Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

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:
Anna Rajam Malhotra (91) was the India’s first woman IAS officer after Independence, who passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on September 17, 2018. Born in July 1927 in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, she joined the civil services in 1951 and had served in the Madras cadre under then CM C Rajagopalachari and in the central government. Besides serving under Rajagopalachari, she had worked closely with Rajiv Gandhi when he was in charge of the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi. She had also accompanied late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on many state trips. She married RN Malhotra, who had served as the Governor of RBI between 1985 and 1990. Anna, who retired in 1996, was also responsible for building the country’s first computerised port Nhavasheva in Mumbai. In 1989, she was honoured with the Padma Bhushan award.

Notes:
India has decided to place four more reactors under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Accordingly, two Russian-designed Pressurised Light Water Reactors and two Pressurised Heavy Reactors being built with Indian technology will be covered. With this, a total of 26 Indian nuclear facilities will be under the international nuclear energy watchdog IAEA. This was stated by Sekhar Basu, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, at the 62nd General Conference of IAEA Vienna, Austria, on 19th September 2018.

Notes:
All-women crew of INSV Tarini has bagged the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award for beating the odds in water with their enduring skills and sailing across the world for 8 long months. The award ceremony will be held at Rashtrapati Bhawan on September 25. The award is the highest national recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of adventure on land, sea and air. The women Navy officers had spent as many as 194 days at sea as part of a mission under the Navika Sagar Parikrama project that began in September 2017. The crew was also bestowed with Nav Sena Medal on the occasion of 72nd Independence Day. The team had arrived in Panaji, Goa on May 21 after successfully circumnavigating the globe for 8 months. They also set a record by becoming the first-ever all-women crew to complete circumnavigation. The INSV Tarini team, led by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi, is comprised Lt. P. Swathi, Lt. Pratibha Jamwal, Lt. Vijaya Devi, Sub Lt. Payal Gupta and Lt. B Aishwarya.

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:
In the latest round of reshuffle of Parliamentary panels, the former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra has been appointed new Chairman of the standing committee on Defence. He succeeded B.C. Khanduri, who has been delivering a series of critical reports on the defence preparedness and slammed the government for critical low stock of armaments. In the latest 2018 March report of Khanduri, it was pointed that 68% of equipment with the armed forces was in the vintage category. Apart from this, Chintamani Malviya has been appointed new Chairman of Coal and Steel panel with another BJP MP from the same State, Chintamani Malviya. There are no changes in Finance Committee and External Affairs Committee, both headed by Congress leaders. Finance Committee is headed by Veerappa Moily. The External Affairs Committee is headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

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.

Notes:
On September 22, President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS) in New Delhi. The mail goal of DBHPS is to improve Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South India. It was established in 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi, who held the post of president till his death. The headquarters of the organisation is located at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
Tran Dai Quang (61), the current President of Vietnam, has passed away in Hanoi on September 21, 2018. Quang was appointed to the role in April 2016. He is a former police general who presided over a crackdown on free speech in that one-party state. Originally from a small farming community 115 km south of Hanoi, Quang rose through party ranks to become a police general and member of Vietnam’s powerful decision-making Politburo. Vietnam has no paramount ruler and is officially led by the President, Prime Minister and Communist Party chief. The country has a power structure in which responsibilities at the top are split among a party chief; a president, who serves as head of state; and a prime minister, who runs the government.

Notes:
The Asian Para Games is a multi-sport event regulated by the Asian Paralympic Committee that held every four years after every Asian Games for athletes with physical disabilities. Japan will host the 5th edition of Asian Para Games in 2026 in Nagoya. The 4th Asian Para Games 2022 will be hosted by Hangzhou, China. The 3rd Asian Para Games- 2018 will be played in Jakarta, Indonesia from Oct 6-13.