Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2018

Notes:
The North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, which includes South Sentinel Island, in the Bay of Bengal. It is home to the Sentinelese who, often violently, reject any contact with the outside world, and are among the last uncontacted peoples to remain virtually untouched by modern civilisation. Recently, it is in news because the American national ‘John Allen Chau’ allegedly killed by people belonging to the protected Sentinelese tribe in the North Sentinel Island. It must be noted that North Sentinel Island and its buffer zone is strictly restricted under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 under Indian Forest Act, 1927. In it, it is declared that the traditional areas occupied by the tribes as reserves, and prohibited entry of all persons except those with authorisation. Photographing or filming the tribe members is also an offence. The rules were amended later to enhance penalties. But restricted area permits were relaxed for some islands recently.

Notes:
Bhavani Devi from India has won the gold in the Sabre event in the Senior Commonwealth Fencing Championship 2018 held in Canberra, Australia. She defeated England’s Emily Ruaux 15-12 in the final. With this feat, Bhavani became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the Commonwealth Championship. Earlier, Bhavani Devi won a silver medal in the Tournoi Satellite Fencing Championship in Iceland.

Notes:
The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) and Sashastra Sima Bal (SSB) have joined hands to provide full proof security to Dudhwa forests and its rich wildlife. As per agreement, all security agencies including SSB on the border, central and local intelligence officers, customs and excise officials, Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) and the Dudhwa field staff will strengthen the patrolling in and around Dudhwa to check forest and wildlife crimes. Hence, the joint long route patrolling comprising SSB, STPF and DTR field staff would be held at regular intervals. The DTR is located in the Terai of Uttar Pradesh and covers an area of 490.3 km2, with a buffer zone of 190 km2 (73 sq mi). It is home for tigers, leopards, Asiatic black bears, sloth bears, Swamp deer, rhinoceros, elephants, cheetal, hog deer, barking deer, sambar, wild boar and hispid hare.

Notes:
The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) has termed ‘Titli’, the severe cyclonic storm that devastated Odisha in October 2018, as ‘rarest cyclone’. In its latest report, RIMES stated that more than 200 years of cyclone track history in the Odisha coast reveals that the Titli cyclone is the rarest of rare due to the recurvature after its landfall. Titli retained its destructive potential after landfall and made a recurvature away from coastal areas for more than two days. According to RIMES, the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) faced challenges in anticipating and managing Titli’s impact due to lack of impact-based actionable early warning information and prior experience not only in India but also elsewhere. The RIMES has recommended that a detailed risk assessment has to be carried out for Odisha to understand the risks in the light of the Titli devastation. Earlier, India Meteorological Department had called the formation of Titli as a ‘rarest of rare’ occurrence. Thailand-based RIMES is a 45-nation international organisation on disaster warning.

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:
IIT Kharagpur has recently signed an MoU with Auckland University to foster academic exchange and research collaboration, faculty exchange and student mobility.The institutes will typically explore opportunities for research in healthcare technologies, new materials, cyber security and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is the first strategic partnership of University of Auckland with a higher educational institution in India. The MoU also involves the scope of outreach centers at IIT KGP and Auckland representing various prestigious higher educational institutions of both countries. At present Indian students form the third largest student community in New Zealand’s academic field with enrolments mostly in science, engineering and business.

Notes:
The Indian Organ Donation Day (IODD) is observed every year on 27th of November to motivate normal human beings to pledge to donate organs after death, and to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation. Organ Donation is donating a donor’s organs like heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, and pancreas, after the donor dies, for the purpose of transplanting them into another person who is in need of an organ. In 2018, the 9th IODD was organised by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) in Delhi.

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:
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.