Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

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The US-based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has recently published the report titled ‘Mobility and Congestion in Urban India’. In it, Bengaluru has been ranked India’s most congested city followed by Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune. The report further found that Bengaluru was the second slowest city in terms of traffic speeds only behind Kolkata. The report also notes that in terms of traffic speeds, the fastest Indian cities surveyed were slower than the American cities surveyed. The researchers studied 154 Indian cities and measured trips based on the web-mapping service ‘Google Maps’. They particularly studied pairs of trip instances taking place around the same time on different days. The study was conducted by a team of researchers at theUniversity of California, Berkeley and three other U.S. universities.

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Twitter India has recently launched a new social initiative #PowerOf18, which aims to encourage youth to contribute in public debates and participate in civic engagement for the 2019 general elections. The #PowerOf18 will serve as a resource for young Indians to find more information about the elections, support social causes they are passionate about and join the public conversation. The initiative was launched by CEO Jack Dorsey and Maya Hari, Vice-President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Twitter during a townhall chat with the students of IIT Delhi.

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On November 12, The 17th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting was held in Singapore as part of the 33rd ASEAN Summit and Related Summit Meetings. Apart from taking stock of regional economic integration efforts during the year, it also reiterated ASEAN’s commitment to free and open trade by deepening the integration of its economies and realising the AEC Blueprint 2025. The blueprint seeks sustained and long-term growth for the ASEAN region. The meeting was attended by the ASEAN Economic Ministers and AEC Ministers. They signed the ASEAN Agreement on e-Commerce, Concluded the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA) and Finalised the 4th Protocol to Amend the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA).

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The World Diabetes Day (WDD) is observed every year on November 14 to raise awareness among families to discover, prevent and manage diabetes. It is the primary global awareness campaign focusing on diabetes mellitus The theme for WDD 2018 – 2019 is “The Family and Diabetes – diabetes concerns every family”. It focuses on the fact that families need to work together in adopting a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent and manage diabetes.

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Late Dr. Martha Farrell has been honoured with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 6th Indian Social Work Congress in New Delhi. Dr. Farrell is being recognized for her lifelong work towards gender equality, women’s empowerment and prevention of sexual harassment at workplace. She was among 14 people killed in a terrorist attack on a guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 13, 2015. Dr. Farrell had been leading a gender training workshop with the Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul at the time of the attack. Suheil Tandon, Martha’s son along with the team of Martha Farrell Foundation received the award.

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On November 14, ISRO’s GSAT-29 telecommunications satellite was successfully launched into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) by the second developmental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MarkIII (GSLV MkIII-D2) from the the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The 3,423kg GSAT-29 is a multiband, multi-beam communication satellite, intended to serve as test bed for several new and critical technologies. Its Ku-band and Ka-band payloads are configured to cater to the communication requirements of users including those from remote areas especially from Jammu & Kashmir and North-Eastern regions of India. It is designed for a mission life of 10 years. The GSLV Mk III is the 5th generation launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is designed to place a satellite of upto 4000 kg in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

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On November 14, the United Nations Children’s Fund — India (UNICEF-India) has appointed Asian Games gold-medalist sprinter Hima Das as the country’s first ever youth ambassador as part of 2018 World Children’s Day (WCD) celebration. She will work towards supporting various initiatives by UNICEF. In her role as a Youth Ambassador, Hima will work towards raising awareness about the rights and needs of children and help amplify the voices of children and young people as active participants in decision making, thus contributing to their holistic development. Hailing from Nagaon district of Assam, Das clinched a gold in Women’s 4×400 metre relay event and silver in the 400 meters sprint at the 2018 Asian Games.

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The Maharashtra government has recently cleared reservation to the Maratha community under a new category called ‘Socially and Educationally Backward Class’ (SEBC) in educational institutes & jobs. Hence, the Marathas will get reservation from an independent quota and this will not affect the reservations given to the Other Backward Class (OBC). As per report of State Backward Class Commission, the SEBC category can be extended benefits of reservation under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution, and in view of such extra-ordinary and exceptional condition, the state government is liable to take action. At present, the total reservation in Maharashtra is 52% — 13% for SCs, 7% for STs, 19% for OBC, 2% for Special Backward Classes (SBCs), 3% for Vimukta Jati, 2.5% for Nomadic Tribe-B, 3.5% for Nomadic Tribe-C (Dhangar) and 2% for Nomadic Tribe-D (Vanjari). The politically dominant Maratha community constitutes over 30% of the state’s population.

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The World Toilet Day (WTD) is observed every year on 19th of November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. The 2018 theme is “When Nature Calls”. Hence, this year’s campaign is based on the narrative: When nature calls, we need a toilet. But, billions of people don’t have one. This means human faeces, on a massive scale, are not being captured or treated – contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. We are turning our environment into an open sewer. We must build toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with ecosystems. Therefore, the Nature-based sanitation solutions (NBS) harness the power of ecosystems to help treat human waste before it returns to the environment. Most NBS essentially involve the protection and management of vegetation, soils and/or wetlands, including rivers and lakes.

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In Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently laid foundation of India’s first Sri Vishwakarma Skill Development University at village Dudhola in Palwal district via remote control . The University would impart skill training to the youth and encourage them to be self employed. It’s campus would be developed over 82.7 acres at a sum of over Rs 1,000 crore. PM Modi also inaugurated the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), which is popularly known as Kundali-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway. The six-lane KMP expressway is expected to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in Delhi. It will act as a ring road around Delhi and also could reduce heavy vehicle traffic by diverting up to 50,000 commercial vehicles away from Delhi. KMP will connect National Highway-1 (towards Panipat), near Kundli, with National Highway -10 (Rohtak Road, near Bahadurgarh), NH-8 (Jaipur expressway at Manesar), and NH-2 (Delhi-Agra highway near Palwal).