Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
Emmy-nominated British actress Millie Bobby Brown (14) has been named the youngest-ever UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. The appointment was marked on 2018 World Children’s Day (WCD) at United Nations Headquarters and the Empire State Building in New York on 20th November. She has been tasked by the UN to help raise awareness around children’s rights and issues including poverty, bullying, education and violence. The World Children’s Day (WCD) is a global day of action ‘for children, by children’ to raise awareness and funds for the millions of children that are unschooled, unprotected and uprooted.

Notes:
The India Skills Report 2017 on employment scenario presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of demand and supply in the labour market. The report takes stock of the talent landscape by analysing the employability of youth and the needs and expectations of employers. Currently in its fourth edition, it also captures various initiatives taken by the government and its impact on economic growth. The report is a joint initiative by Confederation of Indian Industry, PeopleStrong, Wheebox, UNDP and AICTE.

Notes:
The National Law Day (NLD) is celebrated in India on 26th of November every year to commemorate the adoption of Constitution of India. The day is also known as Samvidhan Divas or Constitution Day. On this day in 1949, the constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India which came into force on 26th January 1950, marking the beginning of a new era in the history of India. On 19th November 2015, the Government of India (GoI) in a gazette notification declared November 26th as the Constitution Day. The year of 2015 was the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who had chaired the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly and played a pivotal role in the drafting of the constitution. The day was chosen to spread the importance of the constitution and to spread thoughts and ideas of Dr. Ambedkar.

Notes:
Playback singer Mohammed Aziz (64) has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on November 27, 2018. Born in Ashoknagar, West Bengal, he was the voice behind evergreen tracks such as “My name is Lakhan”, “Aap ke aa jane se” and “Dil le gayi teri bindiya”. Aziz, who has over 20,000 songs to his credit, has sung in Bollywood, Bengali and Odia film industries. He has recorded several devotional bhajans and Sufi songs as well. has recorded several devotional bhajans and Sufi songs as well. He made his film debut with Bengali film, “Jyoti”. His career spanned over three decades and his collaboration with music composers like Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rahul Dev Burman, Naushad, OP Nayyar, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan and Ravindra Jain have resulted in some of most iconic songs that people remember.

Notes:
The International Gita Festival 2018 will be held at Kurukshetra in Haryana from December 7-23 to commemorate the birth of ‘Srimad Bhagwat Gita’, the sacred scripture containing invaluable advice of Lord Krishna that he proffered to Arjuna, the third Pandava in the battlefield of Kurukshetra on the first day of the famous 18-day battle in the Mahabharata. In the fest, Mauritius will be the partner country and Gujarat the partner state. Approx 200 famous painters from across the country would reach Kurukshetra to draw paintings on the walls of Kurukshetra on the theme of the Mahabharata under the ‘paint-the-wall’ competition. Artists from India as well from Mauritius, Indonesia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Russia will perform during the annual festival.Apart from this, the Gita festival will also be organised in Mauritius on February 2019.

Notes:
Renowned flautist Pandit Keshav Ginde will be conferred the 2018 prestigious Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement (LTA) Award for Classical Music. Born in 1942 in Belgaum, Karnataka, Pt. Ginde hails from a family of musicians and started his musical training at the age of six. Ginde is credited with the designing of a new flute, which he named “Keshav Venu”, which can produce 3.5 octaves as against the maximum of 2.5 octaves achieved by other flutists. This special flute is 42 inches long and has been kept in the Archives of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in Delhi. The flute has also been recognized by the Limca Book of Records as the only flute that can produce 3.5 octaves. The annual LTA award, instituted by Maharashtra Government, honours maestros in classical music and singing. It carries a cash award of Rs 500,000, a memento and a citation,

Notes:
In Kenya, the first-ever Sustainable Blue Economy Conference 2018 was held in Nairobi from November 26 to 28 with theme ‘The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. The global conference was organized by Kenya, with Canada and Japan as co-hosts. Over 4,000 participants from around the world participated in it. From India, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari addressed the conference. In it, Gadkari said India has a strategic location in the Indian Ocean region, and on this basis, it endorses the growth of the Blue Economy in a sustainable, inclusive and people centred manner through the framework of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). The Blue Economy refers to sustainable use of ocean resources for growth, jobs and improved living standards, while preserving the ecosystem. It encompasses areas like maritime transport, fisheries, renewable energy, waste management and tourism.

Notes:
‘Walking with the Wind’, directed by Praveen Morchhale, has won the 2018 ICFT –UNESCO Gandhi Medal. The award is instituted by the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO. The criteria for the Gandhi Medal reflect UNESCO’s fundamental mandate of building peace in the mind of men and women, particularly human rights, intercultural dialogue, promotion and safeguard of diversity of cultural expressions. ’Walking with the Wind’ tells the story of a 10 year old boy in Himalayan Terrain, who mistakenly breaks his friend’s school chair. His daily 7 km long journey to school in mountainous terrain on a donkey, turns mammoth and challenging when he decides to bring the chair to his village.

Notes:
The 13th edition of G20 summit 2018 will be held at Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina on November 30 under the theme ‘Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development’. The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world and will cover the entire gamut of economic issues, including the agricultural sector reform, the challenges climate change poses and health-care issues faced by the world. From India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to highlight problems of oil price volatility which has a direct impact on the Indian economy in the G 20 platform. Digital revolution and skill India are also among the issues to be discussed during the summit.

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On November 29, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched its earth observation satellite ‘ Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) into orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. Beside HysIS, The rocket ‘PSLV-C43’ successfully injected 30 small satellites of 8 nations into their designated orbits. With this launch, India will have an eye in the sky to capture the images of the earth surface in high definition. The satellite HysIS can send pictures and data in multiple frequencies with high resolution. Its data will be useful in many fields including agriculture, forestry, soil survey, geology, coastal zone studies, inland water studies, environmental monitoring and pollution detection from industries. The primary mission of the HysIS, whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth’s surface in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In simple words, HysIS is the India’s first hyperspectral imaging satellite for advanced Earth observation and ISRO’s first full-scale working satellite with this capability.