Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
Justice Naresh Harishchandra Patil has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office to Justice Patil at a brief ceremony held at Raj Bhavan. The Bombay High Court is one of the oldest High Courts of India and its principle seat is at Mumbai. Its jurisdiction covers the states of Maharashtra and Goa, and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

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Noted Malayalam writer M Mukundan has been selected for 2018 Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literacy prize of the Kerala government. The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs five lakh and citation, is being given for his overall contributions to the language and literature. His popular works inlcude ‘Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil’, ‘Kesavante Vilapangal’, ‘Delhi Gadhakal’, ‘Appam Chudunna Kunkiyamma’ and ‘Lesli Achante Kadangal’.

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Satyajit Ray’s epic masterpiece ‘Pather Panchali’ has been included in BBC’s 100 best foreign language films list of the 21st century. Ray’s film, which was released in 1955 and the first in his ‘Apu’ trilogy, is the only Indian film that find its spot in the BBC list and is placed at number 15. The list is topped by Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai”. It was culled out from a poll where over 200 critics from 43 countries picked their best foreign language film. Some of the notable films that featured in the BBC list are — Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon ‘, Wong Kar-wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’, Andrei Tarkovsky’s ‘The Mirror’, Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’, Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ and Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’, among others. According to BBC, 27 of the highest-rated films were in French, followed by 12 in Mandarin, and 11 each in Italian and Japanese. The BBC said that only four of the 100 films have been directed by women. However, it said that 45% of the critics who took part in the poll were women.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently permitted banks to grant Partial Credit Enhancement (PCE), or a partial guarantee, to bonds issued by systematically important non-deposit taking Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC-ND-SIs) registered with the Reserve Bank of India and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) registered with National Housing Bank. The move is aimed at enhancing the credit rating of the bonds and enabling these NBFCs to access funds from the bond market on better terms. PCE is expected to help NBFCs and HFCs raise money from insurance and provident or pension funds who invest only in highly-rated instruments. The proceeds from the bonds, whose tenor cannot be less than three years, backed by PCE from banks can only be utilised for refinancing the existing debt. The central bank has restricted the exposure of a bank through PCEs to bonds issued by each such NBFC or HFC to 1% of capital funds of the bank within the current single and group borrower exposure limits.

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The 2nd edition of the India International Cherry Blossom (IICB) festival in Shillong, which is is scheduled to be held from November 14 and 17. It is the world’s only autumn cherry blossom festival. The fest will celebrate the unique mass flowering of autumn Himalayan cherry blossoms with several cultural events in the Meghalaya capital. The visitors can enjoy fashion shows, rock concerts, beauty pageants and also compete in an amateur golf tournament. Alongside, there will be stalls showcasing the food, arts and crafts of the region, and several cultural events and a food pavilion of Japan in partnership with the Embassy of Japan in India. It is expected that the fest will attract more than one lakh visitors from across the world.

Notes:
According to India’s first-ever ‘Ease of Moving Index 2018’ – India Report 2018, Kolkata has topped the index in terms of cleanliness and affordability of public transport, followed by New Delhi and Chennai. The index offers insights on mobility preferences & aspirations of Indian commuters across 20 cities with a population of over 92 million. It was released by Ola Mobility Institute (OMI), the research and outreach arm of Ola ride-hailing platform. The 2018 report, which was released by the Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari, seeks to offer a comprehensive action plan for cities to further strengthen their public transportation systems and improve the overall state of mobility. Over 43,000 respondents from 20 cities across the country were surveyed. Cities were selected on five parameters — scale, character, culture, economy and geography. The report also assessed the accessibility, efficiency and safety of current transportation facilities. More than 95% of denizens prefer sustainable mobility and 80% observed transport ecosystem has improved over the last five years with 60% reporting using public modes of commute.

Notes:
On November 1, the Ministry of Railways has officially rolled out All-India Unreserved Mobile Ticketing facility (UTS on Mobile) with a view to promote three C’s- Cashless transactions (Digital payment), Contact less ticketing (no need to physically visit the point of sale) and Customer convenience and experience. Now, the facility of booking unreserved tickets, including season tickets and also platform tickets is available through the ‘UTSONMOBILE’ app available for Android, IOS and Windows phones. The booking of unreserved tickets on all non-suburban sections across all Zonal Railways has been made available from 1st November to enable seamless booking of unreserved tickets all over Indian Railways. The ‘UTS on Mobile’ application ‘in house’ has been developed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). CRIS was established in 1986 by the Ministry of Railways and its of headquarters CRIS is located in New Delhi.

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The first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health was held at World Health Organisation (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva on October 30, 2018. The 2-day conference was organized by WHO in collaboration with UN Environment, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The theme of the conference was: “Improving Air Quality, Combating Climate Change- Saving Lives”. Some 92% of people worldwide breathe unhealthy air, resulting in about 6.5 million deaths annually. In it, household air pollution is a leading killer in poor rural and urban homes. Thus, the event responds to a World Health Assembly mandate to combat one of the world’s most significant causes of premature death. At the conclusion of the Conference, participants agreed an aspirational goal of reducing the number of deaths from air pollution by two thirds by 2030.

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On 2nd November 2018, South Africa hosted the 18th Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of (Foreign) Ministers Meetings (COM) in Durban under the theme of “IORA – Uniting the Peoples of Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East through Enhanced Co-operation for Peace, Stability and Sustainable Development”. This meeting was held during the on-going celebrations of the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela. The Indian delegation was led by Gen.(Dr.) VK Singh (Retd.), Minister of State for External Affairs. The IORA is an international organisation consisting of coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean. The Association comprises 21 member states and its headquarters is located at Ebene, Mauritius.

Notes:
HSBC Holdings Plc has executed India’s first trade financial transaction using blockchain for a deal involving an export by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to US-based Tricon Energy. The blockchain-enabled letter of credit (LC) reduces transaction timeline from 7-10 days to less than a day. The Letter of Credit (LC) was issued by ING Bank for Tricon Energy USA (importer) with HSBC India as the advisory and negotiation bank for RIL. The blockchain platform was integrated with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an electronic bill of lading. This allows a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the buyer in the underlying trade. It is claimed that the blockchain solution is a major improvement for any organisation involved in buying and selling goods internationally, as it brings together all parties onto one platform. It is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of ordered records called blocks and is deemed to be very transparent as all the stakeholders can view progress real time.