Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
India has pledged 5 million in assistance to the UN agency working for the welfare of Palestinian refugees to help bolster its “severe funding crisis” following US’ cut in its annual aid to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). A total of 20 countries, including India, announced contributions to the 2018 budget of the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East during a meeting. While India pledged 5 million, Sweden will contribute 250 million over four years, the UK 51 million and the UAE $50 million among other donors. UNRWA has been providing health, education, relief and social services, as well as emergency humanitarian assistance, to some 5.3 million Palestinian refugees across its five fields of operation — Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — for 65 years.

Notes:
In a remarkable achievement, the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai has been declared as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 30th June 2018. The decision was taken at the 42nd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at Manama in Bahrain. This makes Mumbai city the second city in India after Ahmedabad to be included on the World Heritage List. Now, India has overall 37 World Heritage Inscriptions with 29 Cultural, 07 Natural and 01 Mixed sites. While India stands second largest in number after China in terms of number of World Heritage properties in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region, it is overall sixth in the world.

Notes:
As per US State Department’s 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report, North Korea has been tagged “worst human trafficking nation” for the 16th straight year, citing the use of forced labour. North Korea has been included in the Tier 3 category, which is the lowest ranking, along with China, Russia and Iran. The report stated that the North Korean government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. It is continued to use forced labour in prison camps and labour training centres. In a stark contrast, South Korea has been ranked at the highest category, that is, in the list of Tier 1 countries for the 16th consecutive year, along with US, UK, France and Canada.

Notes:
Rajat Sharma, who is the Chairman and Chief Editor of Hindi news channel INDIA TV, has become the new president of Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) for a period of 3 years. He beat former cricketer Madan Lal by 517 votes in the DDCA election 2018. The results of the DDCA polls were announced on 2nd July 2018 and Sharma’s group swept the elections winning all 12 seats. Sharma’s team will consist of Rakesh Kumar Bansal, who has been elected as the vice-president with 48.87% votes in his favour. Meanwhile, Vinod Tihara has been elected as Secretary, Om Prakash Sharma is the new Treasurer and Rajan Manchanda is the Joint Secretary. Rajat Sharma was conferred with Padma Bhushan award in 2016.

Notes:
The Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) in Assam has become the first oil public sector undertaking (PSU) to adopt an online legal compliance system by introducing ‘Legatrix’. The cloud-based compliance management system ‘Legatrix’ is a one-stop solution for effectively managing the organisation’s legal and regulatory compliances through monitoring control at different levels. It encompasses the requirements of laws like labour, taxation, IT, commercial, export-import, corporate laws and other industry-specific laws. This initiative augments the NRLs contribution towards the Digital India Mission and induces greater transparency in its operations.

Notes:
The famous cultural festival “Behdienkhlam 2018” was celebrated at the small peripheral town of Jowai, the District headquarters of Jaintia Hills District in Meghalaya with joy and religious fervour. The festival witnessed a colourful display of 12 rots or ‘rath’ at the sacred pool ‘Aitnar’. It is the most celebrated religious festival among the Pnars Tribals. It is celebrated mid-July every year after the sowing is over. The festival ends with a final salutation to the divine powers when the women of the tribe offer sacrificial food to their almighty. The festival is also known as the festival for chasing away the Demon of Cholera.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has launched an outstanding power bill waiver scheme and subsidised power scheme ‘Sambal’ for labourers and poor families. The purpose of the scheme is to make sure that all the households have power facility in the state. One crore 83 lakh workers registered under Sambal Yojana in the state till now. Under this scheme, outstanding electricity bill worth five thousand 179 crores rupees is to be waived off. Under the subsidised power segment of this scheme, registered labourers of the unorganised sector and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families would be provided electricity at a cost of Rs 200 per month while Power connection would be provided free of cost to the beneficiaries. In case the bill is lower than Rs 200, the beneficiary will have to pay the actual bill amount and if the bill amount crossing Rs 200, then the difference amount would be subsidised by the state government.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched user-friendly android app “cVigil” for citizens to report any violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during elections. The unique Internet-based beta version of the application ‘cVIGIL’ stands for “citizens’ vigil”. The app will be active only in States where elections have been announced. The application will be operationalised for the first time from the forthcoming Assembly elections in the States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan. By using this app, citizens can immediately report on incidents of misconduct within minutes of having witnessed them and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer to lodge a complaint. The user will get 5 minutes to report an incident after having clicked a picture or a video. To prevent any misuse, the app will not allow uploading of the pre-recorded or old images and videos. The new app is expected to fill in all these gaps and create a fast-track complaint reception and redressal system.

Notes:
Angela Ponce from Seville has created by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to be crowned Miss Universe Spain, after beating 22 contestants. She will representing her country at the 67th Miss Universe 2018 pageant in Philippines in December 2018. This comes six years after the Miss Universe organisation put an end to the ban on transgender contestants in the competition in 2012.

Notes:
Justice L Narasimha Reddy, the former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, has been appointed as Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad for a period of three years. President Ram Nath Kovind in his capacity as Visitor of the University appointed Justice Reddy as Chancellor of of UoH. Justice Reddy, who is also the Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal, served as a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, between 2001 and 2015.