Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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S S Deswal, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre, has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for a period up to his superannuation on August 31, 2021. He succeeded R K Pachnanda. Prior to this post, Deswal was the DG of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). The ITBP was raised on 24 October 1962 under the CRPF Act, in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962. It is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India. Apart from its primary task of guarding the 3,488-km India-China border, where ITBP troops are deployed at freezing heights of up to 18,700 feet, the paramilitary force is tasked with rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain, including undertaking anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh.

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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.

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Recently, China has successfully launched its first geostationary BeiDou-3 satellite ‘G1Q’ into high orbit (about 36,000 km above the Earth) to boost its home-grown BeiDou global satellite navigation system. It was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern Sichuan Province. In a geostationary orbit, following the Earth’s rotation, it will view the same point on Earth continuously. The satellite is meant to serve countries in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Apart from radio navigation system, the satellite is equipped with an improved radio determination satellite service that can provide short message services to 10 million subscribers each hour. With an advanced satellite-based augmentation system, the satellite can also provide low-cost and reliable navigation services to civil aviation clients at home and abroad. The satellite is carrying hydrogen and rubidium atomic clocks, which will play a key role in positioning and timing accuracy. It will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the United States (US) Global Position System (GPS), Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo. By around 2020, when the BeiDou system goes global, it will have more than 30 satellites.

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India has officially signed a $950 million contract with Russia for the purchase of two upgraded Krivak III-class stealth frigates for the Indian Navy. The two frigates of the Project 11356 class will be bought directly from Russia and a contract to build two more at an Indian yard is likely to be signed at a later stage. The frigates are built by Yantar Shipyard of Russia and will be powered by Ukrainian gas turbine engines. They will be equipped with Indian-built radar, sonar, communication suites and anti-ship BrahMos missile systems. The ships are expected to be delivered by the end of 2022. The procurement of the frigates will involve a rupee-rouble transaction instead of using U.S. dollars to avoid American sanctions on Russian defense companies under CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act). The Project 11356 is a derivative of the Talwar-class frigates that Russia has built for the Indian Navy.

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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.

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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.