Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
Indian lifter Jhilli Dalabehera from Odisha bagged the bronze medal in the 48 kg category at the 2018 IWF Junior World Weightlifting Championships at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on July 7, 2018. She lifted 167 kg (75 kg + 92 kg) in 48kg to finish third on the podium. With this, Jhilli has become the second woman lifter after Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (in 2013) to win a medal in the Junior World Championships.

Notes:
The first-ever ‘India Tourism Mart (ITM)’ will be hosted by the Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi from 16th to 18th September 2018. Regarding to this, the Tourism Ministry has partnered with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) to organize the event. The purpose of the event is to create an annual Global Tourism Mart for India in line with major international travel marts being held in countries across the world. The Mart will provide a platform for all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industries to interact and transact business opportunities.

Notes:
The 67th plenary meeting of North Eastern Council (NEC) has started at Shillong in Meghalaya on 9th of July, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. NEC is a regional planning body of eight Northeastern states. DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, Governors and Chief Ministers of all the Northeastern states took take part in the 2-day meeting, which is being held for the first time after the Union Cabinet brought NEC under direct control of the Home Ministry. During the meet, they reviewed various presentations on matters related to all-round development of north-eastern region. Apart from this some of the major issues including transformation of several districts in the region, strengthening livelihood programmes, water resources management, doubling farmers’ income by 2022, road connectivity, Implementation of ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ Ayushman Bharat pertaining to the northeastern states were discussed in the plenary.

Notes:
The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has granted “Institutions of Eminence” (IoEs) status to IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay and the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the public sector, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pilani and Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation in the private sector. The Jio Institute has been selected under the Greenfield Category. The aim of this move is to improve the level of educational institutes in the country, so that they can compete with foreign institutions. The goal is to bring them into the top 500 institutions in the world within the next 10 years, and eventually in top 100. The Government will grant Rs 1,000 crore funds to the three public institutions in the next five years though; the private institutes will not be eligible for government funding.

Notes:
For the first time, Indian Navy’s Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft Boeing P- 8I (Poseidon Eight India) from Indian Naval Ship (INS) Rajali has inducted for participating in the 26th edition of RIMPAC-18, the Rim of the Pacific Multinational Naval exercise. During the exercise, IN P8I will be operating from Joint Airbase Hickam, Honolulu in Hawaii. This is the first time ever that an Indian Naval aircraft has traversed so far east into the Pacific. In doing so, the aircraft has attained many additional firsts for an IN aircraft. It is the first IN aircraft to cross the International Date Line, undertaking the longest ferry of nearly 3300 nm from Guam to Hawaii and the first IN aircraft to participate in RIMPAC. RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise. It is hosted and administered by the United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet, headquartered at Pearl Harbor.

Notes:
Sprinter Hima Das has created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold at the IAAF World Under- 20 Athletics Championships in Tempere, Finland on July 12, 2018. Das, who is from Dhing village in Assam’s Nagaon distrist, has clinched the top spot in the women’s 400 meters final race on the third day of the competitions. She clocked 51.46 seconds to win the gold. No woman before Das has won a gold medal in a World Championship at any level, be it youth, junior or senior. She is also the first Indian, men or women, to have won a gold in a track event at the world level.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has invited US President Donald Trump to be chief guest at the 2019 Republic Day Parade. The US is yet to officially accept India’s invite, which offered in April 2018. The invitation has been extended against the backdrop of tensions over tariffs, with the Trump administration pressurizing India to reduce oil imports from Iran. In addition, the abrupt postponement of the heavily anticipated 2+2 dialogue dealt a significant blow to the Indian government. However, the US claimed that the delay would not affect ties, and the summit has been scheduled to take place in September 2018.

Notes:
The Odisha Government has constituted Heritage Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to preserve the history and culture of Odisha. The Heritage Cabinet will maintain coordination between the institutions and departments working to preserve and spread Odia language, culture and literature. It will also prepare policies, and prepare and approve short-term and long-term plans. In short, the aim of the Heritage Cabinet is to spread and preserve history and culture of Odisha and enrich Odia language further. The Cabinet comprises eight members, including the Chief Minister. While the Chief Secretary will be Secretary of Heritage Cabinet, secretary in the department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture will be its convenor. The secretaries of all the departments concerned will be special invitees.

Notes:
Recently, President Ram Nath Kovind has nominated 4 Rajya Sabha members viz. Farmer leader and former MP Ram Shakal, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh and Founder of Delhi-based “India Policy Foundation” Rakesh Sinha.  Raghunath Mohapatra is an internationally renowned sculptur famous for his stone carvings. Practicing since 1959, Mr. Mohapatra has trained over 2000 students. He has contributed to the preservation of traditional sculpture and ancient monuments, and has worked on the beautification of the Sri Jagannath Temple, Puri. Mr. Mohapatra’s famous works include a six-feet high statue of the Sun God carved in grey sandstone in the Central Hall of Parliament, the lotus carving at Vir Bhoomi memorial of Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi, and the Wooden Buddha in Paris.

Notes:
India’s home minister Rajnath Singh has recently inaugurated the world’s largest state-of-the-art visa centre in Dhaka with modern facilities, promising shorter waiting times for applicants. This Integrated centre at Jamuna Future Park (JFP), Dhaka is the largest Indian visa centre in the world with 18,500 square feet commercial area.