Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

Notes:
The 171st Araadhanai Music Festival (AMF) has started in Thiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu on January 2, 2018. The fest is one of the Trinities of Carnatic music Saint Thyagaraja, which was inaugurated by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. The main function of the festival – the choral singing of Thyagaraja’s five kritis in Ghana ragas – will be held on his Samadhi day which falls on next Saturday. Over 1,000 musicians from all over the world are expected to pay homage to Saint Thygaraja during the course of the five-day festival.

Notes:
R Margabandu (83), an advocate by profession and former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Tamil Nadu, has passed away on December 28, 2017. He represented Tamil Nadu in the Upper House from July 1995 to July 2001. He was the leader of the AIADMK party in the House.

Notes:
The Telangana government has constituted the SC/ST Commission in the state on January 2, 2018. Errolla Srinivas, a leader of the ruling TRS hailing from Siddipet district, has been named the chairman of the five-member panel. Boyilla Vidyasagar, M Rambal Naik, Sunkapaka Devaiah, Kursam Neeladevi and Chilakamarri Narasimha were appointed members of the commission. The commission is mandated to monitor matters related to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) and also inquire into complaints pertaining to members of these communities.

Notes:
Former RAW Chief Rajinder Khanna, a 1978-batch Research and Analysis Wing Service (RAS) officer, has been appointed as the new Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) on January 2, 2018 without a fixed tenure and would remain at the post until further orders. He will assist NSA Ajit Doval, who too is a former RAW chief. It is for the first time when both NSA and Deputy NSA are from intelligence agency background. Khanna has led many counter-terrorism operations in the spy agency and is reportedly an expert on Pakistan and Islamic terrorism. The position has been vacant since Arvind Gupta had stepped down after completion of his contractual term in August 2017.

Notes:
On 3rd January 2018, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has welcomed six new non-permanent members — Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Peru, and Poland. The six new countries, voted on by the 193-member General assembly for two-year terms, will have a strong voice in matters dealing with international peace and security during their time on the U.N.’s most powerful body. The U.N. Security council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 members — five of which (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) hold permanent membership and veto power. The six countries who left the UNSC on 31st December 2017 are Egypt, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay.

Notes:
Turkey’s endangered ‘bird language’ has entered the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is an unusual and very efficient whistle language used as a means of communication by villagers in remote northern Turkey. UNESCO has accepted the “bird language” of Black Sea villagers as an endangered part of world heritage in need of urgent protection. Around 10,000 people, mostly in the district of Canakci in Giresun province, still use the highly-developed and high pitch system of whistling to communicate in the rugged terrain where most of the times they cannot see each other. This form of communication which dates to some 500 years ago, during the Ottoman Empire, was widespread across the Black Sea regions, but 50 years ago it suffered the impact of the progression of technology and nowadays the ever rapid growing of cellular mobile systems has put this cultural heritage under serious threat.

Notes:
The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to offer relevant training to the employees on issues pertaining payment banking. Under the agreement, IICA has been entrusted with the key responsibility of capacity building of IPPB through training of its officials/employees besides providing research support by instituting Research Chairs in the emerging area of payment banking. This joint venture is expected to enable the massive network of post offices with the ability to effectively deal with Financial Inclusion.

Notes:
The New Delhi World Book Fair has started at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on January 6, 2018. It is organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). The main theme of 2018 fair is “Environment and climate change” and European Union is the focus country. More than 40 countries including Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are participating in the book fair. The annual event will come to an end on 14th of this month.

Notes:
Ravi Menon, an Indian-origin banker in Singapore has been named as the best central bank governor in Asia-Pacific for 2018 by the leading UK-based magazine ‘The Banker’ for his contribution in the makeover of Singapore’s financial system. He is the managing director of Singapore’s central bank Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Notes:
The 31st International Kite Festival (Uttarayan) has launched at Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad, Gujarat from January 7, 2018. The week-long colorful festival has inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in the presence of Governor Shri O.P.Kohli. As per reports, 149 foreign kite fliers from 44 countries are participating in this edition of international kite festival. More than 96 kite fliers from 18 states and 290 kite fliers of Gujarat will also take part in this week-long event.