Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
India is now the second-largest mobile phone producer in the world after China, as per information shared by Indian Cellular Association (ICA) with the Government of India (GoI). ICA referred to data available from market research firm IHS, China’s National Bureau of Statistics and Vietnam General Statistics Office. According to the data shared by ICA, annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017. With this, India replaced Vietnam to become the second largest producer of mobile phones in 2017. With the rise in mobile phone production, imports of the devices in the country also reduced to less than half in 2017-18. The Fast Track Task Force (FTTF), a body under the ministry of electronics and IT, has set a target to achieve around 500 million mobile phone production in India by 2019, with value estimated to be around $46 billion.

Notes:
C V Rajendran (81), the renowned Tamil film director and producer, has passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on April 1, 2018. Some of his few memorable films are Kalatta Kalyanam, Sumathi En Sundari and Raja starring Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalithaa and Ponoonjal.

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:
Debjani Ghosh, former managing director of Intel South Asia, has been appointed the new President of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). She succeeded R Chandrashekhar. A big propagator of gender diversity and equal representation in corporate India, Ms. Ghosh was the first woman to lead Intel India and Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT). She now gets the rein of Nasscom.

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:
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Mid-Term Ministerial Conference 2018 will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 5-6 under the theme “Promoting International Peace and Security for Sustainable Development”. NAM participating states, representatives of observer states and international organizations, countries and institutions, invited as special guests, will take part in the Mid-Term Ministerial Conference. The Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Non-Aligned Movement includes 120 states. Seventeen states and 10 international organizations hold observer status of NAM. In 2019, the Republic of Azerbaijan will host the 18th Summit of the NAM and will chair NAM in 2019-2022.

Notes:
As per latest survey conducted by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) across 53 airports, the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) has been declared as the cleanest and best-maintained airport in the country under the 1.5 million to 5 million passenger handling airport category. Airport director VV Rao received the award during the 23rd annual day celebrations of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in New Delhi on April 1, 2018.

Notes:
Teenager Deepak Lather from Haryana has become the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal by clinching a bronze in the men’s 69kg weightlifting category at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG-2018) in Gold Coast, Australia on April 6. He lifted a total of 295kg (136kg+159kg). The youngster, competing in his first Commonwealth Games, holds the distinction of being the youngest to hold the national record as well. He held the 62kg category national record at 15. Lather trained at the Army Sports Institute as a diver before being pushed into weightlifting by the coaches there. Earlier, Mirabai Chanu (48kg) and Sanjita Chanu (53kg) won gold medals in the women’s competition and P Gururaja claimed a silver in the men’s 56kg category. The Indian weightlifters have so far claimed four medals in the event.

Notes:
The Global Logistics Summit (GLS-2018) was held in New Delhi on April 5-6 to improve logistics and connectivity which are vital for increasing intra-state and international trade flows. It was organised by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the World Bank Group. The Summit acts as a platform to hold discussions for global experts, academics, government officials and private sector and industry representatives. According to the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, 56 new airports will be ready for operation in the next few years.

Notes:
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has constituted the 10-member committee to frame rules to regulate the functioning of news portals and media websites, including platforms like YouTube. The committee will be headed by Narendra Kumar Sinha, the I&B Secretary. The committee has been mandated to frame and suggest a regulatory framework for online media, news portals, digital broadcasting and entertainment and infotainment (information and entertainment) sites and for media aggregators. Apart from I&B Secretary, the panel will have secretaries of Ministry of Electronics and IT and Home Ministry, and CEO of government’s citizen engagement platform MyGov. It will also have representatives of the Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association and Indian Broadcasters Federation, and the head of government outreach portal MyGov.