Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

Notes:
The 4th International Ayurveda Congress (IAvC) 2018 has been inaugurated by Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik at Leiden, the Netherlands on September 1. The congress would focus on promotion and propagation of Ayurveda in the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries of Europe. The 2-day congress is jointly organized by International Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation (Netherlands), All India Ayurvedic Congress (New Delhi) and the International Academy of Ayurveda (Pune) in association with the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands. A special Seminar is also organized by the Indian Embassy titled “India-Netherlands collaboration in Healthcare, including Ayurveda”.

Notes:
Sunil Mehta, the MD &chief executive of Punjab National Bank (PNB), has been elected as the new chairman of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) for 2018-19. Apart from him, Dinabandhu Mohapatra, MD & CEO of Bank of India (BoI), has been elected as IBA’s Deputy Chairman. The IBA is a representative body of management of banking in India and has its headquarters in Mumbai.

Notes:
Two Indians, Dr. Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2018 on August 31. The award, which is regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize, was established in 1957. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, in its citation, stated that Wangchuk was recognised for his uniquely systematic, collaborative and community-driven reform of learning systems in remote northern India, thus improving the life opportunities of Ladakhi youth. Vatwani was recognised for his tremendous courage and healing compassion in embracing India’s mentally-afflicted destitute. Beside them, Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Howard Dee from the Philippines and Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam are the other winners of the 2018 award.

Notes:
Renowned Digambar Jain Muni Tarun Sagar ji (51), who was popularly known for his sermons titled ‘Kadve Pravachan’, has passed away in New Delhi on September 1, 2018. He was born as Pawan Kumar Jain on 1967 in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh, and accepted celibacy and decided to lead a life of a monk in the year 1981. Unlike most other Digambar jain monks, his audience often includes a majority of non-Jains. His discourses often address family or society issues, topics generally avoided by other Jain monks. All his life, he spread the message of peace and non-violence in the society.

Notes:
Well-known neurosurgeon Dr. Basant Kumar Mishra from Odisha has been named for prestigious Dr B.C. Roy National Award for year 2018 as Eminent Medical Person of the Year. It is the highest medical honour of India, which will be given away by President Ram Nath Kovind on July 1, 2019. It was instituted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 1962. Presently, Mishra is leading the Department of Neurosurgery & Gamma Knife Radio surgery at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai. He is also the secretary of International Neurosurgeon Council. During his career, Misra has several firsts to his credit, including image guided aneurysm microsurgery, first doctor in South Asia to perform gamma knife radiosurgery and first in the country to perform awake craniotomy for brain tumours.

Notes:
The Rajasthan government has decided to organise special employment camps in all district headquarters of the state to give government jobs to at least one person from the family of those who were martyred after 1947 but none of their kin was given a job. As per officials, there are more than 1,100 such martyrs in the state whose kin had not been given government jobs. Through the special camps, one dependent of those martyrs will now get a job, which will be organised from 15th September 2018. The first camp will be held in Jhunjhunu. It was recently announced by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at a public meeting in Barmer district, during her pre-poll tour ‘Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra’.

Notes:
Singapore is currently holding the Chair of ASEAN. There, the 6th East Asia Summit- Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM) and 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) was held in September 1, 2018. It was attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and their 8 dialogue partners – Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and the United States. The meeting recognized the importance of ongoing work to maximize the opportunities of, and address the challenges presented by, the digital economy and the rise of regional and global value chains, as part of their efforts to promote economic growth and integration in the region. It was announced in the Singapore meeting that the next ASEAN-India Business Summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November 2018, which will be followed by the 4th India-ASEAN Dialogue Partner Expo and Summit scheduled for 21-23 February 2019, in New Delhi.

Notes:
The book “Moving On, Moving Forward: A year in Office” has been authored by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, which was recently released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The book is based on Naidu’s tenure as Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He talks about his vision in the chapter ‘Retired from politics but not from public life’. As Chairman, he also records his disappointment over the first two sessions of the House he presided over. The 245-page book with 7 chapters deals with Naidu’s focussed engagement on four key issues — unrealised demographic dividend, need for an effective ecosystem for farmers to thrive, scientific advancements to better the life of people and public awareness about rich Indian heritage.

Notes:
The World Coconut Day (WCD) is observed every year on September 2 to enhance coconut farming with focus on productivity and product diversification. The day is also celebrated to commemorate the formation day of Asian Pacific Coconut Community (APCC). In India, the day is celebrated every year under the aegis of Coconut Development Board (CDB) in various coconut growing states across the country. The 2018 theme is “Coconut for Good Health, Wealth & Wellnessis”. APCC is an inter-governmental organisation of 18 member countries mandated to promote, coordinate and harmonize coconut developmental activities of the Asian Pacific region to achieve maximum economic development. India is one of the founder members of APCC. India is one of the founder members of APCC and stands first in global coconut production and productivity. The annual coconut production of India is 2437.80 crore and the productivity is 11616 coconuts per hectare.

Notes:
India will host its first-ever official FIBA 3×3 World Tour Masters 2018 in Hyderabad, which is scheduled to be held from September 22. It is one of the most prestigious basketball tournaments in the world. The Hyderabad Masters will see participation from the leading international 3×3 teams and top two Indian 3BL teams – Delhi 3BL & Bangalore 3BL. The qualification for the Indian teams was decided on the basis of the results of the inaugural season of 3×3 Pro Basketball League (3BL) which was held from June 9 to August 26 across six cities in India. Hyderabad Masters is the 7th stage of the FIBA 3×3 World Tour and is the first time an international 3×3 basketball tournament is being played in India. The participating teams will compete for a chance to qualify for the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Bloomage Beijing Final on October 27-28.