Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
India’s shooter Manu Bhaker from Haryana won the gold medal in 10 metre Air Pistol Women event at the 2018 ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico on March 4. She shot 237.5 points to bag top honour at the ongoing event. Meanwhile, in the men’s 10-metre Air Rifle event, Ravi Kumar won a Bronze, which was his first World Cup medal. India has so far bagged 4 medals – two gold and two bronze at the event. A total of 404 athletes from 50 National Olympic Committees are participating in the in the 12-day competition, which will have 15 medal events including three mixed team events. India has fielded a 33-member squad.

Notes:
The Punjab Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with e-Governance Foundation (e-Gov) of Nandan Nilekani regarding the managing of electronic governance of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) throughout Punjab. With this, a total of 67 services would be provided online within a span of one year under 12 modules — that are property tax, water and sewerage management, complaints and grievance, licensing, fire service, verification, birth and death, ULB web portal, mobile application, state and ULB dashboards, payroll and financial accounting.

Notes:
The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) will become the first sovereign nation to issue a cryptocurrency that will be legal tender. The new currency is called “Sovereign” with the symbol “SOV”. The SOV will be distributed to the public via an Initial Currency Offering (ICO). It will circulate as legal tender in the country, alongside its current local currency, the U.S. dollar. The RMI has partnered with Israeli fintech startup Neema to issue 24 million units of the Sovereign (SOV) digital currency. It will cap the number to prevent inflation. The move follows Venezuela’s launch of the Petro cryptocurrency in February 2018. Unlike the Petro, the SOV will be recognized in law as legal tender, holding equal status as the US dollar, which is the Pacific island nation’s current currency. The Marshall Islands is a Pacific island republic nestled between Hawaii and Australia.

Notes:
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) on the occasion of 2018 International Women’s Day (IWD). The platform aspires to substantially increase the number of women entrepreneurs who will create and empower a dynamic New India. WEP will provide opportunities to women to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses. It aims to promote women entrepreneurship and provide industry linkages and partner support to women entrepreneurs.

Notes:
The International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated every year on March 8 to highlight the achievements of women. It is a global celebration of the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women. The 2018 theme is “Time Is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”. Women’s Day was first observed on 28th February 1909 in New York. At 1910 International Woman’s Conference, 8th March was suggested to be observed as “International Woman’s Day.” March 8 also became a national holiday in Soviet Russia in 1917 after women gained suffrage there. Later, in 1975, International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations.

Notes:
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) launched a Udyam Sakhi portal for women entrepreneurs of India on the occasion of 2018 International Women’s Day: The “www.udyamsakhi.org” portal is a network for nurturing social entrepreneurship and creating business models for low cost products and services in order to empower women and make them self-reliant and self-sufficient. The portal provides assistance through its platform for entrepreneurship learning tools, incubation facility, training programs for fund raising, providing mentors, one-on-one investor meet, provide market survey facility and technical assistance.

Notes:
The Mundra Thermal Power Station is located at Mundra in Kutch district of Gujarat. The power plant is one of the coal-based power plants of Adani Power. The source of water for the power plant is sea water from the Gulf of Kutch. It is the world’s 11th-largest single location coal-based thermal power plant as well as India’s second largest operational power plant.

Notes:
Pyare Lal Wadali (75), the famous Sufi singer, has passed away in Amritsar, Punjab on March 9, 2018. He was the younger of the singers of legendary Sufi set Wadali Brothers. The Wadali Brothers – comprising Puranchand Wadali and Pyarelal Wadali – had carved a distinct mark for themselves in the genre of Sufi music. Born into the fifth generation of musicians, Pyarelal and Puran Chand Wadali became popular with their Sufi music and were spotted after performing at the Harballabh temple in Jalandhar in 1975. The duo had taken the country by storm some years ago, by their hit album featuring Sufi songs such as ‘Tu mane ya na mane dildara’, ‘aasan te tenu rab manya’ and Tanu Weds Manu’s ‘Rangrez mere’.

Notes:
Diu has become the India’s first Union Territory (UT) to run 100% on solar power energy. Diu has a total area of 42 square kilometers and the installation of the solar power plants here has been done in over 50 acres. On a daily basis, the Union Territory generates a total of 13 megawatts of electricity from solar power plants out of this 3 MW is contributed by rooftop solar plants and 10 MW by others. With this, Diu has managed to generate surplus solar power for its residents, reducing their electricity costs, in a span of just three years.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the first Founding Conference of International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the Rashtrapati Bhawan Cultural Center in New Delhi on March 11, 2018. The purpose of the summit is to focus on various aspects of promoting solar energy in 121 countries that are part of the International Solar Alliance. The summit was attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid among other dignitaries from over 50 countries. The ISA is the first treaty-based intergovernmental organisation to be based in India that aims to help sunshine-rich developing countries to tap solar energy at more affordable prices.