Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

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 book, titled ‘The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women’s Cricket in India’, is co-authored by sports journalists Karunya Keshav and Sidhanta Pathak. This is the first comprehensive history of women’s cricket that documents the entire gamut of the women’s game starting from its humble beginnings, its spirited journey through its early years to the present-day when truly, the game has come of age. It talks about the numerous “twist and turns” of women’s cricket, including the early days of pioneers like Diana Eduljee and Shantha Rangaswamy in the early ’70s and the stars of today like Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur. The book will be launched as part of the publishing house’s new imprint, Westland Sport on November 30, 2018.

Notes:
The 2018 National Ayurveda Day (NAD) is celebrated on November 5 with the theme “Ayurveda for Public Health” to create awareness on people’s health. The day focus on strengths of Ayurveda and its unique treatment principles. It create a sense of awareness in today’s generation and promote Ayurvedic principles of healing in society. The main aim of Ayurveda is the prevention of disease and promotion of health. Lord Dhanvantari is considered as divine propagator of Ayurveda. He is conferred with the virtues of granting health and wealth. Hence, Dhanvantari Jayanti (Dhanteras) was preferred for celebration of Ayurveda Day to nationalize this system of medicine which can prove to be a cornerstone for its ultimate globalization.

Notes:
In Bhubaneswar, the Odisha government has recently rolled out the technology-driven and citizen-friendly ‘Mo bus’ service featuring free wi-fi, CCTV surveillance, public information display system and on board announcements in the city. The service was launched as a part of state government-owned Capital Region Urban Transport’s (CRUT) ‘City Bus Modernisation’ programme.It will also provide the Mo Bus mobile app through which passengers can book their tickets and get to know the locations of the vehicle to minimise their waiting time at the Bus Queue Shelters (BQS). The BQS will have advanced features like digital screens to display the bus route numbers and their arrival times for the waiting passengers. The bus service has been launched for the residents of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri.

Notes:
India has been elected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council for another four-year term from 2019 to 2022. The elections to the Council were held during the ongoing ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 at Dubai. India secured 165 votes and ranked third among the 13 countries elected to the council from the Asia-Australasia region, and 8th among the 48 countries elected to the council globally. The ITU has 193 member states who elect representatives to the Council. India has been a regular member of the ITU Council since 1952, and has played an important role in harmonising the contributions of member states from the region, always respecting the principles of equality and consensus-building.

Notes:
The tenure of the Lok Sabha Secretary General, Snehlata Shrivastava, has been extended by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for one year. Snehlata, who is 1982-batch retired IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was appointed last year in rank and status of a Cabinet Secretary. She was scheduled to retire on the 30th of this month. Her extension will be effective from the 1st of December 2018 to the 30th of November 2019. She is the first woman Secretary General of the Lok Sabha.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved Amendment to the Central Universities Act – 2009 for setting up of a Central Tribal University in Andhra Pradesh. A fund of Rs 420 crore has been granted as the first phase expenditure towards the establishment of the University. The ‘Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh’ will be set up in Relli village of Vizianagaram district as provided under the 13th schedule to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Notes:
China’s state news agency Xinhua has recently launched the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) news anchor at the ongoing 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. The anchor resembles a male human anchor with the voice and facial expressions of a real person. “He” learns from live broadcasting videos by himself and can read texts as naturally as a professional human anchor. Two AI news anchors that can read news in English as well as Mandarin were jointly developed by Xinhua and the Chinese search engine “Sogou”. The anchors were developed through Machine Learning (ML) programme to simulate the voice, facial movements, and gestures of real-life broadcasters, to present a “a lifelike image instead of a cold robot”.

Notes:
In India, the National Cancer Awareness Day (NCAD) is observed every year on 7th of November to remove all stops to lower the national cancer burden by generating awareness about early detection and avoiding leading cancer causing lifestyles. The main motto of the special day is to educate people on early detection & cure of cancer. It is estimated that there are about 2.9 million cases of cancer in the country with 1.1 million new cases being reported annually. Two-thirds of cancer cases are diagnosed at the advanced stage.

Notes:
The 33rd edition of ASEAN summit 2018 has started in the city-state of Singapore on November 11 with theme ‘Resilient and innovative Asean’. The main event is being held at Suntec Singapore Convention Centre, wherein the ten ASEAN members will be discussing key issues on economic, security and cultural cooperation. The summit is being chaired by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Besides the main event, several related meetings like Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), East Asia Summit (EAS) and Fintech Festival are also taking place during the 5-day event. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the East Asia Summit and Associated meetings of ASEAN on 14th and 15th November in Singapore. In the biggest of its kind event more than 400 companies from over 100 countries are taking part as exhibitors.