kerala has become the 53rd Grandmaster of India and the 12th youngest grandmaster in chess history after attaining his third and final GM-norm in the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018. He tallied 5.5/9 with a rating performance of 2626 to secure his third GM norm.