Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
The French National Football team has clinched the 2018 FIFA World Cup by defeating Croatia 4-2 in a thrilling final match at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15. Croatia were playing in their first World Cup final. They were the smallest country to reach the Final in the modern era. For France, it was a first World Cup crown since winning on home soil in 1998. England’s Harry Kane won the World Cup Golden Boot Award as top scorer with 6 goals. Croatia captain Luka Modric won the Golden Ball award for the World Cup’s best player despite being on the losing side. Kylian Mbappe of France won the Young Player of the Tournament Award after scoring his 4th goal of the competition in the final. Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois won the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper. Now, France joined Uruguay and Argentina in winning the World Cup for a second time, after their 1998 triumph over Brazil when Didier Deschamps — now the coach — was the captain.

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.

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.

Notes:
The Chhattisgarh government has launched an online portal and mobile app ‘Aabhaar-Aapki seva ka (Gratitude-For Your Service)’ to provide transparency in the pension facility. Through this app and the website, 80,000 pensioners of the state will now get all the information related to pension and payment online. The pensioners will get the benefit of senior pension with the State government’s 7th pay scale before January 1, 2016. This pension system was launched by the Online Pension Management System (OPMS) for the pensioners of the state.

Notes:
On July 19, the 10th edition of the Delhi Dialogue has started in New Delhi with theme ‘Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Co-operation’. The Delhi Dialogue is a premier annual track 1.5 event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and ASEAN. In the 2-day event, the political leadership, policymakers, officials, diplomats, business leaders, think-tanks and academicians from India and ASEAN Member States are participating in the discussions. This is the first major event to be organized after the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit that was held in New Delhi in January 2018.

Notes:
Israel has passed a law to declare that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country. The nation-state law, backed by the right-wing government, was passed by a vote of 62 for and 55 against and two abstentions in the 120-member parliament after months of political argument. The law was enacted just after the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel. It stipulates that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it. The bill also strips Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew, downgrading it to a special status that enables its continued use within Israeli institutions. The members of the Arab minority have criticized the law as racist and verging on apartheid.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has developed an online tool “TreadWill” to help people cope with issues related to mental health. The tool has been developed by a team with collaborative support from the Computer Science and Engineering and Humanities and Social Sciences, HSS (Psychology) departments. TreadWill is a website designed to help people deal with stress, low mood, lethargy and other depressive symptoms through different online exercises, questionnaires and games. It will help in overcoming depressive symptoms and becoming more resilient against stressful events in the future.

Notes:
Professor Raj Kumar of the Banaras Hindu University has been appointed the new vice-chancellor (V-C) of the Panjab University (PU) in Chandigarh. The term of the appointment will be 3 years with effect from July 23, 2018, or from the date he assumes charge as V-C. He will succeed Arun Kumar Grover. The appointment was made by the Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is chancellor of the university, by exercising powers conferred by Section 10 of the Panjab University Act, 1947.

Notes:
In the Junior Asian Wrestling Championships 2018, Indian wrestler Mansi Ahlawat had to settle for a Silver after she lost to Japan’s Akie Hanai in the 57 kg category final in New Delhi on July 20. In the 53 kilogram category, the Bronze medal was won by Swati Shinde after she defeated Thailand’s Duangnapa Boonyasu in the play-off. Earlier, India had clinched a Silver medal through Divya Kakran in the 68 kg category, while the two Bronze medals came through Reena in 55 kgs and Karuna in 76 kgs.

Notes:
On July 21, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has launched the Student Police Cadet Programme to build a bridge between the Police and the larger community through school students by inculcating values and ethics in them. The programme focuses on students of Class 8 and 9th and special care has been taken to ensure that it does not lead to increase the workload of students. The programme does not have any prescribed text book nor is any exam envisaged. Only one class in a month is proposed. The programme seeks to cover broadly two kinds of topics: Crime prevention and control, and Values and ethics. Under the first part, the topics covered are – Community Policing, Road Safety, Fight against Social Evils, Safety of Women & Children, Fight against Corruption and Disaster Management. The topics covered under the second part are – Values & Ethics, Respect for Elders, Empathy & Sympathy, Tolerance, Patience, Attitude, Team Spirit and Discipline. The programme will first be implemented in government schools in both urban and rural areas.