Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
Pravin Srivastava, the 1983-batch Indian Statistical Service officer, has been appointed as new Chief Statistician of India (CSI). This appointment comes into effect from the date of his assuming charge of the post till the date of his superannuation (August 31, 2020) or until further orders, whichever is earlier. He has worked in the ministries of statistics and health in various positions, and briefly in the Union Public Service Commission, in his 35-year career. He was a secretary to the Indian Statistical Commission, popularly known as the Rangarajan Commission, which laid the foundation of the modern statistical system. The National Statistical Commission was set up in 2005 on its recommendations.

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:
On October 7, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) of India Region, Zone III has started in Guwahati, Assam. The four-day conference will discuss on several issues on North East region. During the conference, Women empowerment, Skill development, connectivity are some of the topics that would be discussed. Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker will also launch the North East chapter of Speaker’s Research Initiative during the conference. The MPs and MLAs from the North-East are likely to attend the conference.

Notes:
The bilateral maritime exercise “JIMEX 18” has started between Japan and India at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh on October 7. The aim of the 8-day exercise is to enhance interoperability, improve understanding and imbibe the best practices of each other. The Japanese vessels, under the command of Rear Admiral Tatsuya Fukada, Commander, Escort Flotilla-4 (CCF-4), are participating in the third edition of Japan-India Maritime Exercise (JIMEX 2018) with the ships of Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet. The Indian Navy would be represented by three indigenously designed and built warships and a fleet tanker. The ships participating are INS Satpura, multipurpose stealth frigate, INS Kadmatt, Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette, Missile Corvette and INS Shakti, the Fleet Tanker.

Notes:
The 2018 Under-19 Asia Cup cricket tournament was held in Bangladesh from September 29 to October 07 at Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar. In the final, India defeated Sri Lanka by 144 runs to win the tournament for the 6th time. India outplayed Sri Lanka in all departments by first scoring an imposing 304 for six after skipper Prabh Simran Singh won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (85) and Anuj Rawat (57) made solid foundation with 121-run stand. Ayush Badoni’s unbeaten knock of 52 off 28 balls helped India to reach a mammoth total. The island nation were never in the chase as they were all out for 160 in 38.4 overs losing wickets at regular intervals with left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi’s registering brilliant figures of 6 for 38 in 10 overs. For his consistency (318 runs in the tournament), Jaiswal was adjudged man-of-the-tournament.

Notes:
Well-known Malayalam poet Paloor Madhavan Namboothiri (86), popularly known as M N Paloor, has passed away at Kovoor, Kerala on October 9, 2018. Paloor, one of the early poets to have modern views, is the author of some of the finest Malayalam poems of the latter half of the 20th century. His poems traced the sufferings of mankind involving all the complexities of a highly urbanised system. He was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award for his autobiography ‘Kathayillathavante Katha’ in 2013. Some of his major collections include ‘Pedithondan,’ ‘Theerthayathra,’ ‘Bhangiyum Abhangiyum,’ ‘Sangamasangeetham,’ ‘Pachamanga’ and ‘Sarga Dhara’. Paloor won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, the state’s highest literary honour, in 1983 for his collection ‘Kalikalam’. He also received the Asan Prize for poetry in 2009.

Notes:
Jharkhand will be the partner state at Goa International Film Festival (GIFF-2018), which is scheduled to be held from 20th to 28th of November. The decision was taken recently in meeting between Secretary of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ,Mr. Amit Khare and Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, Sudhir Tripathy at Ranchi. This will allow Jharkhand to showcase its culture and favourable film making incentives announed by the state government. It was decided to open community radio station at every districts of Jharkhand. It was also decided to organize Jharkhand Film Festival (JFF), under Indian Panorama, in two towns of Jharkhand in the first month of next year.

Notes:
The book “The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India” has been authored by Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor. It is divided in five sections comprising 50 chapters & will release on 26th October 2018. The first section takes a close look at Modi’s life and times. The other four sections look at key aspects of the way in which Modi’s government functions and the lasting and often “deleterious impact” it has had on Indian society, major institutions, the economy, foreign policy and our fundamental values. In this explosive new book, Tharoor gives us an extraordinary portrait of Narendra Modi and his years in power. The book is currently available for pre-orders on Amazon.

Notes:
The section 151A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951 mandates the Election Commission of India (ECI) to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and State Legislatures through bye elections within six months from the date of occurence of the vacancy. But, this is only if the remainder of the term of a member who is newly elected is one year or more. The term of 16th Lok Sabha is upto 3rd June, 2019. Therefore, it is understood that some newspapers have reported that the ECI on the one hand announced the bye elections to fill the 3 casual vacancies in Lok Sabha from Karnataka while the bye elections to fill 5 vacancies in LS from Andhra Pradesh have not been announced. As the vacancies from Karnataka have occurred more than one year before the expiration of the term of House, bye elections are required to be held under Section 151A of R. P. Act 1951 to fill these vacancies within 6 months from the date of occurrence of vacancies that is 18th& 21st May, 2018. In the case of vacancies from Andhra Pradesh, there is no need to hold bye elections as the remaining term of the Lok Sabha is less than one year from the date of occurrence of vacancies that is 20th June, 2018.

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.