Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
Noted Indian architect & urban planner Balkrishna Doshi has been named the prestigious 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize for being able to interpret architecture and transform it into buildings that respect Eastern culture. He is the first Indian architect to be awarded the prize. The award ceremony will take place at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto on May 2018. Doshi is widely known for designing extensive low-cost housing projects and public institutions. His designs include the IIM-Bangalore; Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad; cultural spaces in Ahmedabad such as Tagore Memorial Hall, the Institute of Indology, and Premabhai Hall; and private residence Kamala House (Ahmedabad), among many others. The Pritzker Prize is regarded as architecture’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

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Biplab Kumar Deb has been sworn-in as 10th chief minister in Agartala on March 9, 2018. He is the state president of BJP in Tripura. Jishnu Debbarma took oath as the deputy chief minister. With this, BJP ended the 25-year Left Front rule in the State by winning 35 out of the 59 seats. Its ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, won eight seats, taking the tally to 43. As per the Constitution of India, the Governor of Tripura is the state’s de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister.

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Indian shooter Anjum Moudgil from Chandigarh has clinched her first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup medal- silver in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event at the ongoing 2018 ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Guadalajara, Mexico on March 9, 2018. Former junior world champion China’s Ruijiao Pei won the Gold Medal in that event.This was India’s 8th medal of the competition and the first silver after having won three golds and four bronze medals.

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As part of the 10th edition of MILAN 2018, the first-ever multi-nation naval exercise at sea called MILES-18 has started on March 11, 2018. The exercise will be conducted for three days in the Andaman Sea. Those participating in the event include 11 foreign naval ships and six Indian ships. Apart from enhancing inter-operability, the exercise will enable honing of search and rescue operations procedures, maritime interdiction operations, core operational skills and exercise a variety of maritime security scenarios. The Andaman Nicobar naval command is organizing multi-national mega event “Milan 2018” with theme ‘Friendship Across the Seas’ at Port Blair in Andaman & Nicobar islands from March 6 to March 13, 2018. The purpose of Milan 2018 is to enhance regional cooperation for combating Unlawful Activities at sea will be organised.

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The Delhi End TB Summit has started in New Delhi on 13th March 2018, which is co-hosted by the Union Health Ministry, WHO South East Asia Regional Office and Stop TB Partnership. In it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a TB-free India Campaign to eradicate Tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, five years ahead of a globally-set deadline. The campaign will take the activities of National Strategic Plan (NSP) for TB elimination forward in a mission mode. The NSP is backed by a funding of over Rs 12,000 crore over the next three years to ensure that every TB patient has access to quality diagnosis, treatment and support. The new NSP adopts a multi-pronged approach which aims to detect all TB patients, with an emphasis on reaching TB patients seeking care from private providers and undiagnosed TB in high-risk populations. The Delhi End TB Summit 2018 will set the stage for United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB in September 2018, where for the first time, TB will be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level.

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The Festival of Democracy will be celebrated in Jaipur, Rajasthan on March 17, 2018 to discuss developmental dialogues relevant to democracy in the country. It is being organised by Anjaneya Seva Samiti in collaboration with Talk India Foundation. It will hold discussions about vivid aspects of the nation ranging from politics to cinema. The 2-day festival will be a platform to discuss substantive dialogue about vivid aspects of the nation, including politics, literature, art, health, sports, education, cinema and others. Eminent personalities from across the country are expected to take part in the event which includes former MP CP Joshi, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Delhi Power Minister Satyendra Jain and AAP leader Ashutosh Gupta.

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India’s first national coastal policing academy has been set up in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat to train police forces in effectively safeguarding the Indian shoreline. The academy, named National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP), will start functioning from a campus of Gujarat’s Fisheries Research Centre located in coastal Okha from April 2018. The NACP will be run by a multi-agency team of paramilitary and defence forces. It will train the marine forces of states, which have sea lines.

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Narendra Jha (55), the noted film and television actor, has passed away in Nashik, Maharashtra on March 14, 2018. He was born in Madhubani, Bihar. He began his small screen journey with Mandira Bedi’s Shanti and went on to model in TV ads. He is best known for his performances in films such as “Raees”, “Kaabil”, “Mohenjo Daro” and “Haider”.

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The Haryana government will constitute a committee to find a solution to polluted water flowing in Yamuna river affecting the four districts of the state. The committee, led by State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Om Parkash Dhankhar, will discuss the issue with the Delhi government and the Centre. It was announced by the Chief Minister of Haryana in the Haryana Assembly during Zero hour to the issue of quality of water in Okhla Barrage and effulents entering Yamuna from 37 polluted channels in Delhi.

Notes:
The Executive Committee, which is the apex body for all nutrition related activities under the POSHAN Abhiyaan, held its first meeting to decide on the road map for the mission on March 14, 2018. The Committee is headed by Rakesh Srivastava, Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development. An official release stated that on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti on 14th of April, Gram Panchayats across the country will hold meetings to discuss on the nutritional aspects and their implementation along with health and sanitation issues. Besides, a National Seminar is also being organised on 20th March for taking the Mission forward. Apart from executive committee, the National Council on India (NCI)’s nutritional challenges under chairmanship of Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog has also been set up under the POSHAN Abhiyaan. The Council will submit report to the Prime Minister every 6 months. It must be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the POSHAN Abhiyaan at Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan on 8th March 2018.