Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

Notes:
According to Union Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman, the Defence Innovation Centre (DIC) will be set up in Coimbatore to assist small industries in manufacturing components for the defence sector. The Defence Ministry will release Rs 20 crore as an initial funding to the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) to set up the innovation centre. The small and micro units as well as startups that can manufacture components required for the defence production would be identified by the CODISSIA. The Association can design or test their products at the centre.

Notes:
Prof Baldev Raj (71), the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), has passed away in Pune, Maharashtra on January 6, 2018, while attending a conference. A recipient of the Padma Shri award, he took over as director of NIAS Bengaluru in 2014 and presided over the expansion of the institute in terms of faculty strength and research grants. He had also served as director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam. He was a major contributor to the advancement of technologies like the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). He contributed to the fields of nuclear materials and mechanics, non-destructive evaluation, nanoscience and technology as well as robotics and automation during the course of his career. He was also an author of around 1,000 academic papers in peer reviewed journals and more than 70 books. Prof Raj won more than 100 awards and assignments in more than 30 countries.

Notes:
Soumitra Chattopadhyay (82), the legendary film and theatre actor, will be conferred with the France’s highest order of merit ‘Legion of Honour at the 42nd International Kolkata Book Fair 2018. The honour will be bestowed on the actor who starred in many of Satyajit Ray’s iconic films by French culture and communication minister Francoise Nyssen in Kolkata. The book fair will open on January 30 and conclude on February 11. Chattopadhyay acted in several of Ray’s films,including Apur Sansar, Abhijan, Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri and Sonar Kella.

Notes:
John Watts Young (87), the legendary astronaut who walked on the Moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, has passed away at Houston, United States on January 5, 2018. He became the 9th person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to fly six space missions (with seven launches, counting his lunar liftoff) over the course of 42 years of active NASA service. He was the only spaceman to span NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs and became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the first-ever Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Parliamentary Conference in the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra (PBK) in Delhi on January 9, 2018. Approx 124 Members of Parliament (MP) and 17 mayors from 23 countries will participate in this conference. The conference is a way of reaching out to the Indian community overseas by the Central government. The event will have two thematic sessions, the first one will have as special guest senior Congress leader and chairman of the parliamentary committee on external affairs, Shashi Tharoor. The session will be presided over by Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The second session will have Parliamentary Affairs minister Ananth Kumar as a special guest which will be chaired by Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Notes:
The World Bank (WB) in its latest report “Global Economic Prospects (GEP-2018)” has projected India’s GDP growth rate at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% for the next two years. As per report, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s economy is estimated to have grown at 6.7% in 2017. Ayhan Kose, the Director of World Bank(WB)’s Development Prospects Group (DPG), stated that India’s growth potential will be around 7% for the next 10 years. For global economy, World Bank’s outlook, for the first time in many years, is better than expected with all regions seeing improved growth. However, it has warned that countries must make investments to improve their growth prospects, and the time to do that is before the next crisis hits, as it inevitably will.

Notes:
The 34th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2018 and the 3rd China International Ice and Snow Tourism Summit has officially started on January 5 in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. The festival mainly features ice and snow-themed scenic spots such as the world’s largest ice and snow park and a snow sculpture art expo as well as diverse ice and snow sports and entertainments. Statistics show that during the 33rd ice and snow festival the number of tourists received by Harbin stood at 18.49 million, up 12.2% year on year.

Notes:
The Punjab government has rolled out e-Raktkosh web portal in all the 45 government blood banks. The web portal provides the guidelines and streamlines the workflow of blood blanks and storage centres across the nation and interconnects all blood banks with a single network. Brahm Mahindra, the State Health Minister, has stated that in the next phase all 59 private blood banks of the state will be linked with the e-Raktkosh application software.

Notes:
The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has signed a MoU with South Korea for Business co-operation with a focus on automobile, defence and textiles sectors. The main purpose of the MoU is to help Gujarat-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to explore opportunities through joint ventures with South Korean firms, especially in areas of automobile, defence and textiles.

Notes:
The Uri Dam is a 480 MW hydroelectric power station on the Jhelum River near Uri in Baramula district of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It is located very near to the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan. The station is largely built under a hill with a 10 km tunnel. It is of the run-of-the-river type without a large dam, since the Indus Waters Treaty gives Pakistan the exclusive right to regulate the Jhelum River.