Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The National Legal Services Day (NLSD) is celebrated every year on 9th of November in India to ensure reasonable fair and justice procedure for all citizens. It was first started by Supreme court of India (SCI) in the year 1995 to provide help and support to poor and weaker sections of the society. The Article 39A of Constitution provides free legal assistance to the poor and weaker sections of the society. It directs the State to ensure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. The Right to free legal aid or free legal service is an essential fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. It forms the basis of reasonable, fair and just liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which says, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”.

Notes:
The book titled “Notes of a Dream The Authorized Biography of A.R. Rahman” has been authored by Krishna Trilok. It is a magical journey of Oscar-winning musician A.R. Rahman. The book captures Rahman’s extraordinary success story with all the rhythm and melody, the highs and lows, of a terrific soundtrack by the man himself.

Notes:
Indian mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta from Bengal has become the first Indian to climb Mt Giluwe – the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea. He reached the summit of the mountain which is at an elevation of 4,367m on November 11, 2018. With this, Satya has scaled 5 of the 7 volcanic summits. In a few days, he will now set out to summit Mt Wilhelm – the highest mountain of Papua New Guinea. Once successful, Satya will be the first from India to scale these two mountains. In September 2018, Satyarup Siddhanta and Mousumi Khatua created history by climbing Asia’s highest volcanic peak Mount Damavand and became the first Bengalis to do so. Mt Damavand is the highest peak in Iran and also a potentially active volcano.

Notes:
On November 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in his parliamentary constituency in Varanasi and received the country’s first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata. This is the first of the four multi-modal terminals being constructed on the National Waterway-1 (River Ganga) as part of the World Bank-aided ‘Jal Marg Vikas Project’ of the Inland Waterways Authority of India. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,369.18 crore, which will be equally shared between the Government of India and the World Bank. The aim of the Centre’s Jal Marg Vikas Project is to develope the stretch of the river between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1,500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes. Its objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheap and an environment-friendly means of transportation, especially for cargo movement. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project implementing agency.

Notes:
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Siddharth Tiwari as the Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific. He succeeded Eli Remolona. At BIS, he will work to strengthen the connection between BIS and the central banks in the area he oversees. He will lead efforts to enhance understanding of issues that are important to central banks and supervisors in the region, contributing significantly to the BIS’s global work on central bank cooperation and financial stability issues. BIS is an international financial institution owned by central banks which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks. It is based in Basel, Switzerland,

Notes:
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa will be chief guest at the 2019 Republic Day parade of India. With this, Ramaphosa would become 2nd leader from his country to attend the event. Former president Nelson Mandela was the chief guest at the 1995 parade. An anti-apatheid activist and a Mahatma Gandhi follower, Ramaphosa became the 5th president of South Africa after the resignation of Jacob Zuma in December 2017. In April 2018, he led around 5,000 people at the annual ‘Gandhi Walk’ event in Lenasia near Johannesburg, to promote community awareness and fitness. Hence, the move to invite Ramaphosa also coincides with Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. South Africa is also a key BRICS association partner for India. Generally, chief guests of the parade are heads of states of countries that are strategically important to India, or heads of neighbouring countries.

Notes:
India’s first specialized hospital for elephants has opened by NGO Wildlife SOS (WSOS) in Mathura at Farah block’s Churmura village. The first-of-its-kind hospital has unique facilities including wireless digital X-ray, laser treatment, dental X-ray, thermal imaging, ultrasonography, hydrotherapy and quarantine facilities. The hospital is strategically located near elephant conservation and care centre. It is designed to treat injured, sickor geriatric elephants and is equipped with a medical hoist for lifting elephants, as also an elephant restraining device with a dedicated indoor treatment enclosure for long duration medical procedures.

Notes:
The 10th edition of joint military exercise between Indian and Russia “INDRA 2018” on combating insurgency has started at Babina Field Firing Ranges in Babina Military Station, Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) from 18th November 2018. The purpose of the exercise is to practice joint planning and conduct to enhance interoperability of the two Armies in the peace keeping/ enforcement environment under the aegis of the United Nations (UN). It focuses upon training on enhancing team building, special tactical level operations such as Cordon and Search, house intervention, handling and neutralisation of Improvised Explosive Devices and integrated employment of force multipliers. The primary focus of the tactical field exercise is to share best practices amongst the militaries and hone existing skills of the troops in the backdrop of interoperability between the two Armies in the peace keeping/ enforcement environment.

Notes:
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).