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:
Gita Gopinath, professor at Harvard University, has been appointed chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The India-born economist will succeed Maurice (Maury) Obstfeld, who is to retire at the end of 2018.With this, Gopinath will become the 2nd Indian after former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to be appointed to the position. According to the IMF statement, Gopinath who is a US citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India, is co-editor of the American Economic Review and co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). She is co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics with former IMF Economic Counsellor Kenneth Rogoff. Currently, Gopinath is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is the third woman in the history of Harvard to be a tenured professor at its esteemed economics department and the first Indian since the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to hold that position.

Notes:
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan has recently launched an innovative initiative called SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) in New Delhi on 1st October 2018 to promote Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) as an alternative fuel. In it, Public sector oil marketing companies – Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum – will seek expression of interest from potential entrepreneurs to set up CBG production plants and make it available in the market for use as auto fuel. The Bio-gas is produced naturally through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste / bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste, etc. After purification, it is compressed and called CBG, which has pure methane content of over 95%. Compressed Bio-Gas is exactly similar to the commercially available natural gas in its composition and energy potential. Thus, this move will benefit vehicle-users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs.

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:
American scientist Arthur Ashkin, French engineer Gerard Mourou and Canadian professor Donna Strickland have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the field of laser physics. Dr. Ashkin has been awarded the Prize “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems. Dr. Mourou and Dr. Strickland have been awarded “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”. With this, Dr. Strickland has become the third female laureate to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, after Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Marie Curie.

Notes:
The World Habitat Day (WHD) is observed every year on first Monday in October across the world to raise awareness about need for affordable housing for all in urban areas, cities and towns. The purpose of day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The day is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. On 1st October 2018, the day is celebrated with ‘Municipal Solid Waste Management’ & slogan ‘Waste-wise cities’ to highlight the issue of municipal solid waste management challenge as global issue that affects everyone.

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:
Pankaj Sharma has been appointed India’s Ambassador & permanent representative to United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Sharma is currently the joint secretary (Disarmament and International Security Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He will replace Amandeep Gill.

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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept all key policy rates unchanged in its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review, which is recently announced on October 5, 2018. A six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by Governor Urjit Patel, decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% and the reverse repo rate at 6.25%. Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends to banks, while the reverse repo is the rate at which RBI borrows money from banks. Accordingly, the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate too were kept at 6.75%. On the growth front, RBI retained GDP growth projection for 2018-19 at 7.4%.