Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched its newest planet-hunting spacecraft, Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a mission to find thousands of new worlds beyond our Solar System. The mission will survey a great swathe of stars, hoping to catch the dips in brightness that occur when orbiting planets traverse their faces. TESS’s goal is to compile a catalogue that other telescopes can then focus in on for more detailed analysis. The mission’s Principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Ricker said, TESS is equipped with four very sensitive cameras that will enable it to monitor nearly the entire sky.

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Among the 16 states that participated, Madhya Pradesh has been conferred the Most Film Friendly State Award 2017 for its efforts towards easing filming in the state by creating a well-structured website, film-friendly infrastructure, offering incentives, maintaining databases, undertaking marketing and promotional initiatives. The award will be presented by President Ram Nath Kovind during the presentation of the 65th National Film Awards on May 3, 2018. The state also received positive feedback from established filmmakers who have shot there. The efforts taken by the state to present their case for the Awards were also appreciated. Uttarakhand has been chosen for the Special Mention Certificate to recognize the efforts made by it towards creating a film-friendly environment. The jury for selecting the Most Film Friendly State Award 2017 was chaired by acclaimed filmmaker Ramesh Sippy.

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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 .

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Dharam Pal Choudhary (64), the sitting BJP MLA from Mundawar Vidhan Sabha constituency of Rajasthan, has passed away in Gurugram on April 18, 2018. He was a three-time MLA from Alwar district–in 2003, 2008 and 2013.

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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.

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Nabi Tajima (117), the world’s oldest Japanese supercentenarian, has passed away in Kikai, Japan on April 21, 2018. She was born on August 4, 1900, and reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great grandchildren. She was the last living person certified to have been born in the nineteenth century. Tajima became the world’s oldest person 7 months ago after the death of Violet Brown in Jamaica, also at the age of 117.

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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’.

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The Basava Sagar Dam is a dam constructed across the Krishna River at Siddapur Village in Bijapur District of Karnataka. It is previously known as Narayanpur Dam. It has a total storage capacity of 37.965 tmcft with 30.5 tmcft live storage. The full reservoir level is 492.25 m MSL and the minimum draw down level is 481.6 m MSL. The dam is 29 meters high and over 10 kilometres long and has 30 gates for water release.

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The World Book and Copyright Day is observed every year on April 23 to raise public awareness of books and reading and pay tribute to authors in the book industry, professionals or volunteers. The day is being organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing and copyright. It is a symbolic date for world literature. In 1616, on this date, Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. The day is also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days. Athens, the capital of Greece, has been designated as the UNESCO World Book Capital 2018 for the quality of its activities, supported by the entire book industry. Athens is the 18th city to become World Book Capital..

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Out of 2.5 lakhs gram panchayats, the Central Government has declared Digambarpur gram panchayat of West Bengal in South 24 Parganas district as the best panchayat in the country. The survey was conducted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. On the basis of 7 factors of work include the system of planning, quality of planning, different activities and level of coordination, implementation of the plan and its proper monitoring, use of Information Technology and documentation the ranking of the Gram Panchayats have been selected. Gram Panchayats in districts including Purulia, Birbhum and Burdwan have also been awarded special prizes for certain achievements.