Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
Juan Martin del Potro from Argentina has won the Indian Wells Masters Tennis tournament 2018 by defeating Roger Federer in a thrilling final by 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 in California on March 18, 2018. Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam champion, was vying for a record sixth title in California, but it was Del Potro who clinched his maiden ATP Masters 1000 trophy. Del Potro also became the first player to beat Federer this year.

Notes:
The Ministry of AYUSH will organise the 2018 International Yoga Fest at the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga in New Delhi from March 21, 2018. The fest is a curtain raiser for International Yoga Day-2018, which is celebrated on the 21st June. Union Minister Jitendra Singh will inaugurate the 3-day fest and AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik will preside over the event. The event will comprise of lectures, yoga demonstrations, special yoga techniques, Satsang, discourses and among other. Delegates from over 16 countries across the globe will participate in the fest. The purpose of the fest is to promote classical yoga based on scientific studies.

Notes:
The Serlui B dam is an earthfill and gravity dam on the Serlui river 12 km from Bilkhawthlir Village near the Kolasib district of Mizoram. It has the capacity of power generation of 12MW and Catchment area of 53 km.

Notes:
The World Sparrow Day (WSD) is observed every year on March 20 to highlight the declining population of the bird due to modern infrastructure, pollution by microwave towers and pesticides and lesser green spaces. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world.

Notes:
Sunil Sharma (49), the senior journalist, has passed away in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh on March 19, 2018. Presently, he was working as the bureau chief of Hindi daily ‘Divya Himachal’.

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 Government of India (GoI) had constituted an 8-member task force under CBDT member Arvind Modi in November 2017 to review the Income-tax Act of 1961 and to draft a new Direct Tax Law in consonance with the economic needs of the country. Recently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has invited suggestions and feedback from stakeholders and general public in the format provided on the departmental website. It stated that the format can be downloaded from the website and suggestions may be sent through e-mail at [email protected], latest by 2nd of next month. The task force will also study the direct tax system in other countries and also keep in mind international best practices. The committee will submit its report in May 2018.

Notes:
The World Water Day (WWD) is observed every year on 22 March to raise awareness about the importance of water. The 2018 theme ‘Nature for Water’ is exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges the world faces in the 21st century. The day is about focusing on the importance of water and the need to preserve it. The day encourages people not to waste one of the most important elements that sustain life on the planet. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.