Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has appointed UIDAI CEO & GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey as new Secretary of Revenue in place of Hasmukh Adhia, who is set to superannuate on November 30. Pandey, who is 1984 batch Maharashtra-cadre IAS officer will continue to hold additional charge of CEO of UIDAI and also Chairman of GST Network. Interestingly, the government also appointed Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a 1984 batch IRS Officer, as Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) for two years. Similarly, Gujarat cadre IAS Girish Chandra Murmu will be new Secretary of Expenditure and will take over from AN Jha who will superannuate in January 2019.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi (India)-based independent research and advocacy think tank, has won the prestigious 2018 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. The CSE has been awarded for its pioneering pioneering work over almost four decades on various burning issues from air and water pollution, food safety, waste water management, climate change and so on. The award is conferred by Indira Gandhi Trust each year on the late Prime Minister’s birth anniversary. The international jury for the awards was headed by former President Pranab Mukerjee. The CSE was established in 1980 under leadership of the late Anil Agarwal and is presently headed by Sunita Narain.

Notes:
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has rolled out its Online Open Learning training platform ‘KOOL’. The platform can be used to train teachers, students and the general public. It is a six week course, which includes many features for learners in the form of animated learning assistants, video tutorials and check lists for practicing the activities. The other features includes creation of word documents, spreadsheet, presentation, image editing, video-audio editing, development of digital resources, Malayalam typing, internet, educational applications. KOOL has been designed in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) model. It is compulsory for teachers to successfully complete 45 hours of computer course in order to clear their probation. Teachers who successfully complete the course would be awarded certificates.

Notes:
Jalaj Srivastava, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, has been appointed the new chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). Prior to this post, he was working as Additional Secretary in Ministry of Agriculture. He is known for launching the “Shakti Cab” project and “URJA” project for women when he was with the Delhi government as chairman of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Principal Secretary in Department of VAT. He is also considered as the man behind the start of “Rahagiri” event that takes place every Sunday in the national capital to promote culture and sports. Jalaj is also the writer of a crime thriller novel titled ‘The Perfect Suicide’. The IWAI comes under the Union Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, currently headed by Nitin Gadkari.

Notes:
Tripura will host the 7th edition of International Tourism Mart (ITM-2018) in Agartala from 22nd November to popularise tourist destinations in the northeastern states of the country. The event would be organised with an estimated budget of Rs 2.60 crores, which would be provided by the Ministry of Tourism. In the 3-day long tourism fair, at least 60 tour operators from 18 foreign countries including Bangladesh, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, South Africa and Russia would attend the fair and engage in dialogue with the state tour operators, attend seminars and visit different tourist spots of the state. Apart from the foreign participants, 70 tour operators would join the tourism mart from the eight NE states. 30 others would participate from other states of the country.

Notes:
The Africa Industrialization Day (AID) is observed every year on November 20 to raise global awareness of the challenges faced by the continent with regard to industrialization. The African continent is the second most-populated continent in the world, home to over 1.2 billion people (or 16% of the world’s population). Despite this, Africa currently only accounts for less than 2% of international trade and global manufacturing. In March 2018, 49 of Africa’s 55 countries signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement meant to create a tariff-free continent that can grow local businesses, boost intra-African trade, rev up industrialization and create jobs.The 2018 theme is “Promoting Regional Value Chains in Africa: A pathway for accelerating Africa’s structural transformation, industrialization and pharmaceutical production”.

Notes:
Lakshya Sen from India has recently won bronze in men’s singles at the Li Ning World Junior Badminton Championship 2018, after suffering a narrow defeat to top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the men’s singles semifinals at Markham in Canada. This was India’s fifth boys singles bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Championships. Previously, RMV Gurusaidutt (2008), B Sai Praneeth (2010), HS Prannoy (2010) and Sameer Verma (2011) have won the bronze. Siril Verma (2015) is India’s only boys singles silver-medallist at the World Junior Championships. Apart from this, Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to have won a gold in the tournament during the 2008 Pune edition.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT Kharagpur have devised a Decision Support System (DSS) to help maximise the number of LPG connections in Below Poverty Level (BPL) households in the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)’ . A DSS is a computer programme that helps in making sound rational decisions using mathematical programming and operation research techniques. The DSS mathematical model devised at IIT KGP has found the optimum number of total (BPL) connections required in a region and the number of dealerships that need to be commissioned in a region over the policy time frame. This type of mathematical modeling of a policy (LPG) can be used as a reference for mathematical model. The PMUY, launched in May 2016, aimed at providing 5 crore LPG connections by 2019 to BPL families with the support of Rs 1,600 to each family. The Central government has recently revised the target to 8 crore LPG connections by 2020.

Notes:
Veteran cricketer Wasim Jaffer has become the highest run-scorer in the history of Ranji Trophy after scoring 11,056 runs in the competition. He surpassed Amol Muzumdar. Jaffer, who plays for Vidarbha, achieved the feat in the third round of the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy against Baroda by scoring 153 off 284 balls at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on November 21. He played 31 Tests and two ODIs for India. He last played for India in April 2008.