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:
The world’s largest airport terminal “under one roof” has officially been opened in Istanbul on October 29, which marks the Republic Day of Turkey. It is dubbed as phase-1A of the project – Istanbul New Airport – will have a capacity to handle 90 million passenger per year. The first phase has costed 7.5 billion Euro. The airport has been envisioned to have a total capacity of up to 200 million passengers, once all four phases are completed in the next 10 years. The new terminal once fully functional by December-end will allow passengers to use its five pier blocks as well as 77 boarding gates and 143 aero-bridges. The new airport is located near the Black Sea coast on the Europe side of Istanbul. It features two runways, while 114 narrow body aircraft can dock with the terminal building at the same time. This new airport is also slated to become Turkish Airlines’ new hub.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government is building a world-class and India’s first ‘Justice City’ within its new capital Amaravati with the vision to provide a state-of-the-art ecosystem built on latest technology for supporting the judicial system in the state. The Justice City will comprise integrated judicial hub spread across 3,309 acres with an estimated population of 2.5 lacs. It is expected to generate employment for more than 1.3 lac people. The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA). is the nodal agency which is developing Amaravati.

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 Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) organized a seminar on Gandhian Thought and Swachhata in Wardha district of Maharashtra on October 29, 2018. It was part of 150th birth year celebrations of Father of the Nation. The seminar was centered on the Gandhian ideology on sanitation and the implementation of the same through the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). It addressed on topics such as appropriate technologies in rural sanitation, organic waste management, and preventive sanitation. The main focus of the seminar was the Gandhi ji’s concept of Swachh evam Swawalambhi Sankul. The SBM campaign is a massive people’s movement, which has shown significant progress with the rural sanitation coverage having increased from 39%, at the launch of the SBM in 2014, to over 95% today. With 8.7 crore toilets constructed, 5.15 lakh villages, 530 districts and 25 States and Union Territories have been declared ODF. The campaign was officially launched on 2nd October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Notes:
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’.

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:
Justice Debasish Kar Gupta has recently been sworn-in as the new chief justice of the Calcutta High Court. It is the oldest High Court in India and has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The seat of the High Court is Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. The High Court building’s design is based on the Cloth Hall, Ypres, in Belgium.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Maharashtra Cabinet has recently approved the conversion of decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat into a floating museum. It will be India’s first-ever moored maritime museum-cum-marine adventure centre. As per primary estimates, the project worth Rs 852 crore will be implemented through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). It will be grouted (grounded, sealed to the seabed with concrete and moored) seven nautical miles off the Malvan coast at Nivati rocks in Sindhudurg. This will enable the tourists to see the diverse aquatic life and experience sky-diving, sailing and other thrilling sporting activities. Besides, it will make the new generation familiar with the glorious history of INS Viraat. INS Viraat, which holds a place of pride in Indian defence history, was decommissioned in March 2017 and since then has been laid up at the Naval Dockyard. INS Viraat was commissioned by Navy in 1987 and had taken part in all major military operations such as Operation Jupiter (1988, Sri Lanka peacekeeping mission), Operation Vijay (1999, post-Kargil), and Operation Parakram (2001, after Parliament attack). It was made in 1959 for the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy as ‘HMS Hermes’ and was instrumental in the Falklands War victory. It is 743-foot long and 160-foot wide with a height of 29 feet.