Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Karnataka Good Samaritan and Medical Professional (Protection and Regulation During Emergency Situations) Bill, 2016. The bill provides legal protection to the good samaritans in Karnataka, who help accident victims with emergency medical care within the golden hour. In medical terms, the ‘golden hour’ is the first hour after a traumatic injury when emergency treatment is very crucial. Now, the legislation will encourage people to offer first aid to victims without the fear of legal wrangles. With this, Karnataka has become the India’s first state to give legal protection to good samaritans. Under the new law, the Karnataka government will provide financial help to Good Samaritans who help victims. They will be exempted from repeated attendance in courts and police stations, and in case attendance is mandatory, expenses of such “running around to courts and police stations” will be taken care through the proposed Good Samaritan Fund.

Notes:
Arun Kumar, a 1985 batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed the new Director-General of Railway Protection Force (RPF). He will hold the charge as RPF’s DG till his superannuation on June 30, 2021. He succeeded Dharmendra Kumar. Prior to this post, Arun Kumar was the as Special Director General of Border Security Force (BSF). He has worked in several senior positions including that of Joint Director in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was incharge of probe into high profile cases like the murder of 13-year-old Aarushi Talwar in Noida in 2008. The RPF is a security force of India entrusted with protecting railway passengers, passenger area and railway property of the Indian Railways .It has the power to arrest, investigate and prosecute criminals. The force is under the authority of Ministry of Railways. The motto of RPF is “Service and Loyalty”.

Notes:
The Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporaton (KMC) has recently launched India’s first Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System (FFEWS) for Kolkata City to help city officials and citizens act decisively to minimize damage before and during disasters. India’s first comprehensive city-level ‘FFEWS’ will reduce economic loss and impacts on livelihood and improve flood awareness and safety at community level. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded the design and implementation of the FFEWS through a $1 million technical assistance to KMC from its Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund under the Urban Financing Partnership Facility.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently launched a new alcohol control initiative ‘SAFER’ to prevent and reduce alcohol-related death and disability. It provides five high-impact strategies that can help governments reduce the harmful use of alcohol and related health, social and economic consequences. The WHO-led initiative and action package aim to support global target of reducing harmful use of alcohol by 10% by 2025. It is the newest WHO-led roadmap to support governments in taking practical steps to accelerate progress on health, beat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) through addressing the harmful use of alcohol, and achieves development targets.

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Thampi Kannanthanam (64), the noted Malayalam film director, has recently passed away in Kochi, Kerala on October 2, 2018. He was most active during the period 1980-90. His most notable directorial films include Rajavinte Makan, Vazhiyorakazchakal, Bhoomiyile Rajakkanmar, Indrajaalam, Naadody, Chukkan, and Maanthrikam. He had also directed a Hindi film ‘Hadd’ starring Jackie Shroff and Ayesha Jhulka. Kannanthanam had also penned the scripts for movies like Janmantharam and Freedom.

Notes:
The International Day of Older Persons is observed on 1st October every year to reaffirm the commitment to promoting the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by older persons. The 2018 theme is, ‘Celebrating Older Human Rights champions’. The purpose of the day is to recognise the contributions of older persons and to examine issues that affect their lives. According to the United Nations, almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60, and by 2050, 2 billion people, over 20% of the world’s population, will be 60 or older. The increase in the number of older people will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, with Asia as the region with the largest number of older persons, and Africa facing the largest proportionate growth. With this in mind, enhanced attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by older people is clearly required.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first-ever General Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi from 2nd October 2018. He pitched for “one-world, one-sun, one-grid”, to harness the energy potential offered by the sun. Beside this, PM Modi also announced the “universalization” of membership for the first treaty-based international government organization headquartered in India that will help provide a platform for climate justice. The same event also marked the inauguration of the 2nd IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest (Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet and Expo). Over 150 speakers including 55 international speakers from 15 countries will take part in it. The India and France-led ISA is an inter-governmental treaty-based organisation of countries between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn to promote solar energy in the member nations.

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The 31st All India Railways Chess tournament 2018 has started at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu on October 3. The 4-day tournament has formally inaugurated by General Manager of Southern Railway, SM Kulshreshta. The event is being conducted in Swiss League Format at both team and individual levels. Around 87 players including five grandmasters and 18 international masters from 14 Zonal Railways and seven Production Units from across Indian Railways are participating in the event. The successful players from this tournament will represent Indian Railways in the National Chess Championship to be held in November 2018.

Notes:
Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has recently released the policy on the biometric-based digital processing of passengers at airports called “Digi Yatra” to make hassle-free air travel for passengers. Digi Yatra is about Facial Recognition based passenger processing which is a common standard being adopted the world over. It will facilitate paperless travel and avoid identity check at multiple points. In the first phase in February 2019, Hyderabad and Bengaluru international airports will have the system on a pilot basis. In the second phase, in April 2019, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will roll out the programme initially at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune and Vijayawada airports later on, all airports will adopt the system. Under the Digi Yatra, passenger can get a Digi Yatra ID by sharing minimum details like Name, e-mail ID, Mobile number and details of one approved Identity proof where Aadhar ID is not mandatory. This DigiYatra ID will be shared by passengers while booking ticket. Airlines will share the passenger data and DigiYatraID with the departure airport

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India has signed $150 million loan pact with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to establish its first-ever Global Skills Park (GSP) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The aim of the GSP is to enhance the quality of Technical and Vocational Education And Training (TVET) System in the State and create a more skilled workforce. The new GSP campus will consist of core Advanced Training Institutes including the Center for Occupational Skills Acquisition and the Center for Advanced Agricultural Training as well as other support services focusing on entrepreneurship, training of trainers, and skill-related research. The campus will have training facilities focusing on skills for manufacturing, service, and advanced agricultural jobs, benefitting about 20,000 trainees and trainers. The Project will also help in modernizing 10 industrial training institutes across the state by renovating training infrastructure and upgrading skills courses to align with industry and market needs.