Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced one of the world’s largest investment plans in solar energy at the Founding Conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA-2018) on March 11. In it, India will provide $1.4 billion line of credit to support 27 solar power projects in 15 countries. Beside this, France will provide €700 million in loans and support by 2022 to emerging economies for solar energy projects. The 2018 ISA conference co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Rashtrapati Bhawan Cultural Center in New Delhi .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 ISA is a treaty based inter-governmental alliance of 121 countries lying between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Notes:
Bidya Devi Bhandari has been re-elected as President of Nepal for second term in office with an overwhelming majority. She defeated her Nepali Congress rival Kumari Laxmi Rai in the election held on March 13, 2018. Ms Bhandari secured 39,275 votes while the NC’s Rai garnered 11,730 votes. She became Nepal’s first woman President in 2015.

Notes:
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”.

Notes:
The 105th session of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) will be hosted by Manipur Central University in Imphal from 16 to 20 March 2018. The focal theme of the ISC is “Reaching the Unreached Through Science & Technology”. The Indian Science Congress is an annual event, usually held in the first week of January. Top scientists from across the country and the world attend the event. The 104th ISC was held at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
The Malampuzha Dam is the largest reservoir in Kerala, located near Palakkad in south India with the scenic hills of the Western Ghats in the background. It is a combination of a masonry dam with a length of 1,849 m and an earthen dam with a length of 220 m. The dam is 355 feet high and crosses the Malampuzha River, a tributary of Bharathappuzha, Kerala’s second longest river. The total catchments area is 145 square kilometres, while the reservoir has a capacity of 8000 square meters of water. The canal systems serve to irrigate farm land while the reservoir provides drinking water to Palakkad and surrounding villages.

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The Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) has claimed that India’s first cloned Assamese buffalo male calf ‘Sach-Gaurav’ has born in Hisar, Haryana on December 22, 2017. The calf was born to a Murrah buffalo through a normal delivery. It was also the first to be born in the field, 100 kms from the cloning laboratory at Hi Tech Sach Dairy Farm. The birth weight of the calf was 54.2 kgs and it was in good health. It had normal physiological parameters and blood profile. The genotype of the calf was confirmed by microsatellite analysis (parentage verification) and chromosome analysis. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-CIRB is a central institute and it has a mandate to conserve superior animals of all buffalo breeds.

Notes:
The 105th session of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Manipur Central University in Imphal on March 16, 2018. The focal theme of the 5-day ISC is “Reaching the Unreached Through Science & Technology”. Approx 5,000 delegates from all over the country and 2,000 scientists along with four Nobel Laureates will grace the event. The Indian Science Congress is an annual event, usually held in the first week of January. The 104th ISC was held at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
The first phase of Indo-French joint naval exercise ‘Varuna 2018’ has kickstarted at the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) in Vasco, Goa on March 19, 2018. The exercise is being held in the Arabian Sea off the Goa coast. French submarine and frigate Jean de Vienne and Indian destroyer INS Mumbai and frigate Trikand with their integral helicopters, Indian submarine Kalvari, P8-1 and Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft and a Mig 29K fighter aircraft are participating in the exercise which will conclude on March 24, 2018. The next two phases would be held off the Chennai coast next month and in La Reunion Island in May 2018. Indian and French navies have been conducting bilateral maritime exercises since May 1993.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has recently released roadmaps for ‘Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital in Education (SATH-E)’ project to introduce system-wide governance transformation in school education. These roadmaps, which operate between 2018 to 2020, lay out detailed interventions which will taken by the 3 participating states – Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – aiming to become ‘Role Model States’ in school education. To increase learning outcomes in schools across the country, NITI Aayog’s project SATH-E is promoting vocational education, skill development, teacher training and introducing technology in classrooms. Besides, the project will promote data-driven analysis to strengthen academic monitoring across schools in the country. These roadmaps present the customised, action-oriented programmes, outlining interventions at the individual, district and State level. The roadmaps were jointly prepared by NITI Aayog, the three States and the knowledge partners of the SATH Initiatives, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Piramal Foundation For Education Leadership (PFEL).

Notes:
India and the European Union (EU) have signed an agreement that will enable them to share earth observation data from each other’s satellites. The pact was inked in Bengaluru by Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence, on behalf of the European Commission, and by Scientific Secretary, PG Diwakar. The Copernicus programme provides a wide range of applications like climate change, land, ocean and atmosphere monitoring as well as support in forecasting, management and mitigation of natural disasters. Under this arrangement, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will share data from its earth observation satellites. The European Commission will provide India with free, full and open access to the data from the Copernicus Sentinel family of satellites using high bandwidth connections from data hub to data hub. This will provide both the sides, the data on climate change, weather forecasting and natural disasters.