Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

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:
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:
Ntozake Shange (70), the noted African-American Playwright, poet and author, has passed away in Maryland, United States on October 27, 2018. Her most acclaimed theatre piece is the 1975 Tony Award-nominated play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf”, which describe the racism, sexism, violence and rape experienced by seven black women. She also penned several novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo , Liliane, and Betsey Brown.

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:
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.

Notes:
The first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health was held at World Health Organisation (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva on October 30, 2018. The 2-day conference was organized by WHO in collaboration with UN Environment, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The theme of the conference was: “Improving Air Quality, Combating Climate Change- Saving Lives”. Some 92% of people worldwide breathe unhealthy air, resulting in about 6.5 million deaths annually. In it, household air pollution is a leading killer in poor rural and urban homes. Thus, the event responds to a World Health Assembly mandate to combat one of the world’s most significant causes of premature death. At the conclusion of the Conference, participants agreed an aspirational goal of reducing the number of deaths from air pollution by two thirds by 2030.

Notes:
The ‘Little India Gate’, the first-of-its-kind structure in Indonesia, has recently inaugurated at Kampung Madras or Madras Village area in Medan city, the 4th largest city in the country. It recognises the contribution of Indian community in the development of Medan city. The new structure was jointly by India’s ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste Pradeep Kumar Rawat and Mayor of Medan H T Dzulmi Eldin S. About 7,000 people witnessed the historic moment with great enthusiasm. The Kampung Madras area is one of the city’s significant ethnic enclaves comprising a large population of people of Indian descent whose ancestors had settled down in Medan in mid-19th century. Every year, Kampung Madras becomes a meeting point for Hindu and Tamil festivals such as Thaipusam or the Tamil New Year, Pongal and Deepavali.

Notes:
HSBC Holdings Plc has executed India’s first trade financial transaction using blockchain for a deal involving an export by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to US-based Tricon Energy. The blockchain-enabled letter of credit (LC) reduces transaction timeline from 7-10 days to less than a day. The Letter of Credit (LC) was issued by ING Bank for Tricon Energy USA (importer) with HSBC India as the advisory and negotiation bank for RIL. The blockchain platform was integrated with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) platform to issue and manage an electronic bill of lading. This allows a digital transfer of the title of goods from the seller to the buyer in the underlying trade. It is claimed that the blockchain solution is a major improvement for any organisation involved in buying and selling goods internationally, as it brings together all parties onto one platform. It is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of ordered records called blocks and is deemed to be very transparent as all the stakeholders can view progress real time.

Notes:
The Supreme Court of India (SCI) has recently given nod for a separate High Court for Andhra Pradesh and it will start functioning from 1st January 2019. It will be the 25th high court in the country and will initially function from a temporary structure till the permanent building comes up in the ambitious Justice City complex in the State’s capital Amaravati. Since the bifurcation of the State on June 2, 2014, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have had a common high court situated at Hyderabad. The existing court will from next year be known as the Telangana High Court.