Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

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:
The 2018 National Legislators Conference will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Central Hall of Parliament House, New Delhi on March 10, 2018. The purpose of the Conference is to provide a platform to Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assemblies and Members of Legislative Councils across the country to share their experiences. The theme of the conference is — “We For Development”. About 170 public representatives are expected to participate in the Conference. The Conference will offer a special opportunity to the delegates whose constituencies have greater possibilities and aspirations of development. Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, Presiding Officers of State Legislatures, Members of Parliament and Members of State Legislatures will attend the function.

Notes:
The headquarters of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has been shifted from Chennai to Ballabhgarh in Faridabad District of Haryana for better coordination between the environment ministry and the AWBI for carrying out the animal welfare activities. It was informed by Mahesh Sharma, the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in written reply to Rajya Sabha . According to Rule 3 of the Animal Welfare Board (Administrative) Rules (1962), the headquarter of the AWBI shall be at New Delhi or at such other place as the central government, may, after consultation with the Board direct. The AWBI was established in 1962 under Section 4 of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960).

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:
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.

Notes:
Indian shooter Akhil Sheoran clinched gold medal in men’s 50m Rifle 3-Position at ISSF Shooting World Cup at Guadalajara in Mexico on March 10, 2018. In his first-ever World Cup participation, Akhil shot 455.6 in the final to leave behind Austria’s Bernhard Pickl in second place with 452. Hungarian Istvan Peni got 442.3 points in total to take the bronze medal. This was India’s 4th gold medal after Manu Bhaker, Om Prakash Mitharval and Shahzar Rizvi, bagged the yellow metal in the competition so far. India now tops the medal tally with a total of nine medals. International Shooting Sports Federation World Cup Stage 1 will conclude on March 11 with the Skeet Men final.

Notes:
Sitanshu Kar, an officer of 1983 batch of Indian Information Service (IIS), will be the new head of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) after superannuation of Frank Noronha on April 30. He will take charge as PIB head on 1st May 2018. Presently, he is the director general of All India Radio (AIR)’s News Services Division (NSD).

Notes:
India B has won the 45th edition of the Deodhar Trophy 2018 by defeating Karnataka in the final by 6 wickets at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. The Deodhar Trophy is a List A cricket competition in Indian domestic cricket and is named after Prof. D. B. Deodhar, who is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket.