Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

Notes:
Star Sports, India’s leading sports broadcaster, has bagged the broadcast and production rights of Union Sports Ministry’s flagship ‘Khelo India School Games (KISG)’ for a period of five years from 2018 to 2022. The first-ever Khelo India School Games 2018 will be held from January 31 for under-17 age group (boys and girls) across 16 sports disciplines. The purpose of KISG is to inculcate a nationwide culture of sports through a grassroots sports revolution. The KISG 2018 is the marquee event under revamped Khelo India porgramme. The event is expected to host around 6000 athletes and officials in its first edition. The best talent selected through the competition will be amongst the 1000 (one thousand) budding athletes eligible for a scholarship worth 5 lakhs each per year for a period of eight years. Every year, new athletes will be added under the Khelo India scheme. Thus, over the period of the scheme, the country will have a solid bench-strength for all sports.

Notes:
The Chamera Dam is located near the town of Dalhousie, in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. It impounds the River Ravi and supports the hydroelectricity project in the region. The reservoir of the dam is the Chamera Lake. The catchment of the dam is 472.5 square kilometres. The reservoir has a live storage capacity of 110 MCN and mean annual inflow of 1,273 BCM. The unique feature of the region is the fluctuating day and night temperature. The temperature during the day near the dam rises up to 35 degrees Celsius and drops to a minimum of 18 to 20 °C at night. The water level in the Chamera Lake rises to a maximum of 763 meters while the minimum water level is 747 meters.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh will be the theme state for the 32nd Surajkund International Crafts fair, which is scheduled to be held from the first week of February at Faridabad in Haryana. Besides participation of all states, about two dozen countries would also take part in the fair. The aim of fair is to preserve Indian folk traditions and cultural heritage. It also provides a world-class platform for craftsmen from around the world to showcase their skills. The fair would be organised by the Haryana Tourism and Surajkund Fair Authority in collaboration with Union Ministries of Tourism, Textiles, Culture and External Affairs. Renowned folk artists and cultural groups of national and international repute would enthrall tourists with various programmes in the ‘Choupal’ and Open-air theatre located in the fair premises in Surajkund.

Notes:
Prominent Urdu poet Anwar Jalalpuri (71), who translated Bhagwad Geeta into Urdu, has passed away in Lucknow on January 2, 2018. Jalalpuri wrote ‘Rahraw se Rahnuma tak’, ‘Urdu Shayri Mein Geetanjali’ and ‘Urdu Shayri mein Geeta’. He was the recipient of Uttar Pradesh’s Yash Bharti award. His last rites will be performed on Jan 03 in his hometown Jalalpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Salil S Parekh, an aeronautical engineer from IIT Bombay, has formally taken charge as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Infosys on January 2, 2018. Parekh joins Infosys from Capgemini, where he was a member of the Group Executive Board. He has Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

Notes:
Pankaj Jain, a 1990 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre , has taken charge as the Managing Director (MD) of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL). He will be holding additional charge of IIFCL along with his present position as Joint Secretary at Department of Financial Services (DFS). IIFCL is a state-owned company focused on infrastructure financing and development.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for establishment of new AIIMS in Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The cost of the project is Rs.1351 crore and will be completed in a period of 48 months. The Institution will consist of a hospital with a capacity of 750 beds and trauma center facilities. It will also have a Medical college with an intake of 100 MBBS students per year and Nursing College with an intake of 60 B.Sc. (Nursing) students per year. Under this scheme, AIIMS have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur, Rishikesh and Patna while work of AIIMS Rae Bareli is in progress. Also, three AIIMS in Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri in Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) have been sanctioned in 2015, two AIIMS have been sanctioned at Bathinda and Gorakhpur in 2016 and an AIIMS in Kamrup (Assam).

Notes:
The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany (BSIP) is an autonomous institute constituted under the Department of Science and Technology, GoI. The institute is located at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and is a seat of higher learning in the field of plant fossil research. The BSIP, established in 1946, was an outcome of vision of the renowned Indian botanist Prof. Birbal Sahni.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) and NABARD have signed an agreement with 5 NGOs in Bengal for the promotion of 2,500 Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) in select districts of the State on January 2, 2018. JLGs are informal groups of 4-10 members engaged in similar economic activities and willing to jointly undertake the responsibility to repay loans taken by the group from a bank. They are typically credit groups of small or marginal tenant farmers who do not have a proper title of their farmland. Through these JLGs, SBI plans to extend assistance to the financially excluded sections of the society, especially landless farmers in the districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas. Plans are also afoot to scale up the project in a phased manner to cover the remaining districts. NABARD has fixed a target of credit linking 80,000 JLGs in West Bengal in 2017-18. Till date, NABARD has sanctioned assistance for the promotion of 60,000 JLGs by various NGOs in the State through 339 projects in different districts.

Notes:
Preeti Sudan, the secretary of Union Health and Family Welfare ministry, has launched India’s first digital online oncology tutorial series in collaboration with the Tata Memorial Centre on January 4, 2018. The purpose of the tutorial series is to educate doctors in early detection, prevention, palliation, rehabilitation and treatment of various forms of cancers. This is part of a national programme that will be rolled out across the country by Tata Memorial Centre in collaboration with state governments. The overall course, designed for 7 weeks, will equip doctors with the skills and knowledge on the basics of oncology to detect, diagnose and refer cancer cases early. It comprises 14 hours of comprehensive e-learning through more than 40 video lectures, case studies, assessment questionnaires and periodic interactive webinar sessions with the respective consultants of Tata Memorial Hospital.