Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2018

Notes:
The 12th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit 2018 will be held in Brussels, Belgium from October 18 with theme “Global Partners for Global Challenges”. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will lead the Indian delegation at the two-day summit. This will also be the first multilateral summit that Vice President will be attending after taking office in August 2017. Besides One to One meeting with the King of the Belgians, Mr. Naidu will have bilateral meetings with various Heads of State on the sidelines of the Summit. The ASEM summit is the highest platform for dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe in the areas of trade, investment, security and tourism.

Notes:
The festival of Fulpati has recently celebrated with traditional gaiety and religious fervour in various parts of Nepal. Fulpati is observed on the 7th day of Dashain festival. In Nepali, “Phool” means flower and “Pati” means leaves and plants. There is a tradition in Nepal to bring nine types of Fulpati into the home on the seventh day of Navaratri. It is believed that Fulpati represents nine Goddess and they brings health, wealth and prosperity to the homes. The tradition started during the period of King Prithvi Narayan Shah. The main function was held at Basantpur Durbar Square in Kathmandu, where Fulpati was brought to Dashainghar from Jamal in a traditional procession with Vedic rituals.

Notes:
The book titled “Indian Sports: Conversations and Reflections” has been authored by Vijayan Bala, the veteran commentator and cricket statistican. The book is a compilation of interviews of eminent sports-persons he has conducted since 1971. Bala, who has also been a member of BCCI’s Statistical Committee apart from being an English teacher, has interviewed Olympians like Balbir Singh Senior, Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Sakshi Malik, Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to name a few. Among the cricketers of yesteryears, he has interviewed MAK Pataudi, GR Viswanath, Eknath Solkar while Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand are some of the current day players interviewed by him.

Notes:
Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of Railways & Coal, will be honoured with the 2018 Carnot Prize of Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Design. The 2018 Carnot Prize is a recognition of India’s efforts towards eliminating energy poverty with sustainable energy solutions. It is the most prestigious award in the energy sector. The Prize is named after French physicist Nicolas Sadi Carnot who recognised that the power of the steam engine would “produce a great revolution” in human development. The Carnot Prize is intended to honour those leading revolutions in energy policy to further progress and prosperity. The Carnot Prize is the Kleinman Center’s annual recognition of distinguished contributions to energy policy through scholarship or practice.

Notes:
The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have successfully launched an unmanned Bepi Colombo spacecraft into orbit from an Ariane 5 rocket for a joint mission to Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. The spacecraft has been named after Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo. The unmanned spacecraft will have to follow an elliptical path that involves a fly-by of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury itself so it can slow down before arriving at its destination in December 2025. When it arrives, Bepi Colombo will release two probes – Bepi and Mio – that will independently investigate the surface and magnetic field of Mercury. Mercury’s extreme temperatures, the intense gravity pull of the sun and blistering solar radiation make for hellish conditions. The probes are designed to cope with temperatures varying from 430 degrees Celsius (806 F) on the side facing the sun, and -180 degrees Celsius (-292 F) in Mercury’s shadow. The ESA-developed Bepi will operate in Mercury’s inner orbit, and JAXA’s Mio will be in the outer orbit to gather data that would reveal the internal structure of the planet. The only other spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA’s Mariner 10 that flew past the planet in the mid-1970s.

Notes:
Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten has won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer Of The Year (WPY) 2018 for his stunning portrait of two endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys in China’s Qinling mountains. The winning image – named as ‘Golden Couple’ – showcases a beautiful golden fur-blue face male monkey rested briefly on a stone seat, joined by female baby monkey. The golden snub-nose monkeys are little known outside of their native range of China’s Qinling Mountains. They represent the poorly known primate diversity found in China, much of which is silently sliding toward extinction. The WPY is one of the most prestigious and also the largest wildlife photography competition in the world. Started in 1964, the winning entries and runners-up are published in a book format each year since 1992.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) will host the 4th Edition Of Global Partners’ Forum in New Delhi on December 12-13, 2018. This unique forum aims to unite PMNCH’s 1,000+ partners around common strategies so that every woman, child and adolescent – no matter where they live – can survive, thrive and transform our world. The forum will be co-hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and PMNCH (The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health). A big focus of the forum will be to share stories of how countries are successfully collaborating across sectors and stakeholders to fast-track improvements in health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.

Notes:
The National Police Commemoration Day (NPCD) is observed every year on October 21 to remember the sacrifices of ten policemen who died in Chinese firing in 1959 in Ladakh’s Hot Spring area. Indian Police personnel were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National Police Memorial (NPM) in New Delhi to the nation in recognition of the sacrifices made by soldiers from the paramilitary forces and state police since India’s independence. The Prime Minister also announced an award in the name of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, to honour the police and paramilitary personnel, involved in disaster response operations. The award would be announced every year, recognizing the bravery and courage displayed in saving lives of people, in the wake of a disaster. Since independence, 34,844 police personnel have lost their lives while protecting the country. This year, 424 lost their lives.

Notes:
India’s investment promotion body, Invest India has won the 2018 UN Award for excellence in promoting investments in sustainable development at the World Investment Forum, Geneva. The awards were organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The other winners of the award were Bahrain Economic Development Board (BEDB) and the Lesotho National Development Corp (LNDC). Invest India received the award for excellence in servicing and supporting a major global wind turbines company in the establishment of a blade manufacturing plant in India while committing to train local staff and produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy. Invest India is set up as a non-profit venture under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India.

Notes:
The joint military training exercise ‘Druzhba (Friendship)-III’ has started between the armies of Russia and Pakistan in the mountains of northwestern Pakistan, which will continue till November 4. The servicemen from the two countries’ armed forces will perform tasks at the altitude of 1,400 meters above the sea level. The purpose of the 15-days exercise is to boost ties between the two militaries and swap experience, especially in field of counterterrorism. This is third exercise as part of the Pakistan-Russia bilateral training cooperation. The exercise will include the destruction of conditional fighters (terrorists).