Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
On October 9, Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga from Mizoram has scripted history by clinching India’s first-ever gold at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Men’s 62kg Group A weightlifting, Jeremy posted successful attempts of 120kg and 124kg in snatch and 142kg and 150kg in clean & jerk. With his best successful attempts of 124kg in snatch and 150kg in clean & jerk for a combined 274kg, he won the gold medal.

Notes:
India has been ranked 147th among 157 countries at the UK-based charity Oxfam International’s ‘Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index’ 2018. The 2nd edition of the annual index finds that countries such as South Korea, Namibia and Uruguay are taking strong steps to reduce inequality. However, countries such as India and Nigeria “do very badly” overall. In reference to India, the index finds that the tax structure looked reasonably progressive on paper but in practice much of the progressive taxation, like on incomes of the richest, was not collected. India also fared poorly on labour rights and respect for women in the workplace.The index was topped by Denmark, followed by Germany, Finland, Austria and Norway.

Notes:
At the 2018 Asian Para Games, Indian javelin thrower Sundar Singh Gurjar won a silver in the men’s F46 category with an effort of 61.33m in which two-time Paralympic gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia finished fourth. In the same event, Rinku picked up a bronze to make it an India-dominated podium. The F46 category of disability covers upper limb deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement.

Notes:
Senegal will host the 4th summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2022, the first to take place on the African continent. The 2022 decision was taken at a two-day International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting on the sidelines of the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympics. Senegal will host the youth games in three places: Dakar; a new city of Diamniadio, close to the capital; and the coastal resort of Saly. The games will be held in May or June, at the end of the dry season to greatly reduce the prevalence of tropical diseases. Thousands of athletes age 15-18 from over 200 countries usually participate in the summer games competing in over 40 sports as diverse as badminton, boxing, fencing, table tennis, rugby, and weightlifting.

Notes:
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has participated in the 17th Council of Heads of Government (CHG-2018) meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan from October 11th to 12th .The SCO CHG meeting is a forum that enables India to engage with SCO member countries and Observer states of Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia. It is the first major meeting since Kyrgyzstan took over as chair of the Organisation. The leaders discussed prospects for further development of SCO and exchanged in-depth views on current international and regional issues. This was the 2nd CHG meeting since India became a full member of SCO in June 2017. Last year, CHG meeting was held in Sochi, Russia and was also attended by EAM.

Notes:
Tata Group veteran Sunil Bhaskaran has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of low cost carrier AirAsia India with effect from November 15, 2018. He will oversee the next phase of expansion and growth of the company, AirAsia India said in a statement. The airline, jointly owned by Tata Sons and Air Asia Bhd, has been without a CEO for the past six months. Currently, Bhaskaran is vice president of corporate services at Tata Steel and has over three decades of experience in the fields of manufacturing, export and commercial operations with the Tata group. AirAsia India has a market share of less than 5% and a fleet of 19 aircraft.

Notes:
In Jammu, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently signed pact with the Central University of Jammu (CUJ) to set up the ‘Satish Dhawan Center for Space Science’ to expand its presence to the northernmost state of India. The space centre at CUJ is proposed to be spread on an area of about 1,150 square metres. It will have facilities for Geospatial Data analysis that will help in sustainable use of natural resources and planning land-use pattern. It will have ground-based observations for Atmospheric Studies, research lab for astrophysics, Atmospheric Sensing and Glacier studies Lab for better use of large quantity of water stored in the form of seasonal snow, ice and glaciers in the rivers of North India. Apart from this, Disaster Management Center will also be set up here that would be able to take up research in the area of different disasters like flood, Landslides, forest fires, drought and climate change.

Notes:
India’s first-ever India-Israel Innovation Centre (IIIC), an entrepreneurial technology hub, was launched at the 3rd edition of IoT India Congress in Bengaluru, Karnataka on October 10, 2018. The IIIC is a significant step towards facilitating penetration of Israeli companies in India and aims to forge local partnerships and joint ventures between companies from the two countries. It will provide an ecosystem to support entrepreneurship, partnership with vendors, mentoring and non-formal community development that will assist the growth of the companies in different verticals and covers business, technology, investors and customers. The start-ups that are part of IIIC will be given mentorship and guidance and opportunities to participate at all IIIC’s global events and experience networking avenues with potential customers. The IIIC was launched by Ramanan Ramanathan, the Mission Director of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).

Notes:
The biography of late Anumolu Ramakrishna titled ‘Building a Legacy’ is authored by city-based Chartered Accountant V Pattabhi Ram. It was recently released by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Ramakrishna, former President and MD at Larsen and Toubro (L&T), was posthumously awarded Padma Bhushan in 2014. He was instrumental in constructing several path breaking buildings including Tirumala queue complex, Hitech city, and Nehru Indoor Stadium. Ramakrishna was born in December 1939 and died on August 20, 2013 at Hyderabad.

Notes:
India and China have launched their first joint programme for Afghanistan to train its diplomats from October 15-26 under the aegis of the Trilateral Cooperation between India, China and Afghanistan. The joint training programme is being held after an understanding for such a cooperation was reached during an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held in April 2018 at China’s Wuhan city. This will be a first such project in the war-torn country where China while trying to expand its influence has tacitly backed Pakistan, which has been accused by Afghanistan and the US of backing the Taliban and its most violent attacks in the country destabilising any attempts to restore peace.