Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2018

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:
Kamlesh Nilkanth Vyas, the renowned nuclear scientist, has been appointed as the new Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) till May 3, 2021. He succeeded Shekhar Basu. At present, Vyas is the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai. The DAE is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister.

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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:
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:
Anindo Majumdar, a 1985-batch IAS officer Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram Union Territories or AGMUT cadre, has been appointed as the new Secretary of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Prior to this post, he was financial Commissioner of Delhi. Before coming to Delhi, he was the Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands. The CVC is an apex governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption. It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government of India (GoI), advising various authorities in central Government organizations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work.

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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.

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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:
India has contributed US $1 million for the installation of solar panels on the roof of the imposing UN building at the world body’s headquarters in New York. The contribution will help reduce carbon footprint and promote sustainable energy. According to India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, India is the first responder to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for climate action. This year, India was the global host for the 2018 World Environment Day (WED) celebrations. On 5th June 2018, during a session on WED, India had proposed to partner with the UN Secretariat to use renewable solar energy at the world body’s premises as part of the efforts to protect and preserve environment. In it, the Indian government announced its pledge to eliminate by 2022 all single use of plastics in India. It also committed to making a 500-metre area around 100 historic monuments, including the iconic Taj Mahal litter-free and free from plastic pollution through the Taj Declaration.

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The 3rd edition of acclaimed International Business Conference ‘MahaBiz 2018’ will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 12th and 13th October 2018. MahaBiz is considered a bridge for business opportunities between Maharashtra state and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. GCC is a political and economic alliance of six middle eastern countries. It includes Saudi Arabia , UAE , Kuwait , Oman , Bahrain and Qatar. MahaBiz 2018 proposes to bring together businesses, investors and key government decision makers on a common platform to share and discuss various opportunities in over 10 different industry sectors. The event will be attended by more than 400 delegates from India, Gulf countries and Africa.

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The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries has approved a $525-million loan to Madhya Pradesh for infrastructure projects. The loan will be used by the Indian government for on-lending to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitating major district roads with a total length of about 2,000 km to improve the connectivity of the rural interior with the national and state highway networks. The project will improve the road conditions and enhance the transport capacity, which will lead to a less travel time, reduced vehicle-operating cost, reduced emissions and improved road safety. The NDB will also provide a $ 175-million loan to the Madhya Pradesh Bridges Project, under which 350 bridges will be built or upgraded. The NDB was set up by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations to promote green and infrastructure projects in the member countries.