Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Dr Susane Giti has been appointed the first-ever female major general in the 47 years history of Bangladesh. She was presented with the rank badge of Major General by Bangladesh Army chief General Aziz Ahmed and Quarter Master General Lt General Md Shamsul Haque on September 30. Currently, she is the HOD of pathology department of Armed Forces Medical College. According to the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), Giti joined the medical wing of the Bangladesh armed forces in 1986 as a captain. She was also the first woman to pass FCPS degree in Hematology in 1996.

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:
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:
The Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC) has recently concluded in New Delhi on October 2. The purpose of the 4–day event was to share sanitation success stories and lessons from the participating countries. In it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the convention. MGISC is organised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to mark the beginning of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. The convention also coincides with the fourth anniversary of the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission. 53 Ministers of Sanitation from around the world and more than 160 international representatives from 68 countries participated in the convention. The international conference brings together Sanitation Ministers and other leaders in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) from around the world.

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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:
The first-ever Regional Conference on ‘Women in Detention and Access to Justice’ has recently held in Shimla on October 4-5, 2018. The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) organized the conference in collaboration with the Prison Department, Himachal Pradesh. This conference is organised with a view to provide a platform for the prison personnel of all ranks at the national level to share their candid views on various operational as well as administrative issues not only with their counterparts, but also with other experts of national repute in this field and also to identify best practices and standards in the working of Correctional Administration to meet new challenges in the present day’s context to bring out prison reforms in objective terms.

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:
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%.