Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
India will provide $5 million dollar assistance to Jordan in the form of vaccines and medicines in 2018. Apart from this, India and Jordan have inked 12 agreements in areas including Defence, Health and Cultural Exchange Programme. The other MoUs include cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Jordan TV Cooperation and Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Jordan Media Institute (JMI). The MoU between Prasar Bharti and Jordan TV provides for cooperation in the fields of exchange and co-production of programs, training of personnel and further coordination. The pacts were inked after delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King of Jordan Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein in New Delhi. The King Abdullah II arrived in New Delhi on February 27 on a three-day visit to India.

Notes:
The All India Radio (AIR) and National Book Trust (NBT) has recently signed a MoU to preserve and promote cultural heritage and folk songs sung on various occasion across the country. Several traditional and folk songs have been recorded under the Akashvani Lok Sampada Sanrakhshan Mahapariyojana. The MoU was inked in presence of Director General of AIR, F. Shehreyar and NBT Chairman, Baldeo Bhai Sharma in New Delhi. Through NBT, All India Radio will provide information to people about the rich heritage of folk songs preserved by it. The NBT will publish the Sanskar and folk songs. The NBT is an Indian publishing house functions under aegis of Ministry of Human Resource The headquarters of NBT is located in Vasant Kunj, Delhi.

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:
Javed Abidi (53), the noted disability rights activist, has passed away in New Delhi on March 4, 2018. A former civil servant, Abidi was one of the most authoritative voices in the field of disability rights and believed in engaging the government for ensuring betterment of the persons with disabilities. Abidi was instrumental in the drafting and passage of The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 and was the director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), which he has set up in 1996. He was also the founder of the Disability Rights Group, and the Convener of the National Disability Network (NDN), India. Born in Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh) in 1965 with congenital spina bifida, a developmental disorder, he traversed the world on a wheelchair, advocating the rights of the disabled.

Notes:
The 9th edition of the Women’s Film Festival (WFF-2018) will be organized by the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) from 9 to 11 March at NFAI Pune. The theme of the fest is ‘Travelling Women’. It will open with Sidney Pollack’s Out Of Africa, featuring Meryl Streep. The festival will feature other acclaimed films including Away We Go, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Wild. The closing film is Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts. On March 8, NFAI will also host a special event “Parikathe til Rajkumari”, and screen audiovisual clips paying tribute to women in Indian cinema, from the birth of Indian cinema till the 1960s. The festival to mark the 2018 International Women’s Day will screen Balu Mahendra’s Tamil film Moondram Pirai, in remembrance of actress Sridevi.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the pan-India expansion of flagship programme–Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao (BBBP)–from JhunJhun district of Rajasthan on March 8 to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD-2018). The BBBP is an initiative to save and educate the girl child. The programme will be expanded from the present 161 districts to 640 all over the country. In another landmark initiative, the Prime Minister will also launch the National Nutrition Mission (NNM). He will also launch NNM- ICDS Common Application Software.

Notes:
India’s first helicopter-taxi service has been successfully launched in Bengaluru, Karnataka which drastically reduces travel time for commuters. At present, the Heli taxi service is operating between Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and Electronic City. The service is expected to reduce the time taken to cover the distance from 2 hours to 15 minutes. The helicopter will seat up to six people apart from the pilot and the service will cost Rs 3,500 plus GST.

Notes:
The week-long 29th edition of the world-famous International Yoga Festival (IYF-2018) was held at Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand from March 1-7, 2018. The IYF offers daily classes from 4 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. with more than 80 revered saints, yogacharyas, presenters and experts from nearly 20 countries around the world. There are also classes in meditation, mudras, Sanskrit chanting, reiki, Indian philosophy and spiritual discourses to be held by revered spiritual leaders from India and abroad. The festival was officially inaugurated by Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu. Approx 1500 participants from 92 nations participated in the fest.

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:
Indian-origin steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has been appointed by Britain’s Prince Charles as an official ambassador for the Industrial Cadets programme designed to nurture manufacturing skills. Gupta was appointed to the flagship programme to give children and young people the direct structured experience of the industry at school or college level.