Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
John Isner, an American professional tennis player, has won the 2018 men’s singles Miami Open tennis tournament. In the title clash, the 14th seeded American defeated fourth-placed German Alexander Zverev, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 to win his first ever Masters 1,000 title. With this win, Isner returned to his career-high ranking of world No. 9.

Notes:
M.L. Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Akademies) of Ministry of Culture, has been appointed the protem Chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi. On the recommendation of the Minister of Culture, the President has appointed him with immediate effect. He will continue to hold the office till a regular Chairman is appointed. He succeeded CS Krishna Setty. The new chairman is likely to be appointed within 15 days.

Notes:
The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has set up a high-powered committee to examine the process by which the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts examinations. The panel, headed by former HRD Secretary VS Oberoi, will suggest measures to make the process secure and foolproof through use of technology. The committee will submit a report by May 31 to the Ministry. The move comes following the alleged leak of the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers. The Ministry recently announced re-examination of the Class 12 Economics paper on April 25. It, however, decided against conducting the Class 10 Maths re-test.

Notes:
S. Madhavan (85), the veteran Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader, has passed away at Singampunari village in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu on April 3, 2018. He had served in the cabinets headed by late C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi.

Notes:
Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), has recently released INDIA RANKINGS 2018 for Higher Educational Institutions and presented awards to the institutions under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF-2018). In it, the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bengaluru has been adjudged the overall best institution in the country. Apart from this, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) – has been adjudged the best engineering college and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM – A) the best management institution. Delhi University’s Miranda House was the best college and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (NLSIU – B) the best law school in the country. In the medical college category, AIIMS New Delhi stood first, followed by PGIMER Chandigarh and CMC Vellore. The idea behind these rankings is to promote quality in education. The aim is also encourage competition to perform better and set up new benchmarks of performance in higher education space.

Notes:
Himanta Biswa Sarma, a cabinet ranked minister and convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), has been elected as the new president of Badminton Association of India (BAI) unopposed during the federation’s annual general body meeting and election in Goa on April 3, 2018. He will serve as the president for a term of four years. Sarma took over as the interim president of BAI last year after the demise of former president Akhilesh Das Gupta.

Notes:
The 9th India-Japan-US trilateral meeting was held in New Delhi on 4 April 2018 at the Joint Secretary/Director General/Assistant Secretary level. The dialogue was aimed at exploring practical steps to enhance cooperation in the areas of connectivity and infrastructure development, counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, maritime security, maritime domain awareness and Humanitarian Assistance And Disaster Relief (HADR). The trilateral talks were held in accordance with the directions received from the foreign ministers of the three countries, who had met in New York on 18 September 2017 on the margins of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Notes:
The National Maritime Day (NMD) is celebrated every year in India on 5th April since 1964 to commemorate the maiden voyage of the first Indian –owned ship “SS Loyalty” sailed from Bombay to London on 5th April 1919. This was a crucial step for Indian shipping history when sea routes were controlled by the British. The theme of the 55th edition of the NMD 2018 is ‘Indian Shipping – An Ocean of opportunity’. The United Nations’ World Maritime Day (WMD) is observed every year on September 29 to highlight the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment.

Notes:
Santosh Kumar Mohanty has been appointed a whole-time member of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a period of three years. At present Executive Director in SEBI. Prior to this assignment, he was serving as Director in the erstwhile commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission. An officer from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Mohanty has earlier served in the Income Tax Department in various capacities in Kolkata, Nagpur and Mumbai.

Notes:
Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma will be honoured with the 2018 Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award for her successful movies as a producer. The award will be given by an organisation called Dadasaheb Phalke Foundation, a Mumbai-based organisation. Beside her, Ranveer Singh will also get the 2018 Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award as Best Actor for his movie ‘Padmaavat’. He has not only received incredible acclaim for his portrayal of the merciless Alauddin Khilji but he has also delivered outstanding box office collections as he recorded his first ever 300 crore blockbuster.