Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

Notes:
The first meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan has started in New Delhi on April 18, 2018. The mandate of the National Council on India’s Nutritional Challenges is to provide policy directions to address countries nutritional challenges through coordinated inter-sectoral action. The council is also mandated to coordinate and review convergence between Ministries and review programmes for nutrition on a quarterly basis. It will submit its report to the Prime Minister every 6 months. NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant and representatives of various ministries of the Central and State Governments are participating in the meeting. The POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan last month. It aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children. The programme also targets to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth rate.

Notes:
The 2018 Global Malaria Summit was held alongside the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom on April 18 to make game-changing commitments towards beating malaria at a time when efforts to end the preventable disease had stalled. The summit expected the world leaders to renew their financial and political commitments to continue the fight against malaria, which is showing signs of fighting back. Malaria cases rose to 216 million globally in 2016, five million more than a year ago. The summit featured collective commitments worth over $4.1 billion dollars from governments, private sector, philanthropists and international organisations. There was no India representative to participate in the summit because there is no India commitment.

Notes:
As per the database of IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) for April 2018, India is the world’s 6th largest economy with record Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.6 trillion for 2017. The five economies ahead are the United States, China, Japan, Germany and United Kingdom. This is the first time India crossed the 2.5 trillion yardstick used to distinguish between the big economies and the rest if the world. Further, the IMF has said that India is expected to grow at 7.4% in 2018 and 7.8% in 2019, up from 6.7% in 2017. Apart from this, the World Bank has also forecasted India’s GDP growth from 6.7% in 2017 to 7.3% in 2018 and to subsequently stabilise at 7.5% in 2019 and 2020.

Notes:
The first-ever International SME Convention-2018 will be held in New Delhi from 22ndto 24th April. The Ministry of MSME has engaged with over 35 International Trade Development organisations to attract and invite able and willing entrepreneurs and encourage people to people contact with select Indian Entrepreneurs from key sectors of the International counterparts. The convention has specific focus on inclusion of MSMEs in the Make in India program & empowering women entrepreneurs. In it, 150 participants from 31 countries and 400 entrepreneurs from India will participate.

Notes:
Balantrapu Rajanikantha Rao (98), the noted Telugu poet-composer, musicologist and artist, has passed away in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on April 23, 2018. Born at Nidadavole on January 20, 1920, Mr. Rao started his career as a programme executive in All India Radio (AIR) at Madras in 1941. He wrote and composed the first ever Telugu song (Mroyimpu Jayabheri) to be broadcast in Independent India post midnight of August 14, 1947, following the famous speech of first Prime Minister the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Apart from music, he carved a niche for himself in the field of writing too. Some of his popular published works are Andhra Vaggeyakata Charitram, Viswaveena, Satapatra Sundari, Ksheytrayya, Ramadasu, Jeji Mamayya Paatalu, etc.

Notes:
The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has signed Information Utility (IU) pact with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL) to share financial and security information under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IU) regulation 2017.. With this agreement, the IOB branches will be able to provide high-quality, authenticated information about debts and defaults; which will have more transparency in maintaining the list of borrowers, debtors, creditors and loan defaulters. The NeSL is the India’s first IU registered by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for bankruptcy cases under the ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016’ in October 2017. IU stores financial information that helps to establish defaults as well as verify claims expeditiously and thereby facilitates completion of transactions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in a time bound manner.

Notes:
Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, chaired the first meeting of the think tank on the Framework for National Policy on E-commerce in New Delhi on April 24th, 2018. The think tank on the Framework for National Policy on E-commerce has been established recently by the Department of Commerce. It will provide a credible forum for an inclusive and fact-based dialogue leading to recommendations for informed policy making, so that the country is adequately prepared to take advantage of the opportunities, and meet the challenges, that would arise from the next wave of advancements in digital economy. Approx representatives of 50 organizations participated in the meeting. The think tank will explore options for providing a fillip to entrepreneurship in digital economy. It will identify specific policy interventions for nurturing domestic firms and create jobs in e-commerce.

Notes:
Diu Smart City has become the first city in India that runs on 100% renewable energy during daytime setting a new benchmark for other cities to become clean and green. Diu had been importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year. It has now adopted a two-pronged approach whereby a 9 MW solar park spread over 50 hectares rocky barren land has been developed besides installing solar panels on the roof tops on 79 government buildings thereby generating 1.3 MW annually. To further enhance its solar capacity, Diu also offers its residents a subsidy of Rs 10, 000-50,000 for installing 1-5 -KW rooftop solar panels. The city is saving about 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year and due to low-cost solar energy, power tariffs have been cut in residential category by 10% last year and 15% this year.

Notes:
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is tying up with the United States and Finland to develop a pollution-forecast system that will help anticipate particulate matter (PM) levels at least two days in advance and at a greater resolution than what is possible now. Currently, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), run out of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, serves as the apex forecaster of pollution trends in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. It generates a likely air quality profile, a day in advance, for these cities. IITM is an organisation under the MoES. The new system, to be jointly developed with expertise from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the U.S.’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will use a different modelling approach as well as computational techniques from that employed in the SAFAR model.

Notes:
World record holder Shahzar Rizvi claimed India’s first medal at the 2018 World Cup organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) at Changwon, South Korea. He won the silver in the 10 meter air pistol event. Rizvi missed the gold by 0.2 points to Russia’s Artem Chernousov. Samuil Donkov of Bulgaria won the Bronze. With Rizvi’s silver, India gets eight more finals left to play over the next five competition days.