Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
The 3rd edition of Bihu festival, which is also known as Kati Bihu or Kongali Bihu, was celebrated to bring peace and prosperity in Assam. On the occasion of Kati Bihu, women, both in urban and rural areas, try to ward off evil and pray for a rich harvest by lighting earthen lamps. The festival derives its name from the Assamese month of Kati. This is a much sombre festival when compared to the other two Bihu festivals of the state – the Rongali and Bohagi Bihu. The festival is held at this time of the year since the granaries of the farmers usually remain empty and therefore it is known as Kongali (poor) Bihu. As a part of the festival, farmers also tie a special kind of lamp, known as Akash Bati, to poles and the poles are placed in the paddy fields.

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By using Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists of NASA have found that violent flares from the Young Red Dwarf Stars may make planets orbiting it uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres. Hubble is observing such stars through a large programme called HAZMAT — Habitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time. The purpose of the HAZMAT program is to help understand the habitability of planets around low-mass stars. The word “HAZMAT” describes substances that pose a risk to the environment, or even to life itself. “M dwarf” is the astronomical term for a red dwarf star. The programme is an ultraviolet survey of red dwarfs at three different ages – young, intermediate, and old. According to NASA, Stellar flares from red dwarf star, are particularly bright in ultraviolet wavelengths, compared with Sun-like stars. The flares are believed to be powered by intense magnetic fields that get tangled by the roiling motions of the stellar atmosphere. When the tangling gets too intense, the field breaks & reconnects, and unleashes tremendous amounts of energy. Red dwarf is the smallest, most abundant and longest-lived type of star in our galaxy.

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India’s first domestic cruise ‘Angriya’ has recently been flagged off from Mumbai to Goa on October 20 to boost the country’s lagging cruise service sector. The cruise has six decks and 104 cabins. It can ferry 399 passengers at a time. It has eight types of rooms – from dormitories to luxury rooms. The price range of the cruise will be from Rs 7,000 to Rs 12,000 for one-way. The ship will run four times a week, except during monsoons. It is named after India’s first naval commander Admiral Sarkhel Kanhoji Angre, who served in Shivaji’s armament, and who believed one should have a separate Navy to control the waters.

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On October 22, renowned jurist Fali S. Nariman has been honoured with the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration for year 2018 by the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu. The award was instituted by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management in 1995 in the field of Public Administration, Academics and Management. Each year, the award honours an Indian who is an exceptionally outstanding and distinguished business leader, management practitioner, public administrator, educator or institution builder for his/her sustained individual contributions and achievements.

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Nishtha Dudeja from Haryana has recently won the Miss Deaf Asia 2018 title at an international pageant held in Prague , Czech Republic. She is the first Indian to have won any title at the Miss Deaf World Pageant. Prior to this title, Nishtha had also won the 2018 Miss Deaf India title in Jaipur, Rajasthan on February 26. She is the brand ambassador for Sivantos India Pvt Ltd. (Formerly Siemens hearing Instruments Pvt Ltd.), the world’s leading brand of hearing aids.

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In New Delhi, Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar launched the web portal of the Scheme “Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS)” on October 25 to strengthen the research ecosystem in the country. The objective of IMPRESS is to identify and fund research proposals in social sciences with maximum impact on the governance and society. It will provide an opportunity for social science researchers in any institution in the country which includes all universities (Central and State), private institutions with 12(B) status conferred by UGC. The scheme will be implemented at a total cost of Rs. 414 crore till March, 2021. Under IMPRESS, 1,500 research projects will be awarded for two years to support social science research in the higher educational institutions. The Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) will be the project implementing agency. The research work under both the scheme would start from January 2019.

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The 11th edition of Global Agriculture Leadership Summit 2018 in New Delhi from October 24 with theme “Connecting Farmers to Market”. The purpose of the 2-day summit is to discuss the national and global marketing scenario and success models to provide the best marketing models and linkages to Indian farmers through policy reforms and collaborative efforts. In it, Agriculture Minister Somi reddy Chandramohan Reddy received the Global Agriculture Leadership Award in the ‘Policy Leadership’ category on behalf of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The award is given in recognition of the path-breaking policies that address issues of farmers and other stakeholders pro-actively making substantial difference in their lives and contributing to the growth of agriculture. The Agriculture Leadership Awards were instituted in 2008 to recognise excellence and leadership roles played by individuals and organisations to empower farmers and bring about rural prosperity. The awards jury was chaired by pioneer of India’s Green Revolution MS Swaminathan.

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Renowned sculptor Ram Vanji Sutar, who has designed the Statue of Unity in Narmada district in Gujarat, will be conferred with the prestigious 2016 Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony. Beside Sutar, the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the years 2014 and 2015 is being conferred on the doyen of Manipuri dance Sh. Rajkumar Singhajit Singh and Chhayanaut (a cultural organization of Bangladesh), respectively. The award recognizes Rajkumar’s contribution in keeping the tradition of Manipuri dance alive and vibrant, promoting harmony through dance and also pays tribute to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Chhayanaut, established in 1961, was part of the movement for an independent Bangladesh and provided a platform for cultural expression and assertion of Bengali identity. The award was instituted by the Government of India (GoI) during the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in 2011. It carries an award prize of Rs 1 crore, a citation in a scroll and a plaque.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Singapore in June 2018 on the constitution of a Joint Working Group (JWG) on FinTech. As per the pact, both countries will improve their regulatory connect to exchange best practices by sharing experience on policies and regulations related to fintech. The JWG will encourage collaboration of entrepreneurs and startups of both countries and develop fintech solutions for business/financial sectors. The MoU will benefit both countries to excel in the fields of development of Application Programming Interfaces (APls), Regulatory Sandbox, security in payment and digital cash flow. The collaboration will also lead to integration of RuPay-Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), UPI-FAST payment link, Aadhaar Stack and e-KYC in ASEAN region and cooperation on regulations, solutions for financial markets and insurance sector. It will also encourage cooperation between India and Singapore on digital governance, financial inclusion and partnership in the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) agenda.

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An ancient Greek merchant ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found virtually intact at the bottom of the Black Sea by an Anglo-Bulgarian team. An international team of maritime archaeologists believed that the 23m (75ft) wreck is the world’s oldest intact shipwreck where it appears to have lain undisturbed for more than 2,400 years. The vessel is one of more than 60 shipwrecks identified by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project including Roman ships and a 17th-century Cossack raiding fleet. The ship, which is lying on its side with its mast and rudders intact, was dated back to 400 BC — a time when the Black Sea was a trading hub filled with Greek colonies. The project team said the vessel, previously only seen in an intact state on the side of ancient Greek pottery, was found at a depth of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet). The water at that depth is oxygen-free, meaning that organic material can be preserved for thousands of years. The project’s main investigator said that this would change the understanding of ship building and seafaring in the ancient world.