Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
Recently, the 19th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) held under the Chairmanship of the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reviewed the current global and domestic economic situation and financial sector performance. Apart from liquidity in NBFCs (segmental liquidity position and in mutual fund space), the FSDC discussed on various economic issues ranging from oil prices, rupee, inflation to improving cyber security in the financial sector including “progress made towards setting up of a Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) under a Statutory Framework”. The FSDC is an apex-level body to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism of maintaining financial stability, financial sector development, inter-regulatory coordination along with monitoring macro-prudential regulation of economy.

Notes:
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, has recently launched ‘Soura Jalanidhi’ scheme which aims at increasing use of solar energy for helping farmers in irrigation. ‘Soura Jalanidhi’ is a dug well based solar pump irrigation system in convergence mode. Under the scheme, 5,000 solar pumps will be provided to farmers at a subsidy of 90 per cent to irrigate 2,500 acres of land. The chief minister also launched the web portal of this scheme on the occasion. The event was attended by 1,000 farmers from 30 districts through video conference. In the first phase, the facility will be available for farmers where electicity is not avaialable for operating pump sets. The solar pumps will be given to the beneficiary farmers at a subsidy of 90%. A total of Rs 27 crore will be spent for the programme. Farmers having valid farmer identification, belonging to small and marginal categories having minimum 0.5 acre cultivable land and a dug well will be covered under the programme.

Notes:
India has been ranked 77th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2018 . With this, India has jumped 23 places from 2017 in which it was ranked at 100th. In its annual ‘Doing Business’ 2019 report, World Bank stated that India improved its rank on six out of the 10 parameters relating to starting and doing business in a country.The report also recognises India as one of the top 10 improvers in this year’s assessment, for the 2nd successive time. The Index ranks 190 countries across 10 indicators ranged across the lifecycle of a business from ‘starting a business’ to ‘resolving insolvency’. These parameters include ease of starting a business, construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trade across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. New Zealand tops the list, followed by Singapore, Denmark, and Hong Kong.

Notes:
The Republic of Seychelles has launched the world’s first sovereign blue bond – a financial instrument designed to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects. The bond developed with the assistance of the World Bank & was placed to 3 investors: Calvert Impact Capital, Nuveen and Prudential. The blue bond has a US$5m guarantee from the World Bank, and is also supported by a US$5m concessional loan from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which will partially cover interest payments.The blue bond demonstrates the potential for countries to harness capital markets for financing the sustainable use of marine resources. It will include support for the expansion of marine protected areas, improved governance of priority fisheries and the development of the Seychelles’ blue economy.

Notes:
On October 31, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Narmada district of Gujarat on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar Patel – who served as the first Home Minister of independent India – is credited with uniting all 562 princely states in pre-independent India to build the Republic of India. That is why it is called the ‘Statue Of Unity’. It is the world’s tallest statue, with a height of 182m. It located around 3.5 km downstream from the Sardar Sarovar Dam, on islet Sadhu Bet on the bed of the river Narmada. The statue was designed by 93-year-old acclaimed sculptor Ram V. Sutar, who is Padma Bhushan awardee. It is built by Larsen & Toubro Ltd at a cost of Rs. 2,989 crore. The Statue of Unity is made up of 70,000 tonnes of cement, 18,500 tonnes of reinforcement steel, 6,000 tonnes of structural steel and 1,700 metric tonnes of bronze, which was used for the outer cladding of the structure. The viewing gallery at the height of 135 metres can accommodate up to 200 people at a time.

Notes:
Steel manufacturing giant Tata Steel has been named as an official partner of the 14th edition of the FIH men’s hockey World Cup 2018 to continue their efforts of promoting development through sports across the country. The tournament is scheduled to be held at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha from November 28 to December 16. India will host the upcoming prestigious 2018 FIH World Cup for the 3rd time after having played hosts in 1982 in Mumbai and in 2010 in New Delhi. A total of 16 nations will take part in the tournament which will see each team play three matches during the league stage over a span of 12 days before four cross-over matches take place on December 10 and 11.

Notes:
Mary Kom, a five-time World Champion, has been named the Brand Ambassador of the 10th edition of theWomen’s World Boxing Championships (WWBC-2018). The World Championships is scheduled to be held at the IG Stadium’s K.D. Jhadav Hall in New Delhi from November 15 and 24. It will see close to 300 pugilists from 70 countries across 10 weight categories, the tournament’s highest-ever participation, including Olympic medalists, World and European Champions.

Notes:
India was partner country at Videocitta 2018 in the Rome Film Festival 2018, which was held from 18th to 28th October. The Indian delegation at the Film Festival was lead by Ashok Kumar Parmar, Joint Secretary of Ministry of I&B. The agenda of the Indian delegation was to showcase Indian films’ heritage, ease of film shooting in India, promoted film shooting locations in India, International Film Festival of India, Indian Cinema from different regions, Audio Visual Co-Production between India and Italy. This year, “Mare Pyare Prime Minister” was the India’s lone entry in Rome Film Festival. The film revolves around four children living in a Mumbai slum. One of them wants to build a toilet for his single mother and makes an appeal to the Prime Minister.

Notes:
India’s first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge “Signature Bridge” has recently inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal across the Yamuna River. The bridge connects Outer Ring Road on the western flank of the Yamuna river with the Wazirabad Road on the east. It shortens the travel time between north and northeast Delhi. The 675-metre long bridge, originally conceptualised in 2004, has finally available for public use from November 5. Just like the Eiffel Tower in France, Signature Bridge will also have the facility to transport tourists on top of the main pillar, which is 154 m high, from where distance view of North Delhi can be seen.The pylon of the Signature bridge is tallest structure in Delhi and is double the height of Qutb Minar, which act as selfie points for people.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has awarded the Assam Police for “good practices” under the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), an e-governance project. The award was given for citizen centric service delivery, in which the state police has automated passport verification and Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) services using the online CCTNS. Under the CCTNS, the force has recently launched a mobile application for ease of availability of services to the citizens, besides the existing online system.