Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
The first-ever National workshop on Poshan Abhiyaan has started at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in New Delhi on March 20, 2018 to implement the campaign in a fast track mode across the country. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is organising the day long workshop in which all states and union territories are participating. The workshop will provide a complete orientation on the campaign to provide handholding in using the softwares involved and to augment the convergence with different Ministries in implementing the campaign for improved Nutritional outcomes. POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan on March 8, 2018. It has been set up with a three year budget of Rs 9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18. It aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children. The programme also targets to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth rate.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently signed a pact with India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) to offer mortgage guarantee scheme for prospective non-salaried and self-employed home loan customers. The offering will help increase home loan eligibility up to 15% within the regulatory norms. The MoU between SBI and IMGC is a strategic initiative which will enable to improve housing loan volumes in the non-salaried segment. Under this product, applicant can avail higher finance based on risk grade of the borrower, by opting for IMGC default guarantee cover. IMGC is a joint venture between National Housing Bank, Genworth Inc International Finance Corporation and Asian Development Bank. It is providing mortgage default guarantee to the lending Institutions in India.

Notes:
The National Cultural Audiovisual Archives (NCAA) project of the Ministry of Culture has become the world’s first Trusted Digital Repository as per ISO 16363:2012 standard, which is granted by Primary Trustworthy Digital Repository Authorisation Body Ltd. (PTAB), United Kingdom (UK). The NCAA is implemented by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). The primary objective of the NCAA is to identify and preserve the cultural heritage of India available in audiovisual form through a process of digitization and making it accessible to the people. By March 2018, a corpus of 30,000 hours of unpublished, non-commercial audio & video recordings will be made online at http://ncaa.gov.in/repository, out of which approximately 15,000 hours are already hosted online along with contextual metadata, representing the cultural diversity of India in the broadest sense.

Notes:
General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Army Staff, has released a book on Paramveer Chakra Awardees – ‘Paramveer Parwane’ on 20 March 2018. The book illustrates the bravery of Paramveer Chakra Awardees from 1947 to 1965 and is written by Dr. Prabhakiran Jain published by Medha Books. The book has 11 short stories, poems and songs highlighting the history of the battles in which the brave soldiers sacrificed their lives and have shown the utmost courage & leadership while facing the enemy during War to protect the motherland. The book is available in paperback & coffee table book format and its second part will be released shortly.

Notes:
The World Down syndrome Day (WDSD) is observed every year on March 21 to raise public awareness about the syndrome and well being of people with Down syndrome. The 2018 theme “What I Bring To My Community” demonstrates that how people with Down syndrome can and do make meaningful contributions throughout their lives, whether in schools, workplaces, living in the community, public and political life, culture, media, recreation, leisure and sport. The Down syndrome is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement that has always been a part of the human condition, exists in all regions across the globe and commonly results in variable effects on learning styles, physical characteristics or health.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), 2017 with financial outlay of Rs.3000 crores upto March, 2020. Government will provide necessary allocations for remaining period of scheme after assessment before March 2020. NEIDS is a combination of the incentives covered under the earlier two schemes with a much larger outlay. In order to promote employment in the North East States, Government is incentivising primarily the MSME Sector through this scheme and is also providing specific incentive through it to generate employment. The newly introduced scheme will promote industrialization in the States of the North Eastern Region and will boost employment and income generation. All eligible industrial units which are getting benefits of one or more components of other schemes of the government will also be considered for benefits of other components of this scheme. The overall cap for benefits under all components of incentives will be of Rs 200 crores per unit.

Notes:
The first-ever National Conference on Drug Law Enforcement has inaugurated by Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, in New Delhi on March 23, 2018. The 2-day conference is being organized by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Ministry of Home Affairs. The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will be the Chief Guest at the closing session. More than 50 State and Central law enforcement agencies involved in combating drug trafficking have confirmed their participation in this Conference. The conference working sessions are focused on various topics such as ‘Wider context of drug trafficking in India’, ‘Financial Investigations’ and ‘Foreign & Cyber Investigations’. During these sessions various agencies would give presentations while UN and other foreign law enforcement agencies would share their experiences.

Notes:
Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan (18) shattered the world record and claimed the gold medal in 10m women’s air rifle event of the season’s first junior ISSF World Cup in Sydney on March 22, 2018. She shot 249.8 in the women’s final to claim the top individual honours. Her 631.4 in the qualification was a new world record. Besides her individual podium finish, Elavenil also combined with Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta to claim the team gold medal.

Notes:
Les Payne (76), a fervid and fearless Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, has passed away in Manhattan, United States on March 18, 2018. He served as an editor and columnist at Newsday and is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Payne received a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative research ‘Heroin Trail’ in 1974.

Notes:
India’s teen shooting sensation Manu Bhaker has bagged Gold in the Women’s 10-metre Air Pistol Individual and Team events at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney, Australia on March 24, 2018. Manu shot 235.9 to finish at the top of the podium. Hirunphoem settled for a Silver, while China’s Kaiman Lu won the Bronze. Manu, Devanshi Rana and Mahima Agrawal also brought India on top of the team podium. China was second, while Thailand took home the bronze. India also tasted success in the Men’s 10 metre Air Pistol event, with Gaurav Rana winning a Silver medal, and Anmol Jain grabbing the Bronze.