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.

Notes:
Louis Cha Jing-yong (94), a Hong Kong journalist and best-selling Chinese martial arts novelist, has passed away in Happy Valley, Hong Kong on October 30, 2018. Cha’s first novel, “The Book and the Sword,” was published in 1955 and became an instant hit. He went on to write 14 martial arts novels, often under the pen name Jin Yong. His works have the unusual ability to transcend geographical and ideological barriers separating Chinese communities of the world, achieving a greater success than any other contemporary writer. His works have been translated into many languages including English, French, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Malay and Indonesian. According to ‘The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature’, Jin’s novels are considered to be of very high quality and are able to appeal to both highbrow and lowbrow tastes.

Notes:
The scientists at CSIR have developed Less Polluting ‘Green’ Firecrackers which are not only environment friendly but 15-20 % cheaper than the conventional ones. These crackers have been named as Safe Water Releaser (SWAS), Safe Minimal Aluminium (SAFAL) and Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR). The commonly used pollution-causing chemicals – aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon – have either been removed or sharply reduced in the green crackers to reduce emissions by 15-30% . These eco-friendly firecrackers have the unique property of releasing water vapour and /or air as dust suppressant and diluent for gaseous emissions and matching performance in sound with conventional crackers. SWAS eliminates usage of (KNO3) Potassium nitrate and Sulphur, while STAR eliminates usage of KNO3 and S. On the other side, SAFAL has minimal usage of aluminium (only in flash powder for initiation) as compared to commercial crackers.The main point to be noted here is that these crackers match the same sound intensity with that of commercial crackers in the range of 105-110 decibel. The new crackers have been developed by scientists of two national labs of CSIR- Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI) based in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in Nagpur.

Notes:
On November 1, former Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid has officially been inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame for his stupendous achievements in international cricket. In a ceremony held ahead of the fifth and final ODI between India and West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram, Dravid was presented with the HoF cap by Sunil Gavaskar. With this, Dravid became only the fifth player from India to be named in the elite list. The other four Indians are former skippers Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble. Dravid, also popularly known as ‘the Wall’ had been a long-standing rock of Indian cricket for over 15 years. In all, he aggregated 13,288 runs in 164 Tests with 36 centuries and 10,889 runs in 344 ODIs with 12 centuries. He was also a brilliant slip fielder and finished his Test career in 2012 with 210 catches, which is a world record. He is currently the head coach of India A and India U-19 sides.

Notes:
Simone Biles, an American artistic gymnast, has become the first ever gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals with victory in the individual vault competition in Doha, Qatar on November 2, 2018. She broke the all-time record set by Belarusian male gymnast Vitaly Scherbo in 1996.

Notes:
India and Japan has recently a Loan Agreement worth Rs. 1817 crore for the ‘Project for the Construction of Turga Pumped Storage (I)’ in the State of West Bengal. The purpose of the Project is to strengthen the capability to respond to fluctuation in supply and demand of power and to improve stability of the power supply by constructing the pumped storage facilities, thereby contributing to the Industrial Development and Living Standard Improvement in the State of West Bengal.

Notes:
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:
On November 4, the National Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Ayurveda was started at Dr. Ambedkar International centre in New Delhi. The 2-day seminar is being organised by Ministry of AYUSH in association with NITI Aayog with the aim of encouraging entrepreneurs and Ayurveda stakeholders towards businesses opportunities in the sector. The seminar is expected to develop awareness among stakeholders about business opportunities, encouraging young entrepreneurs to use modern technologies and highlight opportunities at global level. Experts in marketing, innovation, policymakers, experts in start-up as well as experienced entrepreneurs in Ayurveda pharmaceuticals and hospital industry will guide and share their experiences with the participants. Nearly 800 participants from across the country are expected to take part in the seminar.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated steps to set up a wide-based digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture details of all borrowers, including wilful defaulters and also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies. The PCR will also include data from entities like market regulator SEBI, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to enable the banks and financial institutions to get 360 degree profile of existing and prospective borrowers on a real-time basis. The central bank has invited expression of interest for developing the registry from companies with a turnover of over 100 crore rupees in the last three years. The PCR would be the single point of mandatory reporting for all material events for each loan, notwithstanding any threshold in the loan amount or type of borrower. Currently, there are multiple granular credit information repositories in India, with each having somewhat distinct objectives and coverage.

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.