Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2018

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 World Earth Day (WED) is celebrated every year on April 22 worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. The day was proposed at the UNESCO conference in 1969 and the first Earth Day celebrations took place in 1970. The person credited for organising the event 48 years ago is US Senator Gaylord Nelson. The 2018 campaign theme ‘End Plastic Pollution’ will provide the information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics. . The idea is to encourage people to cut down on their plastic consumption by paying a closer attention to the number of plastic items each person consumes annually and make a conscious effort to reduce the amount. According to a paper published in scientific journal Chemistry & Biology in 2009, plastic is non-biodegradable and disposed plastic can remain in the environment for up to 2,000 years.

Notes:
On 23rd April 2018, Manipur is observing Khongjom Day to pay tributes to the great warriors of Anglo-Manipur battle of 1891 at Khongjom in Thoubal district. The warriors laid down their lives safeguarding the freedom of the state. In the main function at Khebaching, the State Governor Dr. Najma Heptulla and Chief Minister N. Biren Singh led the people to pay floral tribute at the Khongjom War memorial site. Floral tributes were also paid at the statue of Major Paona Brajabasi, who led the Manipuri warriors against the British forces. Religious offering will also be paid at the Khongjom River near the battlefield.

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 16th Federation Cup Junior National junior (under-20) athletics championship was held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on April 20, 2018. Over 800 athletes from 32 states, including 72 athletes from Tamil Nadu, participated in the championship. It is jointly organised by the State Athletic Association, Coimbatore District Athletic Association and Sri Krishna Educational Institutions. The three-day meet, which features athletes aged between 16 and 20, will serve as selection trial for three championships viz. 3rd South Asian junior championship in Colombo (May 5-7), 18th Asian junior championship in Gifu, Japan (June 7-10) and the IAAF World under-20 championship in Tampere, Finland (July 10-15).

Notes:
The United Nations (UN) has officially declared April 21 as the World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID) to encourage people to use creativity in problem-solving. The first official WCID was celebrated on April 21, 2018. The day is marked as well positioned to encourage creative multidisciplinary thinking to help us achieve the sustainable future we want.

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:
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:
Rafael Nadal, a Spanish professional tennis player, has won the 2018 Monte-Carlo Masters tennis tournament by defeating Kei Nishikori in the final by 6–3, 6–2 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. With this, he became the first man to win a single tournament 11 times in the Open era with his 76th ATP Tour title. By winning the title, Nadal also retained the ATP no. 1 singles ranking. Apart from this, Nadal also overtook Serbia’s Novak Djokovic to clinch most Masters 1000 titles (31).

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.