Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

Notes:
Justice Tahira Safdar has been sworn-in as the first woman Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Balochistan. She will remain in this post until 4 October 2019. With this, she became the first female chief justice of any court in the history of Pakistan. Earlier, Safdar created history in 1982 when she became the first female civil judge in Balochistan. Currently, Justice Tahira is a member of the 3-judge special court conducting the trial of former president Pervez Musharraf for committing treason by proclaiming a state of emergency on 3rd November 2007.

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:
In Men’s hockey, Indian men’s national field hockey team defeated arch rival Pakistan 2-1 to clinch a Bronze at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. Akashdeep hit the first goal and 2nd was scored by Harmanpreet. Pakistan’s lone goal came from a counter-attack scored by Muhammad Atiq. With this, India ranked at 8th position with 69 medals – 15 gold, 24 Silver and 30 Bronze – at the 18th Asian Games. China leads the medals tally followed by Japan.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has recently released the draft rules on sale of drugs by e-pharmacies with an aim to regulate online sale of medicines across the country. It aims at providing patients accessibility to genuine drugs from authentic online portals. The draft rules on “sale of drugs by e-pharmacy” stated that no person will distribute or sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale of drugs through e-pharmacy portal unless registered. The new draft rules require e-pharmacies to be registered with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and obtain a trade licence — applicable across India — from any state government. The drugs sold online would need prescription and the pharmacy will have to maintain a detailed record. However, there should be strict confidentiality and no patient information should be leaked domestically or internationally. There should also be facility for customer support and grievance redressal. Though, sale of tranquillisers, psychotropic drugs, narcotics and habit forming drugs have been prohibited through these portals.

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:
According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s annual data, Mauritius accounted for the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India in the financial year FY18 followed by Singapore. The data shows that the total India’s FDI stood at $37.36 billion in the FY18, which is a marginal rise over the $36.31 billion recorded in the previous fiscal FY17. The provisional data for the financial year ended March revealed that FDI into the manufacturing sector witnessed a substantial decline to $7.06 billion, as against $11.97 billion in the year-ago period. However, FDI into communication services rose to $8.8 billion in 2017-18 as compared to $5.8 billion. The inflows into retail and wholesale trade also shot up to $4.47 billion as against $2.77 billion, while financial services sector too witnessed a rise in inflows to $4.07 billion from $3.73 billion in the previous year.

Notes:
On September 3, India and Cyprus signed two agreements on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind and his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades in Nicosia. Both the countries also agreed for the revision in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) made in 2016 to further enhance investment partnership to grow by strengthening the institutional framework to facilitate investment cross flows. Beside this, Cyprus also reaffirmed its support to India for its membership of the Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG) and UN Security Council (UNSC). Mr. Kovind is in Cyprus on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India’s high-level engagements with European countries.

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.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) will observe September as National Nutrition Month (NNM) across the country to mark the fight against malnutrition. During this month, various programmes have been organized by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry to spread broad awareness on the issues related to malnutrition like stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children. The Nutrition Month will also focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers to eliminate the deficiencies prevailing in the Health sector. The NNM will be celebrated every year with the aim to bring down stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38% to 25% by 2022. The POSHAN Abhiyaan – the National Nutrition Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan on 2018 International Women’s Day (IWD).

Notes:
Indian Shooter Om Prakash Mitharwal clinched his first gold in the 50m pistol event at the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships in Changwon, South Korea on September 4. Mitharwal, who won bronze in the 10m air pistol and the 50m pistol events of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, shot a score of 564 to finish on top at ISSF Championships.