Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
Somnath Chatterjee (89), the former Lok Sabha Speaker & veteran leader, has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on August 13, 2018. Mr. Chatterjee was the Speaker in the first five-year term (2004-2009) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and was elected to the Parliament’s Lower House ten times since 1971. He joined Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in 1968 and was a member till his expulsion in 2008. He was expelled from CPI-M in July 2008 for refusing to resign as Speaker after CPI-M withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. After that, he was independent in the last decade of his life.

Notes:
Balramji Das Tandon (91), the present Governor of Chhattisgarh, has passed away in Raipur on August 14, 2018. Born on 1st November 1927, he started his political career as corporator of Amritsar Municipal corporation in 1953. Tandon was one of the founder members of the Jansangh which later became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). During his long political career, he has served on various posts, including as deputy chief minister of Punjab. A six-time MLA, Mr. Tandon was also the Punjab State BJP president for two years. He was also jailed in 1975 during the Emergency for 19 months.

Notes:
Sunishka Kartik from Bengaluru won the Community Award in the 2018 Junior NBA World Basketball Championship, which concluded at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, USA, on August 12. She had top-scored with 17 points in the team’s impressive win over South America Combined in a pool game. The award recognizes players who are committed to give back to those in need. The tournament featured the best 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls from around the world in 32 teams.

Notes:
As per survey conducted by UK-based online market research and data analytics firm YouGov, the State Bank of India (SBI) has been ranked as the most patriotic brand, followed by Tata Motors, Patanjali, Reliance Jio and BSNL. The survey, which covered 152 brands across 11 categories, is based on data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 1,193 respondents in the country between 2 August and 8 August using its panel of an online representation of India. In the financial sector, SBI lead the chart with 47% of the sector-share, followed by LIC with 16%. In the auto sector, Tata Motors emerged as the most patriotic brand, followed by Bharat Petroleum (BP) and Maruti Suzuki. In terms of food brands, Amul grabbed the top slot with one-third Indians considering it, followed by Patanjali. Nirma emerged as the most patriotic brand in the homecare products category. In the beverages category, Tata Tea grabbed the top rank with 35% respondents voting for it, followed by Taj Mahal with 18%.

Notes:
The 10-day festival of the historic Esala Maha Perehera has started in Kandy, Sri Lanka on August 17 with a grand procession. The procession set off from the biggest Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka, Sri Dalada Maligawa at an auspicious time. The Esala Perahera is one of the oldest and grandest of all Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka, featuring dancers, jugglers, musicians, fire-breathers and lavishly decorated elephants. This is held in Esala (July or August) which is the month that is believed to commemorate the first teaching given by the Buddha after he attained enlightenment. The purpose of the procession is to beseech the blessings of the Gods to obtain rain for the cultivation of crops and to enrich the lands of the kingdom. This ritual is performed by carrying the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha through the streets and is considered as one of the most beautiful pageants in Asia. The festival ends with the traditional diya-kepeema ritual, a water cutting ceremony which is held at the Mahaweli River at Getambe, Kandy.

Notes:
On August 17, the 2018 International Conference on Recent Advances in Food Processing Technology (iCRAFPT) has started at Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu with theme “Doubling farmers’ income through food processing”. The 3-day conference is the valuable and important platform for inspiring international and interdisciplinary exchange at the forefront of food research. In it, internationally renowned speakers will share their research experiences in the areas of advances in food engineering and its industrial applications, food product development, food biotechnology, nano foods. The IIFPT is the premier national Institute working under the administrative control of Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) and its headquarters is located in Thanjavur.

Notes:
The “Panini Language Laboratory” has been inaugurated by Sushma Swaraj, the Union Minister of External Affairs (MEA), during the 11th World Hindi Conference (WHC) 2018 at Mahatma Gandhi Institute (MGI) at Port Louis in Mauritius on August 19. The Lab has been gifted by the Government of India (GoI) and it will help MGI in teaching of all Indian languages in Mauritius. The eminent scholars have stressed upon on refinement of the Hindi language by making it simple and interesting. The delegates from across the globe underlined the need of developing software for Hindi which can be available to common people on a reasonable price. The basic objective of 3-day conference is to connect Hindi language with culture to spread and popularise it in the entire world.

Notes:
On August 20, Indian Shooter Deepak Kumar claimed Silver in the Men’s 10-metre Air Rifle event with a score of 247.7 points at the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia. In the Men’s Trap, Lakshay clinched the silver medal with an impressive 43 from 50 shots. Earlier, Wrestler Bajrang Punia had given India its first Gold of the Games in the 65 kg division.

Notes:
SK Arora, the Delhi government’s additional director of health, has been honoured with the prestigious World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day 2017 Award for his extraordinary contribution towards tobacco control. He was presented the award by Henk Bekedam, WHO India country head in New Delhi, on August 16, 2018. It is awarded every year by WHO to individuals or organizations alike in each of six WHO regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. The National Health Policy 2017 of the Government of India (GoI) has set targets of relative reduction in tobacco prevalence by 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2025. Delhi has already achieved these targets before 2017. The Delhi government’s health department has been fighting against direct advertisement of brand promotion of tobacco and surrogate advertisement of tobaccos in the name of pan masala and other eatables such as tea, ilaichi (cardamom) for the past 4 years. According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2 (GATS 2, 2016-17), the prevalence of tobacco use has reduced by 27% in Delhi as compared to 17% for the rest of India average.

Notes:
The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has become the first Public Sector Unit (PSU) to make a transaction on the “TReDS platform”. The transaction was financed by Bank of Baroda (BoB) and since stands settled. The TReDS platform is an online electronic institutional mechanism for facilitating the financing of trade receivables of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) through multiple financiers. The acronym ‘TReDS’ stands for Trade Receivables Discounting System. In October 2017, the central government mandated all major PSUs to join TReDS platform to facilitate payments to MSME vendors. RXIL (Receivables Exchange of India), which is India’s first TReDS platform, is promoted by the National Stock Exchange, Small Industries Development Bank of India, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank.