Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
The 37th Senior National Rowing Championship has started in the Army Rowing Node in Pune, Maharashtra on December 17. Around 500 rowers and coaches from various rowing associations acrossthe country will take part in the Championship which will run up to 22nd ofthis month. The Rowers for the World Championships-2019 will be selected from this event. The World Championship -2019 is the first qualifying Championship for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Notes:
Madhavi Goradia Divan has been appointed as new Additional Solicitor General of India (ASGI) in Supreme Court (SC). With this, she became only the third woman to become an ASG in the Apex Court. Her appointment has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) and she will hold office till June 30, 2020. Prior to her, Senior advocate Indira Jaising was the first woman to be appointed as the ASG, while the second one was Pinky Anand, who still holds the post.

Notes:
Industry body Nasscom has collaborated with the IIT-Madras for its FutureSkills Platform that is targeted at re-skilling/upskilling 4 million people from the IT-ITeS industry, students entering the workforce and employees of other industries/government on digital skills. The partnership will be directly with the Sector Skills Council (SSC), which is the education and skill development initiative of Nasscom. The SSC and IIT Madras will work towards building a skills academy and establish a program with extensive courses and training programmes to facilitate skill building in the institution.

Notes:
An international team of astronomers has discovered the most-distant object ever spotted in our solar system. It’s provisional designation is ‘2018 VG18’ & nicknamed as “Farout” for its extremely distant location. The pinkish dwarf planet is more than 100 times farther from the sun than Earth is — and almost four times more distant than Pluto. Farout is about 120 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It is discovered by Scott S Sheppard from Carnegie Institution for Science, David Tholen from University of Hawaii, and Chad Trujillo from Northern Arizona University in the US. On 17th Deember 2018, Farour’s discovery was announced by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s Minor Planet Center. The second-most-distant observed solar system object is Eris at about 96 AU & Pluto is currently at about 34 AU.

Notes:
The Haryana Government has launched ‘Shiksha Setu’ app to ensure better connectivity with college students. It will provide students information on attendance, fee, online admission and scholarships of all government colleges of the state. The app will provide instant updates of important notices, circulars and other programmes to students and teachers, while allowing the former to pay their fee online. During admissions, the students would be able to check the status of seats or course in every college in the state and will also get access to information such as details of scholarships and eligibility conditions among others. Apart from this, the students will also get instant information on assignments and notifications.

Notes:
Former India opener, W. V. Raman has been appointed the new coach of the Indian women’s cricket team. The selection of Raman was based on recommendations of the ad-hoc committee comprising Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. His first assignment is the tour of New Zealand beginning on January 2019. Raman is a vastly-experienced coach having been in charge of Tamil Nadu and India Under-19 teams in the past. Raman has represented India in 11 Tests and 27 ODIs.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has released its comprehensive national ‘Strategy for New India @ 75′ document with an aim to accelerate growth to 9-10% and make the country a $4-trillion economy by 2022-23. It is a detailed exposition across 41 crucial areas, that recognizes the progress already made, identifies binding constraints, and suggests the way forward for achieving the clearly stated objectives. The 41 chapters in the document have been disaggregated under four sections: Drivers, Infrastructure, Inclusionand Governance. The overarching focus of the Strategy document is to further improve the policy environment in which private investors and other stakeholders can contribute their fullest towards achieving the goals set out for New India 2022.

Notes:
The National Mathematics Day (NMD) is celebrated every year in India on December 22 to commemorate the birth anniversary of great mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The day also recognizes his contribution to the world of mathematics, which includes mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. The NMD was declared by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012 to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Ramanujan. Born in 1887 in Erode, Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu), Ramanujan’s affinity for Mathematics was such that he failed in college exams because of his negligence for non-mathematical subjects. However, his talents were recognized by a mathematician at Madras Port Trust were Ramanujan had started working as a clerk in 1912. In 1917, Ramanujan was elected to be a member of the London Mathematical Society. In 1918 he also became a Fellow of the Royal Society, becoming the youngest person to achieve the feat. But due to ill health, he died in 1920 at the age of 32.

Notes:
India’s first music museum will be set up with assistance from the Central government in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu, the birth place of Saint Tyagaraja, one of the Trinities of Carnatic music. The Tyagaraja Aaradhana Music Festival which is held annually in January in Thiruvaiyaru attracts musical talents from all over the world.

Notes:
Nirupam Sen (72), Veteran CPI (M) leader & three-time MLA from Bardhaman Dakshin constituency , has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 24, 2018. One of the most prominent faces of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya cabinet after the CPI(M)-led Left Front was voted to power in 2001, Sen was handed the charge of Commerce and Industry. It was under the leadership of Bhattacharya and Sen that the Left Front started selling the dream of industrialisation in the state and shifted focus to private investments. This shift in the policy reaped them heavy dividends, resulting in the Left Front’s resounding victory in the 2006 Assembly election.