Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2018

Notes:
The Indian Railways has won 17 awards at the National Energy Conservation Awards (NECA) 2018. This is the highest number of awards bagged by a single organisation. These awards are given by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the Ministry of Power to various institutions for adopting measures for reducing energy consumption and cost. Under ‘transport’ category, Indian Railways obtained 10 awards for the subsector railway station. In it, Vidisha railway station in Madhya Pradesh won the first prize. Under ‘building’ category, Indian Railways got three awards for subsector Railway hospitals. Here, Railway hospitals of Izzatnagar division won the first prize. Under ‘institution’ category, Indian Railways bagged four awards for subsector state PWD, CPWD and PHED. Passenger reservation system complex building of Secunderabad division won the first prize.

Notes:
India’s national accreditation body, the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) has secured equivalence for its accreditation for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Certification Bodies in Asia- Pacific region. It has signed the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) of the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) on 19 December 2018. Now, NABCB can facilitate export of Indian goods into the world market by attesting that these are certified as per international standards by competent certifying bodies. With this, any industry carrying ISO 45001 certificate with NABCB logo will be recognized in the Asia Pacific region. The immediate beneficiary of this equivalence is the Indian Industry which is exporting products to various countries especially in the Asia Pacific region. NABCB is the third accreditation body in the Asia Pacific Region to become internationally equivalent in the region, the other two being the accreditation bodies of Hong Kong and Mexico. The headquarters of NABCB is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
On December 23, Bala Rafique Shaikh clinched the 62nd Maharashtra Kesari 2018 title by defeating Abhijeet Katke of Pune in the wrestling duel held at Azad ground, Jalna, Maharashtra. He defeated his opponent 11-3 in the one-sided match. Shaikh was honoured with a silver mace and cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. Maharashtra Kesari is an Indian-style prestigious wrestling championship, established in 1961. ‘Kesari’ is a Sanskrit word for ‘Lion’.

Notes:
On December 27, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant released the Second Delta Ranking of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP). The ranking details the incremental progress achieved by the districts during June to October in 2018 across six key development sectors. Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu has shown the most improvement overall, followed by Nuapada district in Odisha, Siddarthnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar’s Aurangabad and Koraput in Odisha. The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across various performance indicators like Health and Nutrition, Education, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure among others. The rankings are based on the data that is publicly available through the Champions of Change Dashboard, which includes data entered on a real-time basis at the district level. The rankings, for the first time, also factored in inputs from household survey conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners, namely, TATA Trusts and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Notes:
Thailand has become the first nation in Southeast Asia to legalize medical use of marijuana, as well as the kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller. The changes, which become law when published in the Royal Gazette, legalize the production, import, export, possession and use of marijuana and kratom products for medical purposes. But, recreational use of the drugs remains illegal and subject to prison terms and fines commensurate with the quantities involved. Marijuana is a psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant intended for medical or recreational use. Earlier, in October 2018, Canada officially becomes the 2nd Country in the world to legalize the recreational use of marijuana nationwide after Uruguay.

Notes:
On 27th December, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched a universal health coverage scheme, which is known as the ‘Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand Yojana’. Under the scheme, each household in the state will be able to avail medical treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh annually. The scheme will benefit 23 lakh households and will cover 1,350 critical diseases. A total of 99 government and 66 private hospitals have been selected under the scheme. With this, the hill state has become the first in the country to offer universal health coverage.

Notes:
Aadi Sai Vijaykaran, a 13-year-old from Chennai, has created history by winning the Junior Debate Championship at the World Scholar’s Cup held at Yale University, the USA from November 16-21. He has been adjudged the world’s best School debater at a global contest. This is the first time an individual from India has won the coveted title. The theme for the cup was ‘An Entangled World: diplomacy, human relationships, the science of memory, and literature, art’. Vijaykaran is a trained Carnatic musician, has a black belt in Karate, plays chess and football.

Notes:
On December 28, the unique Chapparam (Chariot) festival was celebrated with traditional rituals and festivities in the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple, in Tamil Nadu. The fest symbolizes the importance of preserving all kinds of food and fodder. The festival is also an auspicious occasion when the God and Goddess measure out food for all living beings. In it, both Goddess Meenakshi and her spouse Lord Sundareswarar circumambulate the four main streets around the temple. Cooked rice, which is distributed among devotees, are taken home and preserved because it signifies prosperity for the whole year. Another specialty of the festival is that the chariot of Goddess Meenakshi is pulled by lady devotees alone.

Notes:
“Finding Beauty in Garbage”, a documentary film based on the garbage of Dibrugarh town in Assam has bagged the Best Short documentary film award in Asia South East International Short Film Festival at Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The film gives a satirical take to the problem of garbage disposal. The 7 minute film was produced, directed and scripted by Satyamam Dutta who is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer presently posted in Dibrugarh. The burning problem of garbage disposal has been projected by Dutta with a satirical approach prompting viewers to think and realize how the disposal of garbage affects their life. The film has shown how the inhabitants of the city have become so accustomed and immune to the garbage and dirt around that they no longer want to fight with it but want to cohabit with them. The film is slated to be released on 1st January 2019 through video sharing website YouTube and other social media platforms.

Notes:
The 3rd edition of women’s national boxing championships has started at the JSW Sports-owned Inspire Institute of Sport in Vijayanagara, Karnataka on December 31, 2018 and will be held till 6th of the next month. With close to 250 entries received from 31 states and institutions, pugilists will compete in all 10 weight categories viz. 48kg, 51kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg and +81kg class. The Inspire Institute of Sport, which will be hosting the women’s national championship is heralded for its multispecialty facilities and is India’s first privately-funded High-Performance Olympic Training Centre.