Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

Notes:
According to the ‘Credit Suisse Family 1000 in 2018’ report, India has been ranked third globally in terms of number of family-owned businesses with 111 companies having a total market capitalisation of 839 billion. Indian family-owned companies generated a 13.9% annual average share price return since 2006, compared to 6% recorded by their non-family-owned peers. The report is published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute (CSRI). The list is topped by China, followed by United States. As per report, in terms of number of family-owned businesses within the non-Japan Asian region, the list is dominated by China, India and Hong Kong. These three jurisdictions together account for around 65% of the non-Japan Asian section of CSRI’s database, and have a combined market capitalisation of 2.8 trillion (or 71%) of the market share.

Notes:
The first international maqom musical was held in Uzbekistan. The festival was initiated by President Shavkat Mirizoyev to promote the Uzbek national maqom art at home and abroad, and thereby highlight the heritage linked to classical Uzbek music. Maqom is the oriental system of music that is enhanced by string and percussion instruments across Asia and it is quite different from the classical Hindustani “Thaat” system

Notes:
The 2nd edition of the Nepal-China joint military exercise “Mt Everest Friendship Exercise (or Sagarmatha Friendship-2018” has started at Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, from September 17. The aim of the 10-day exercise is to share expertise in disaster management and to fight terrorism, among others. This will reduce Nepal’s dependence on India and allow China to get a firmer foothold in the sub-continental drama. This comes at a time when Nepal refuses to participate in the first-ever BIMSTEC military exercise “MILEX-18”, which has started in India from September 10.

Notes:
On 2018 World Ozone Day (WOD), the Union Environment Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan released a draft India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and a booklet on ‘Montreal Protocol – India’s Success Story’. With this, India has become the world’s first country to develop such a document (ICAP), which addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand. This will help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions. The thrust of the ICAP is to look for synergies in actions for securing both environmental and socio-economic benefits. The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society. The Montreal Protocol is the only environmental treaty, which enjoys universal ratification of 197 UN numbers countries, to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS).

Notes:
Bollywood stars Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma have been signed as ambassadors of Skill India Campaign to promote and endorse the Skill India Mission. The actors will next be seen in “Sui Dhaaga – Made in India”, which highlights the untapped potential of India’s talented craftsmen and skilled workers at the grassroot level and the challenges and issues faced by them. Varun plays a tailor named Mauji and Anushka essays the role of his wife and embroiderer Mamta. The film, which is directed by Sharat Katariya, hit the theatres on September 28, 2018. The Skill India Mission was launched by PM Narendra Modi on July 2015 to train over 40 crore people in different skills by 2022. It includes various initiatives of the government like “National Skill Development Mission”, “National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015”, “Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)” and the “Skill Loan scheme”.

Notes:
The 5th edition of the Track Asia Cup cycling will be held at the Indira Gandhi Cycling Velodrome in New Delhi from September 21-23, 2018. This was recently announced by the Cycling Federation of India (CFI). The event also serves as a qualifying tournament for the World Cup, World Championship and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The tournament which is a UCI (International Cycle Union) class I accredited event will see participation from about 150 cyclists across from across Asia and Australia. India will field a 17-member team comprising senior and junior cyclists. The junior team will be led by Esow Alben, who is currently the top ranked individual in the Kierin event in the UCI world rankings. Esow had won three gold medals in the Asian Track Cycling Championship, the only male cyclist to achieve the feat in the event, held in Malaysia in February 2018.

Notes:
Dolagobinda Pradhan (93), the veteran freedom fighter and former Odisha Minister, has passed away in Bhubaneswar on September 17, 2018. Born on 7th June 1929 in Dihasahi of Cuttack, he was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals, he had left school in 1942 and joined the Quit India movement. In it, he got imprisoned by the then British government for 3 years and two months. Pradhan, who was elected to the state Assembly twice from Cuttack Sadar constituency in 1980 and 1990, was a minister from 1989 to 1990.

Notes:
India’s first-ever online and centralised National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) has been launched by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on September 20, 2018. With this, India will become the 9th country in the world to maintain such a database. The database will have a record of the name, photographs, address, fingerprint and other details of convicted sexual offenders. It has information about 4.5 lakh sexual offenders. It is an initiative under the National Mission for Safety of Women. The database will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The database will be made available to law enforcement agencies for various purposes including investigation and employee verification.

Notes:
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has tied up with private life insurer Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co Ltd (BALIC) to provide life insurance solutions, especially at the doorstep of every household in the country. With this partnership, IPPB customers across segments can access a wide array of simple yet value-rich life insurance products and services. Initially, simple term and Point of Sale (POS) products of BALIC will be sold through the IPPB. These products will first be available across IPPB’s network of 3250 access points, gradually expanding to 155,000 post offices across every village, town and district in India. BALIC is the first life insurer to partner with IPPB after the latter was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018.

Notes:
India’s biggest cyclotron facility “Cyclone-30” has become operational at the Kolkata-based Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for treatment of cancer. The facility produces a 30MeV beam that will be used to produce radioisotopes for medical imaging & diagnosis. The Cyclone-30 is in the first phase of production generating Flouro Deocyglucose (FDG), a radioisotope used for date imaging and oncological tissue imaging. It will be the first and only facility in the country to produce Germanium 68 isotopes, which is used in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Simultaneously, it will also produce Palladium 103 isotopes, which is used for the treatment of prostate cancer. The machine has a capacity of catering to 60 to 90 patients in a day. In its future stages, the machine will also work on the production of Iodine 123 isotopes, which can help detect thyroid cancer. The machine can also be used for research in the fields of material science and nuclear physics.