Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2018

Notes:
Indian para-athlete Deepa Malik has won a gold medal in the F-53/54 category javelin event at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai on March 15, 2018. With this, she has secured the No. 1 rank in Asia in F53 Javelin category. With the win, Deepa has also qualified for the 2018 Asian Para Games, which is scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 8-16. With that she qualified for the 2018 Asian Para Games, which is scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 8-16. Beside this, Malik is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games and won a Silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in the shot put. She has been honoured with the Arjuna award in 2012 and has also been conferred the prestigious Padma Shri award in 2017 for her achievements.

Notes:
The United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) has recently announced that the four countries will be recommended for graduation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category. These are Bhutan, Kiribati, Sao Tome and Principe and Solomon Islands. These countries are set to move up from the ranks of poorest nations due to their increasing national earning power as well as access to better health care and education. LDCs are assessed using three criteria: health and education targets; economic vulnerability and gross national income per capita. The Committee will send its recommendations to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for endorsement, which will then refer its decision to the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Apart from this, Chair of the Committee for Development Policy Professor Jose Antonio Ocampo stated that two more countries, Vanuatu and Angola, are scheduled for graduation in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Notes:
Vidarbha cricket team, the champions of 2018 Ranji Trophy, have lifted their first Irani Trophy cricket tournament on March 18, 2018. On the final day of the match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, they beat Rest of India by virtue of their massive first innings lead. The hosts had posted a total of 800 in their first innings and then bowled out Rest of India for 390 on the final day. Vidarbha won by virtue of huge 404-run first innings lead.The final scores:- Vidarbha – 800 for 7 declared & 79- for no loss. ` Rest of India – 390 all out. Wasim Jaffer (Vidarbha) won the Player of the Match trophy.

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:
President Ram Nath Kovind has recently released coins in denominations of Rs 10 and Rs 1,000 commemorating Nabakalebara festival of 2015 during the centenary celebration of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in Puri, Odisha on March 18, 2018. The Nabakalebara festival is an ancient ritual that is observed in most of the Jaganath temples in Odisha. In this fest, the idols of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra and Sudarshan are replaced by new idols. The occasion occurs every 8th, 12th, or 19th year of the previous Nabakalebara.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) has signed MOU with Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) to provide livelihood opportunities and augment income of the forest based communities. Through this collaboration, TIFAC will help ICFRE to refine and up-scale the technologies developed, take technologies to the end users including farmers, State Forest Departments, forest based industries and forest dependent communities in a more effective manner. The MoU will be valid for a period of 5 years. The headquarters of ICFRE is located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Notes:
The Estimates Committee headed by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi has recommended effective measures to modernise and upgrade the country’s security systems at par with the developed countries. It suggested states to develop their own systems and augment their own police forces by providing adequate training and equipping them with the latest weapons to effectively deal with the militancy and insurgency besides handling the law and order problems. Regarding to this issue, the committee chairman has presented the report on the Central Armed Police Forces and Internal Security Challenges- Evaluation and Response Mechanism to the Lok Sabha on March 19, 2018. The Committee also recommended that in order to meet the challenges of the cyber threat by external or internal forces, there is an imperative need to develop a system to counter the future threats of biological, chemical and mini-nuclear weapons capable of causing limited damage.

Notes:
The 106th edition of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) will be held at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh from 3rd to 7th January, 2019. Prof. Manoj Kumar Chakrabarti, the General President-elect of the Science Congress Association, announced that the theme of the meet will be ‘Future India: Science & Technology’. As part of the valedictory function of the 105th ISC 2018 held at the Manipur University in Imphal, awards especially for encouragement of young scientist ‘Young Scientist Awards 2017-18’ to 14 awardees, ‘Best Poster Award’ to 20 awardees, ‘Best Science Model’ to five awardees and ‘Pride of Indian Exhibition Awards’ were distributed to the awardees from across the country.

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.