Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has constituted a 10 Member Committee, headed by the Injeti Srinivas (Secretary of Ministry of Corporate Affairs), for review of the penal provisions in the Companies Act, 2013. The basic aim of the committee is to examine de-criminalisation of certain offences and to suggest ways to replace it with in-house mechanism, where a penalty could be levied in instances of default. The committee will examine the existing compoundable offences in the Companies Act – 2013 viz. offences punishable with fine only or punishable with fine or imprisonment or both. It is also required to be seen as to whether any non-compoundable offences punishable with imprisonment only, or punishable with imprisonment and also with fine under the Companies Act, 2013 may be made compoundable. The Committee shall submit its report within 30 days to the Central Government for consideration of its recommendations.

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Sanskrit is one of the languages in the Eighth Schedule and is also an official language in Uttarakhand.

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Ayushman Mitra Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) will be a medical professional assisting patients seeking treatment. Their main work will be to assist patients coming to the hospital, and coordinate between patients and hospitals. The AB-NHPS aims at providing a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and benefiting more than 10 crore poor families.

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The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded in 1952 and its main work is in areas covering the international conventions and standards related to customs, trade, IPR protection etc.

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The 2018 Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit is to commence from August 30, 2018 in Nepal. This is the fourth summit of BIMSTEC since its formation in 1997. Nepal is hosting it for the first time. It will see the heads of states from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand along with Nepal.

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On July 14, Classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, columnist Rakesh Sinha, Sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and farmer leader Ram Shakal have been nominated by the President Ram Nath Kovind to the Rajya Sabha. The new nominations have been made to fill the vacancies caused due to the retirement of nominated members Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha, Anu Aga and K Parasaran. Under Article 80 of the Constitution, the President can nominate 12 members to the Rajya Sabha “from amongst persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.” The nominated members have six-year term. The other sitting nominated members include boxer Mary Kom, columnist Swapan Dasgupta, advocate K.T.S. Tulsi, economist Narendra Jadhav and BJP members Subramanian Swamy, Roopa Ganguly, Suresh Gopi and Sambhaji Chhatrapati.

Notes:
Aruna Sairam, the renowned Carnatic vocalist, has been selected for the 2018 Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy. She will preside over the 92nd annual conference to be held between December 15, 2018 and January 1, 2019. The award will be conferred to her on January 1, the day of Sadas. Beside her, Mridhangist Thanjavur R. Ramadoss and vocalist K. Oman Kutty will receive the Sangita Kala Acharya award. T.T.K. Awards will be given to veena player Kalyani Ganesan and nagaswaram player S.R.G. Rajanna. Dr. Premeela Gurumurthy, the Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu University for Fine Arts, will get the musicologist award and dancer Shanta Dhananjayan will get the Nritiya Kalanidhi award, which will be conferred on her January 3

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has given ‘In-Principle’ approval for construction and operation of LIGO-India (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory in India) Laboratory in Hingoli District of Maharashtra. The LIGO-India Observatory is scheduled to be operational in 2024 in collaboration with the LIGO Laboratory in United States. This is the 3rd observatory identical to two other LIGO observatories in USA: Hanford ( Washington) and Livingston ( Louisiana). Regarding to this, a MoU was signed between DAE-DST of India and National Science Foundation of USA in March 2016. This information was provided by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 18th of July 2018.

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The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has organised “Ganga Vriksharopan Abhiyan” in five main stem Ganga basin states – Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from 9th July to 15th July 2018. It has been observed as ‘Shubharambh Saptah’. The campaign has been initiated as part of the Forest Interventions in Ganga (FIG) component of Namami Gange programme. The aim of the campaign is to bring greater awareness among people and other stakeholders regarding the importance of afforestation for the task of Ganga Rejuvenation. Plantation activities are being carried out with great enthusiasm all along the banks of the River Ganga with participation of local people. Some of the plants which are being sown during the campaign are Kanji, Sheesham, Farmis, Jamun, Arjun, Gutal, Siras, Chhitvan, Mango, Neem, Semal, Jungal Jalebi, Gulmohar, Kadam, Sagwan, Saal, etc.

Notes:
On July 19, the Elphinstone Road station on the suburban rail network of Mumbai has been rechristened as Prabhadevi station in honour of a local deity Prabhadevi and to erase a “colonial” name. The new nomenclature of the station will be PBHD. The station was named after Lord Elphinstone who had taken over as the then Governor of Bombay in 1853 (1853-1860), the year railways were introduced in India. The deity Prabhadevi also has its own importance as the area is locally known as Prabhadevi, after the temple that was first established by Raja Bhimdev in 13th century.