Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

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:
Ecuador has granted citizenship to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in an attempt to resolve the political impasse over his continued presence in the United Kingdom (UK). Ecuador Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa informed that Assange, who is an Australian, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12, 2017. This news announced on January 12, 2018. Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, when he was faced with extradition to Sweden for allegedly sexually assaulting two women. Ecuador has also sought to give Assange diplomatic status, but Britain has rejected the request. The diplomatic immunity would allow him to leave the embassy without the possibility of being arrested for jumping bail in 2012.

Notes:
French President Emmanuel Macron has been ranked first in the latest Gallup international annual survey “Opinion of Global Leaders”, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and PM Narendra Modi. The survey was conducted across 50 nations and interviewed 53,769 people. In each country a representative sample of around 1,000 men and women was interviewed either face-to-face, or via phone, or through online mediums. The field work was conducted during October-December 2017. The survey shows that PM Modi is a popular leader in the Indian subcontinent with 69% of respondents in Afghanistan and 51% in Bangladesh holding a favourable view towards him.

Notes:
The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) is an anthropology museum to present an integrated story of the evolution of man and culture with special reference to India. It is located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and is also known as the National Museum of Humankind. This museum depicts the story of mankind in time and space. Prof. Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri is the current director-in-charge of IGRMS. The museum also has a regional centre for the South India region at Mysore in Karnataka.

Notes:
The 13th edition of joint military drill exercise “Iron Fist 2018” has started between American and Japanese forces at Camp Pendleton in California on January 12 and will continue till February 12.. More than 500 U.S. Marines and sailors are partnering with about 350 members of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force to train in fire support operations and amphibious assaults. Iron Fist is an annual, bilateral training exercise where U.S. and Japanese service members train together and share techniques, tactics and procedures to improve their combined operational capabilities.

Notes:
Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister, has inaugurated a two-day International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI) in New Delhi on January 15, 2018. The workshop is organized by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). The workshop will bring together countries from different parts of the world – from Chile to Australia and from Japan to Sri Lanka – with different socio-economic backgrounds and geographical features. This will be a great opportunity to learn from their unique experiences in their efforts towards building disaster resilient infrastructure. The workshop will also see multilateral development banks, the United Nations, the private sector and academics coming together to identify best practices in the infrastructure sector, as well as key issues in existing practices and ways to address them.

Notes:
The Army Day is celebrated every year by the Indian Army on January 15 to commemorate the day when General (later Field Marshal) K.M Carriappa took over the command of Army from General Sir Francis Butcher , the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Commander-in-Chief of Indian Army post Independence. The day is also celebrated to remember the sacrifices made by the gallant soldiers and to pay homage to the martyrs. This year, in 2018, the 70th edition of Army Day has celebrated on Jan 15. On this occasion, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Naval Staff Sunil Lanba and Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa paid tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti in Delhi.

Notes:
The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is an Indian research and teaching institute located in Mysuru, Karnataka. It is part of the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The aim of the institute is to protect and document minor, minority and tribal languages. It promotes Linguistic harmony by teaching 15 Indian languages to non-native learners. It was founded on 17 July 1969.

Notes:
The Indo-US joint military exercise ‘Vajra Prahar 2018’ will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle, in which a 45-member Special Forces team from Indian Army’s Southern Command will train alongside US soldiers in the third week of January. The aim of the exercise is to promote military relations between the two countries by enhancing interoperability and mutual exchange of tactics between Special Forces. The objectives of the joint training is to share the best practices between the two armies and to develop joint strategies by sharing expertise of conducting operations in a counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment, while capitalising on the rich repository of experiences of each other armies. The exercise will mainly focus on special operations in urban areas. The last edition was held in Jodhpur in March 2017.

Notes:
In an attempt to fight air pollution, China has constructed an experimental air purifying tower, touted to be the “world’s biggest air purifier” at a height of over 100 meters (328 feet). The tower has been built in Xian in Shaanxi province and is being tested by researchers at the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As per reports, the air purifier has produced more than 10 million cubic meters of clean air since it was launched. The air purification system works through greenhouses covering about half the size of a soccer field around the base of the tower.