Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2018

Notes:
The Government of Assam has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with cab-hailing company Ola for a pilot project of app-based river taxi services in Guwahati. This MoU was signed during the ongoing Global Investors Summit: Advantage Assam. According to the MOU, bringing water taxis on the online platform will strengthen the transportation ecosystem. The river taxi will be a machine-operated boat, a faster and safer mode of travel than its conventional alternatives. Ola will pilot high-speed taxis on the Lachit Ghat, Machkhowa to North Guwahati route, bringing the commute time down to 2-5 minutes from 45 minutes by road.

Notes:
The first-ever Pelican Bird Festival-2018 was held at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru lake in Andhra Pradesh on February 4, 2018. Over 5,000 pelican birds from various countries reach Kolleru Lake every year during winter by travelling over 3500 km. The Kolleru lake is located between Krishna and Godavari delta and is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country. The fest was jointly organised by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) and Krishna district administration.

Notes:
Suresh Prabhu, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has launched the Start-up-India ranking framework in New Delhi to help the Startup India initiative to drive economic growth of the country. The tools are: the State and Union Territory Startup Ranking Framework, the Compendium of Good Practices for Promoting Startups in India and the Startup India Kit. These will act as catalysts to help the Startup India initiative to drive India’s economic growth. The key objective of the Startup States and Union Territories ranking framework is to encourage States and Union Territories to take pro-active steps towards strengthening the Startup ecosystems at the local level. The Ranking Framework will measure the impact of each step initiated at the local level for building a strong Startup ecosystem. The Ranking Framework will also enable continuous learning through the dissemination of good practices.

Notes:
Shubhankar Sharma from Chandigarh has become the highest ranked Indian golfer after grabbing 72nd position in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). He has won the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sharma now also has the rare distinction of leading both the European Tour Race to Dubai and the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Shubhankar’s latest success also helped him join the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved two wins in the same European Tour season, the others being Jeev Milkha Singh (2006) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).

Notes:
The World Wetlands Day (WWD) is observed every year on February 2 to mark the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in the city of Ramsar in Iran in 1971. The 2018 theme is “Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future”. It highlights the value of wetlands in securing local livelihoods through activities as fishing, rice farming, tourism and water provision. The day is observed to promote, create awareness and ensure positive and affirmative action for conservation of wetlands.

Notes:
The Kandeleru Dam is an irrigation project built on the Kandaleru River in Rapur Mandal, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh. The project is part of the Telugu Ganga project which supplies drinking water to Chennai city from the Srisailam reservoir on Krishna River.

Notes:
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has signed a pact with Google to integrate a course on ‘Digital Citizenship and Safety’ in information and communication technology curriculum. The integrated course will be implemented in more than 1.4 million schools across the country from next academic session in April 2018. NCERT has curriculum on IT and communication technologies embedded in teachers training programme. The curriculum developed by NCERT in collaboration with Google will be used to train students from class I – class XII across 1.4 million schools in India where they will learn how to become good and responsible digital citizens. The curriculum is spread into four themes – being smart, being safe, being a digital citizen and being future ready.

Notes:
The 6th edition of World Government Summit (WGS) 2018 will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) from February 11 to 13. The Indian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit acts as a knowledge exchangehub between government officials, thought leaders, policy makers and private sector leaders, and as an analysis platform for the future trends, issues and opportunities facing humanity.

Notes:
Indra Nooyi, the PepsiCo Chairman and CEO, has been appointed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board as its first independent female director. She will join the Board in June 2018 to align with the term of the ICC Independent Chairman. The Independent Director will be appointed for a two-year term although she may be re-appointed for two further terms with a maximum six-year consecutive period of service.

Notes:
The 2nd edition of Thespis 2 – National Micro Drama Festival (NMDF-2018) will be held at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi on February 11, 2018. With a total of 30 dramas, each not longer than 10 minutes, will pay tribute to theatre artistes and activists including Tom Alter, Vallabh Vyas, Mangalam Swaminath and Radhakrishnan Wayanad. The participants will also be awarded under 10 different categories including best production, best direction, and best script. The fest is to be organised by Delhi-based theatre group ‘Vriksh the Theatre’, which will be based on different themes and titles around the current situations witnessed by our society. The festival is named after ‘Thespis of Icaria’, who lived in the 6th Century BC and was the first Actor ever appeared on stage to perform alone. The plays will take place in different languages which include regional languages like Punjabi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam etc.