Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
The ‘Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting – 2018’ under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has started in Guwahati, Assam on April 18, 2018. The team is led by the Chairman and Transport Minister of Rajasthan, Yunus Khan, and transport ministers of various states are its members. In total 24 states are participating in the two-day programme. The meeting will mainly focus on the following agenda: frame a National Road Safety Code with the objective to reduce fatalities and road accidents by 50% by 2020; improving road accident victims’ assistance infrastructure; strategies for road safety advocacy programmes; harmonization of motor vehicles taxes across different states; strategies for improving the inter-state passenger and goods transport, harmonization of permit conditions and permit fees across the states, etc.

Notes:
Aditi Rao Hydari has been conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award 2018 for the Best Leading Lady (Critics Award) for her memorable performance in ‘Bhoomi’. The award ceremony is scheduled on April 21, 2018, at St. Andrews Auditorium in Mumbai. It will be attended by producers, directors, distributors and exhibitors among others from the film fraternity.

Notes:
India will host the 2018 Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC), which will be held in New Delhi from November 8 to 11. For this, on April 18, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry’s disability division has signed an MoU with Korea’s Rehabilitation International to host the GITC. Both the parties, as per the MoU, have agreed to cooperate in making all arrangements such as financial, logistics and manpower for the success of the event. India is hosting the event along with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Korea, and its organising partners are Rehabilitation International, Korea, and the LG Group. The event is expected to be attended by around 300 people, including 120 youths with disabilities from 24 Asia-Pacific countries .

Notes:
Senior journalist T K Rajalakshmi has been elected the new president of the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), while Jyoti Malhotra and Shobhna Jain were declared vice-presidents of the media body. The IWPC, which was launched in 1994, is a reputed association of women journalists. It was set up to support women journalist in their professional work, in enhancing their knowledge and skills and to provide a forum for networking. The purpose of the organisation is to create a robust media network by making women’s voices and bylines more visible.

Notes:
The regional conference on “Urban Development: Technological Solutions and Governance Challenges” has started in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on April 19, 2018. The conference is a lead-up event to the 3rd Annual Meeting of AIIB scheduled to be held on 25th and 26th June, 2018 in Mumbai. The 2-day conference is organized by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Gujarat Council along with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), an autonomous research organization under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The focus will be on capacity building, informed decisions, proper planning, recycling and reuse of resources among others.

Notes:
India has been ranked 10th in the latest Commonwealth Innovation Index (CII- 2018). The index was launched as part of a new Commonwealth Innovation Hub on the sidelines of the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2018). It has been created in partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The purpose of index is to provide a tool that allows member states, organisations and citizens to benchmark themselves against 53 countries of the Commonwealth, with the new innovation hub offering a dedicated online space for Commonwealth countries to showcase what they have to offer and share with other members. The list is topped by UK, Singapore and Canada.

Notes:
Tim Bergling (28), who is one of the world’s biggest dance music stars, has passed away in Muscat, Oman on April 21, 2018. He is popularly known as DJ Avicii. He was a Swedish musician, DJ, remixer and record producer. His club anthems include Wake Me Up, Levels, and recently, Lonely Together with Rita Ora.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) celebrates April 21 every year as ‘Civil Services day’ as an occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizen and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work. This date is chosen to commemorate the day when first Home Minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi, he referred to civil servants as the ‘steel frame of India’. This year, in 2018, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the two-day Civil Services Day event in New Delhi. He also released a book ‘Emulating Excellence- Takeaways for Replication’.

Notes:
Two 12-year-old football enthusiasts — Surya Varikuti and Rudresh Gaudnour — have been selected as India’s representatives at the global Football For Friendship (F4F) social programme in Russia. The F4F programme, supported by Gazprom and FIFA aims at developing youth football and a healthy lifestyle, as well as promoting tolerance, open-mindedness and respect for different cultures and nationalities between children from across the globe. This year, the F4F programme has expanded to 211 countries and regions. This is the second time that Surya will join young footballers from around the world in Moscow in June. The children will be part of the 32 International Teams of Friendship and play against each other in the Gazprom F4F International Championship. Rudresh will act as the young journalist and report on all the local and global activities of the F4F programme as part of the International Children’s Press Center. Surya and Rudresh will also participate in the Football for Friendship International Children’s Forum in Russia, where the youngsters will get a chance to meet their peers from other countries and share their experiences.

Notes:
MS Ravi (68), the Chief Editor of leading Malayalam daily “Kerala Kaumadi”, has passed away in Thiruvananthapuram on April 20, 2018. He was the fourth son of Kerala Kaumudi founder editor K. Sukumaran and Madhavi Sukumaran. Mr. Ravi was an energetic presence in the State’s social and cultural circuit & was also a recipient of several awards.