Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2018

Notes:
Fouaad Mirza from Bangaluru clinched silver in the equestrian event with a score of 26.40 at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games on August 26. With this, he became the first Indian to win an Asian Games individual medal in the equestrian event after 36 years. The last individual eventing medal came in 1982 when Raghubir Singh topped the table in New Delhi. Beside this, the Indian equestrian team, comprising Fouaad Mirza, Jitender Singh, Akash Malik and Rakesh Kumar, also won silver in the same competition with a combined score of 121.30 in the ongoing event. Equestrian is a sport related to Horse riding.

Notes:
Dr. Ravinder Kumar Singhal (53), the Maharashtra cadre IPS officer & presently Nashik Police Commissioner, has successfully completed the immensely difficult “Ironman triathlon” in 15 hours and 13 minutes as against the stipulated time of 17 hours in France on August 26, 2018. The Ironman is an international triathlon consisting of three consecutive events- 3.8 km of swimming, 180 km cycling and 42.2 km of running (a full marathon). It is considered one of the toughest one-day sporting events in the world. The competitors have to complete the events in sequence within 17 hours to earn the title of ‘Ironman’. Earlier, model-turned-actor Milind Soman had successfully completed the race in 2015. Beside this, Anju Khosla (52) became the oldest Indian woman to complete an Ironman Triathlon in Austria on July 2018, while Major General Vikram Dogra became the first serving Indian Army officer and the only General across the world to have successfully completed a gruelling ‘Ironman’ competition held in Klagenfurt, Austria in July 2018.

Notes:
Indian sprinter Dutee Chand from Odisha clinched silver in women’s 100m dash in the 18th Asian Games 2018 to win the country’s first medal in 20 years in this event. Earlier, she was suspended by the IAAF in 2014 under its hyperandrogenism policy but she filed an appealed before the Court of Arbitration for Sports and won it. Recently, under a revised rule of the IAAF, Dutee was left outside the purview of the hyperandrogenism policy which gave her liberty to pursue her career. India’s last medal in this event was the bronze won by Rachita Mistry in 1998 Asian Games.

Notes:
On August 28, Manjit Singh clinched gold in the men’s 800 metres event at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, which was India’s first gold in the event since Charles Borromeo won in 1982 Asiad. Beside this, Indian sprinter Jinson Johnson from Kerala also won the silver at the same event. With this, India achieved a rare one-two in men’s 800m at the Asian Games. Manjit clocked 1:46.15 while Johnson clocked 1:46.35 to make it a memorable double for India. It was India’s only second one-two finish in 800m at the Games since Ranjit Singh and Kulwant Singh achieved the feat at the inaugural edition held in New Delhi in 1951.

Notes:
At the 4th edition of Google for India event, Google has launched Project Navlekha to help Indian vernacular news publishers to take their content online. It does not require any technical know-how of web publishing and can be used by anyone. Currently, the project has publishers from Delhi and its reach would soon be expanded across India. Navlekha, which means ‘a new way to write’ in Sanksrit, will allow 1.35 lakh Indian publishers to digitize their offline content by creating instant web pages using scanned documents or PDFs. The registered publishers on Navlekha will also be provided with free web hosting, along with a branded domain for 3 years. They’ll also have AdSense support to begin monetising their content. To be available initially in Hindi language, Google will not charge the publication for the publication tools and the domain name for the first 3 years.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) and the World Bank signed a $220 million Loan Agreement and a $80 million Guarantee Agreement for the India Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program. The program will be implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). It will help scale-up the deployment of energy saving measures in residential and public sectors. The investments under the Program are expected to avoid lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of 170 million tons of CO2, and contribute to avoiding an estimated 10 GW of additional generation capacity. The Program will help tackle the financing, awareness, technical and capacity barriers faced by new energy efficiency programmes and support the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and Street Lighting National Program (SLNP) schemes. The $220 million IBRD loan has a 5-year grace period & a maturity of 19 years while the $80 million IBRD guarantee will partially cover re-payment risks to commercial lenders or investors, to enable EESL to raise funds for its programme.

Notes:
The Government of India has signed a $375 million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Madhya Pradesh Irrigation Efficiency Improvement Project (MPIEIP). The aim of the pact is to double farming incomes in Madhya Pradesh by expanding irrigation networks and system efficiency. The project will focus on two large irrigation systems: Kundalia irrigation project & Sanjay Sarovar Irrigation Project. It will develop 125,000 hectares of new, highly efficient and climate resilient irrigation networks, and improve water use efficiency in more than 400 villages, which will benefit over 800,000 people across the state. The project will also help farmers to adopt micro-irrigated agriculture including high-value crops.

Notes:
The 6th edition of RCEP Trade Ministers’ Meeting 2018 has started in Singapore on August 30, which consists of 10 ASEAN countries and six ASEAN FTA partners namely, India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In it, the Indian delegation is led by Suresh Prabhu, the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation. The aim of 2-day meeting is to work towards a high quality, balanced and inclusive outcomes that take into consideration sensitivities and interests of member countries. The Ministers will deliberate on the current global economic situation and exchange views on promotion of rule-based multilateral trading system and its importance to the stability and effective functioning of the global economic order. This will be followed by the 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) which will take stock of the current level of trade and economic engagement between India and ASEAN.

Notes:
The 14th edition of multilateral regional maritime engagement exercise “KAKADU 2018” has started in Darwin, Australia from August 29 and will continue till September 15. It is hosted by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and supported by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Indian Naval Ship ‘INS Sahyadri’, commanded by Captain Shantanu Jha, is participating in this edition of exercise. Indian Navy’s participation is a significant milestone in towards strengthening mutual confidence among regional navies and is expected to further bolster India’s contribution in ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The exercise KAKADU is held biennially in Darwin and the Northern Australian Exercise Areas (NAXA). Exercise KAKADU derives its name from Kakadu National Park, which is a protected area in the northern territory of Australia, 171 km south-east of Darwin.

Notes:
The 4th edition of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit 2018 was successfully concluded in Kathmandu, Nepal with Kathmandu declaration on August 30 to 31. From India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit that focused on increasing regional connectivity between the BIMSTEC nations including roads, airways and transmission lines. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed on establishing a BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection to enhance energy cooperation among the member-States. The BIMSTEC, comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal, accounts for 22% of the global population. It has a combined GDP of USD 2.8 trillion. Here, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena took over the Chairmanship of the 5th Summit of BIMSTEC. Now, the next BIMSTEC summit will be held in Sri Lanka.