Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
Rashid Khan, the world’s No.1 ODI and Twenty20 International bowler, has become the youngest international captain in cricket history by leading Afghanistan at the age of 19 years & 165 days against Scotland in the first match of the 2018 ICC World Cup qualifiers played in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He replaced Rajin Saleh of Bangladesh who captained his side against South Africa at the age of 20 years and 297 days in 2004.

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:
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.

Notes:
Vivek R Wadekar, the 1991-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has been appointed as the new Special Director in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by the Union government for a period of five years. The ED is the central investigative agency, under the Union finance ministry, that enforces the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in the country.

Notes:
The biennial event on Civil Aviation and Aerospace ‘Wings India 2018’ has started with theme “India-Global Aviation Hub” in Hyderabad on March 8. It is jointly organized by Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India and FICCI. The WINGS INDIA 2018 is a platform for interactions, forging alliances, investments and air connectivity between the States and the global aviation players & stakeholders. The four-day event has witnessed the presence of 125 exhibitors and 35 CEOs. It also saw representation from 10 countries. The focus of the conference is to foster partnership to transform Indian aviation and the role of conducive regulatory framework to facilitate growth of civil aviation market.

Notes:
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) has recently signed a cooperation arrangement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote solar energy deployment in Asia and the Pacific on March 10, 2018. The cooperation envisages solar power generation, solar based mini-grids and transmission systems for integrating solar energy into grids. The ISA and the ADB would also cooperate on knowledge sharing and developing technology roadmaps for the promotion of solar energy. Apart from this, the ISA has also inked joint financial partnership declarations with the African Development Bank (AfDb), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Green climate fund (GCF), and the New Development Bank (NDB). ISA and AfDb would work on mobilisation of concessional financing through existing, notably the Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa and the Facility for Energy Inclusion. AIIB and ISA have collaborated for promotion of solar energy in prospective ISA member countries where AIIB operates. Besides, ISA and GCF will promote development of affordable, reliable and sustainable solar energy as an important way towards a sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The purpose of the agreements is to deepen their cooperation in support of renewable energy.

Notes:
The Barh Super Thermal Power Station (BSTPS) is located in Barh, Bihar and is owned by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The 1,320MW (2×660 MW) Barh Stage-2 built by BHEL is operational while 1,980MW (3×660 MW) Barh Stage-1 is being built by Russian firm Technopromexport (TPE). The main power plant and the township is spread over an area of 1,186 acres.The legal possession of 1,186 acres of land has been acquired for setting up the main power plant and its township which includes 12 villages.

Notes:
The first-ever Indo-French Knowledge Summit was held in New Delhi and coincided with the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to India. The purpose of the summit was to design a roadmap of Franco-India cooperation for the next five years, in collaboration with companies. It was organized by the French Embassy in India and co-hosted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The Knowledge summit was successfully ended with a landmark agreement on mutual recognition of educational qualifications between the two countries and a record 15 other MoUs between universities and research institutions on joint initiatives and partnerships. More than 350 people from nearly 80 Indian Institutions and 70 French Institutions along with key enterprises participated in the Summit which also received the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Campus France and Confederation of Indian Industry.

Notes:
Stephen Hawking (76), the legendary British theoretical physicist, has passed away in Cambridge, United Kingdom on March 14, 2018. Known for his unique way of speaking while living his life in a wheelchair, Hawking became an emblem of human determination and curiosity. He is known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity. He contracted motor neurone disease in 1963 and was given two years to live but he went on to study at Cambridge and became one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein. Mr Hawking was the author of several popular science books, including ‘A Brief History of Time’, which sold more than 10 million copies and was translated into 40 different languages. The physicist had won the Albert Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. His life story was the subject of the 2014 film ‘The Theory of Everything’, starring Eddie Redmayne.