Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
The 8th Regional 3R Forum in Asia and the Pacific has started at Brilliant Convention Centre in Indore, Madhya Pradesh on April 9, 2018. It is co-organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD). The 4-day forum will provide an attractive Exhibition Program to public, private and startups to showcase their technology, best practices in the area of minimize material use; optimizing resource conservation, wastes minimization and recovery. The tag line of the Forum is “Mission Zero Waste” which is in line the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) of Government of India. The theme of 2018 forum is “Achieving Clean Water, Clean Land and Clean Air through 3R and Resource Efficiency- A 21st Century Vision for Asia-Pacific Communities”. The event was inaugurated by Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 10th April 2018.

Notes:
The joint military exercise “Desert Tiger 5” was recently held between United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia in Dubai, UAE. The purpose of the exercise was to raise the level of performance and combat efficiency and working together between both countries based on the strategy to improve the overall ability and combat readiness of ground forces. The military exercise was implemented within the framework of the UAE leadership’s continued desire to support and create unique partnerships between both countries in all areas.

Notes:
The first meeting of NITI Forum for North East- a unit of NITI Aayog took place in Agartala, Tripura on April 09, 2018. The emphasis in meeting was given on Infrastructure and Connectivity. The meeting was inaugurated by Minister of Development of North East Region (DoNER) Dr Jitendra Singh and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Rajiv Kumar. There will be main five missions on which NITI Forum will focus. These include Agriculture, Tourism, Bamboo use and ‘Made in North East’. The NITI Forum was formed to explore and formulate the framework for sustainable growth of the Northeast. It was constituted in February 2018. The secretariat for the Forum has been established in the DoNER Ministry. The Forum includes representation from all NE States, their Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of relevant Central Ministries or Departments, Directors of reputed institutions like IIT and IIM, experts and journalists have been included as members.

Notes:
Indian women’s Table Tennis team has created history by clinching their first-ever Gold medal at the 21st Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia. Indian paddlers Manika Batra, Madhurika Patkar and Mouma Das won the final tie 3-1 against Singapore’s Tianwei Feng, Yihan Zhou and Mengyu Yu. Manika Batra led Table tennis team’s victory was historic as Singapore had never lost since 2002. Apart from this, Indian men’s table tennis team led by Sharath Kamal defeated Nigeria 3-0 in the final event to clinch gold at the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 2006. With this, India joined England to bag second-most table tennis gold medals (5) at CWG. This is the first time that India have won both men’s and women’s TT team events at a single CWG edition.

Notes:
In its latest Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2018, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stated that India’s economic growth is set to rise to 7.3% in 2018-19 and grow at 7.6% further in FY20 on the back of structural reforms such as GST and clean banking. In its report, ADB has credited the Modi-government’s GST saying that growth will pick up as the new tax regime improves productivity. The report also stated that Indian economy grew 6.6 % in FY18 as it battled the lingering effects of demonetisation in 2016, businesses adjusting to GST in 2017, and a subdued agriculture. The country’s economic growth was 7.1% in 2016-17.

Notes:
Hemchand Yadav, the former Chhattisgarh minister and senior BJP leader, has passed away in Delhi on April 11, 2018. He was first elected as an MLA from Durg in 1998 (when it was part of the undivided Madhya Pradesh) and again in 2003 and 2008. Yadav was part of the Raman Singh cabinet for ten years from 2003 to 2013, and served as the minister of labour, water resources, panchayat and rural development and higher education.

Notes:
Balram Bhargava has been appointed the new Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Secretary of the Department of Health Research. He, at present Professor/Senior Consultant Cardiologist at AIIMS, has been appointed to the post for a period of three years or until attainment of age of 60 years. He will succeed Soumya Swaminathan, who has been appointed as WHO Deputy Director General for Programmes .

Notes:
In the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Indian wrestlers bagged 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal on the opening day of their competitions on April 12, 2018. Rahul Aware has won India’s first wrestling gold medal by defeating Canada’s Steven Takahashi in the men’s freestyle 57 kg wrestling final by 15-7. This was the first CWG medal of his career after he was forced to miss the Glasgow games due to injury. Beside him, veteran Olympian Sushil Kumar clinched gold in the 74 kg category after winning his match by technical superiority against South Africa’s Botha Johannes. In the Women’s 53 kg category, Babita Kumari Phogat claimed the Silver after she lost to Canada’s Diana Weicker, 2-5 in the final. Kiran clinched the Bronze in the 76 kg division following a stunning 10-0 win over Katouskia Pariadhaven of Mauritius.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the navigation satellite IRNSS-1I into the orbit with the help of PSLV-C41 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on April 12, 2018. IRNSS-1I is the 8th such satellite to be a part of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation. It is expected to replace IRNSS-1A, the first of the seven navigation satellites, which was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed. The IRNSS 1I mission is critical for the space agency as it is ISRO’s second attempt to replace the IRNSS 1A satellite, after the failure of the IRNSS 1H mission in August 2017. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is a constellation of seven satellites that provides indigenously developed regional GPS services called NavIC.

Notes:
Veena Sahajwalla, an Indian-origin scientist in Australia, has launched the world’s first microfactory that can transform the components from electronic waste items such as smartphones and laptops into valuable materials for re-use. The modular microfactories can operate on a site as small as 50 square metres and can be located wherever waste may be stockpiled. A microfactory is one or a series of small machines and devices that uses patented technology to perform one or more functions in the reforming of waste products into new and usable resources. The e-waste microfactory that reforms discarded computers, mobile phones and printers has a number of small modules for this process and fits into a small site. The discarded devices are first placed into a module to break them down. The next module may involve a special robot for the identification of useful parts, she said. Another module then involves using a small furnace which transforms these parts into valuable materials by using a precisely controlled temperature process developed via extensive research. These transformed materials include metal alloys and a range of micro-materials.