Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

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 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has expected India’s economy to grow 7.0% in calendar year 2018 compared with 6.2% in 2017. As per the report “Trade and Development”, the effects of demonetization are still evident in private consumption trends within the economy. It also emphasised that countries like India and Thailand, which have been most favoured by foreign investors and experienced the largest spike in asset prices, would be most vulnerable to capital outflows. Further, countries like India which are dealing with Current Account Deficits (CAD) have a tendency of reducing imports. This assumes significance in the wake of India putting in place measures to control the rising CAD and capital outflows.

Notes:
On the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal hoisted India’s tallest National Flag from the average city elevation at the Gandhi Mandap in Guwahati. The 9,600 sq ft flag stands on a 319.5 ft flag pole at Gandhi Mandap, a memorial for Mahatma Gandhi atop the Sarania Hill in the heart of Assam’s principal city. The tip of the flag pole from the base of the hill is about 300 metres that makes it the tallest from the mean sea level. It carries a flag of 120×80 feet dimension. Though, considering only the height of the flag pole, the National Flag at Gandhi Mandap is the third tallest in the country after Punjab’s Attari border (360 ft) and Pimpri Chinchwad Bhakti Shakti Chowk, Pune (351 ft). The total cost of the National Flag installation project is Rs 2.92 crore, which includes operations and maintenance for a period of one year.

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.

Notes:
On the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign – Udyam Abhilasha, in 115 aspirational districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States. The purpose of the campaign is to inspire rural youth in aspirational districts to be entrepreneurs by assisting them to set up their own enterprise. The 6-day campaign would run parallel from 3rd October across India. It would create and strengthen cadre of more than 800 trainers to provide entrepreneurship training to the aspiring youths, encouraging them to enter the admired segment of entrepreneurs. The SIDBI has partnered with Common service centres, e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and IT for implementing the campaign. SIDBI is the principal financial institution for the promotion, financing and development of the MSME sector.

Notes:
Barham Ahmed Salih, the veteran Kurdistan politician, has been elected as the new President of Iraq on 2nd October 2018. He received 219 votes and defeated Fuad Hussein, who secured 22 votes. Salih is a former prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and a former deputy prime minister of the Iraqi federal government. The new president will have 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a new government. However, President Saleh has named veteran Shia Islamist politician Adel Abdul Mahdi as prime minister-designate & ended months of deadlock. Now, Mr. Mahdi will have to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq following the four-year battle against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which left tens of thousands of homes and business destroyed and displaced more than three million people. Under a de facto power-sharing deal agreed in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, the Iraq’s presidency is held by a Kurd, while the prime minister is Shia and the speaker of parliament is Sunni.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The World Teachers’ Day (WTD), also known as International Teachers Day, is held every year on October 5 to focus on “appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world” and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching. The day also commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. For 2018, the UNESCO adopted the theme: “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher”. It commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and serves as a reminder that the right to education cannot be realized without trained and qualified teachers.

Notes:
Vikram Limaye, the MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange’s (NSE), has been appointed the Chairman of the Working Committee (WoCo) and Director on the Board of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). The decision was taken at the global body’s 58th general assembly and annual meeting that is currently underway in Athens, Greece. The WFE is the global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses. It represents nearly 45,000 listed companies & has its headquarters in London. It works with policy makers and regulators around the world to support the development of effective rules and standards for exchanges and market participants.

Notes:
The Union government has constituted the high-level Strategic Policy Group (SPG) to assist the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the prime minister on matters of national security and strategic interests. The SPG will be chaired by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and its members include the NITI Aayog vice chairman, the cabinet secretary, the chiefs of the three defence services, the RBI governor, the foreign secretary, the home secretary, the finance secretary and the defence secretary. The secretary of the Department of Defence Production and Supplies, the scientific adviser to the defence minister and the secretary (R), Cabinet Secretariat will also be members of the panel. The group will assist the National Security Council and undertake among other tasks, a long-term strategic review of country’s security affairs.