Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
Yeshwant Deo (91), the veteran Marathi musician, has passed away recently in Dadar, Maharashtra on October 31, 2018. He had composed music for many films including Shabana Azmi-starrer “Saaz”. Born on 1st November 1926, Deo was a revered figure in the Marathi music circle and industry where he composed music for more than 40 Marathi films and plays. He worked in All India Radio (AIR) as a sitar player. A recipient of the Lata Mangeshkar award, Yeshwant was also known for his composition in Bhav Geet. He won several awards such as Maharashtra state award for music direction for the play Amrapali (1974). He also published books on devotional music.

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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:
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.

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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 US5m guarantee from the World Bank, and is also supported by a US5m 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.

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First time in Middle east, Qatar will host the 23rd edition of the World Corporate Games (WCG) in Doha in 2019, which will provide an opportunity for corporations around the world to showcase their competitive prowess through sports. It will be the first time that the WCG incorporate eSports and mindsports. The event features both individual and team competitions, open equally to women and men of all ages and abilities with team events for skilled, semi-skilled or novice participants.It is an all-inclusive event with paragames integrated for various categories as well. The World Corportate Games (WCG) aims to bring together, the local, regional and international business sporting community. The sporting event takes place every one to two years and the 2018 edition was held in Houston in the US.

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The World Vegan Day (WVD) is observed every year on November 1 to commemorate the holistic benefits of switching to veganism. Veganism is the practice of abstaining from consuming any animal products, including milk, curd, eggs, cheese, honey, and meat amongst other derived products.

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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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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.

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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.

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The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has formed a new industry expert committee to develop and promote an augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) ecosystem in India. The committee is chaired by Namrita Mahindro, Senior General Manager of digital transformation in Mahindra Group and co-chaired by Satyajeet Singh, Head –Strategic Product Partnership, India and South Asia, Facebook. The committee is a step in IAMAI’s efforts to evangelise the nascent technology’s ability to drive economic growth, job creation, and skill development in the country. The agenda of the committee will include nurturing India’s AR/VR technology and talent ecosystem, in particular by driving Skill Development; engaging with business, industry and government to evangelize acceptance of the technology and helping drive training workshops to familarise potential users with technology and build use cases, in key sectors.