Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2018

Notes:
The first apex conference for the CEOs of Smart Cities will be held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on 8th May 2018. It will be inaugurated by Minister of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri. The 2-day apex Conference is being organized with an objective to provide momentum to the cities and a platform for cross-learning, sharing and disseminating the experience gained over the past two and a half years. The conference will enable the CEOs to learn from the experiences of all city leaders to understand in greater details both successes and failures. The convergence of all the best practices in Smart city missions across the country on a single platform will help the city leaders to not waste time in ‘reinventing the wheel’ but use the collective learning to accelerate the progress of work.

Notes:
China has successfully launched a new communication satellite “APSTAR-6C” into orbit by the Long March 3B launch vehicle from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at Sichuan province of China. The satellite is based on the Dong Fang Hong 4 (DFH-4) platform and with a designed life of 15 years. It will provide TV transmission, communication, internet, and multimedia services to customers across the Asia-Pacific region. The user of the satellite is Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Co. Ltd. Both the satellite and the rocket were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).

Notes:
The Tiroda Thermal Power Station is a coal-based thermal power plant located at Tirora in Gondia district, Maharashtra. The power plant is operated by the Adani Power. It has a planned capacity of 3300 MW.

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India and Guatemala have signed a pact for strengthening diplomatic cooperation through Respective Foreign Service Institutes in the educational field. The agreement was recently inked after a meeting between Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and his Guatemala counterpart, Jafeth Cabrera Franco in Guatemala City. Beside this, both the countries agreed to support each other’s candidature for Non-Permanent Membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Guatemala will support India’s candidature for UNSC membership for 2021-22 while New Delhi will do so for 2031-32 for Guatemala. During the talks, Indian side also agreed to the Guatemala’s request for supplying solar panels to its airports. After discussions and in the presence of both the Vice Presidents, both the sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for training of diplomats and a Letter of Intent for training Guatemalan English Teachers in India. These agreements will be valid for three years and will be extended thereafter, if required.

Notes:
India has signed a loan agreement of $200-million with the World Bank for the National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyaan) to achieve its goal of reducing stunting in children aged 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022. The loan will support the first phase of scaling up of interventions in 315 districts across all states and union territories. A large component of POSHAN Abhiyaan involves gradual scaling-up of the interventions supported by the ongoing World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country over a 3-year period. The project will ensure convergence of all nutrition-related schemes and provide performance-based incentives to states and community nutrition and health workers, facilitating a focus on results. The POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8 in Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.

Notes:
The National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) has recently signed a MoU with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for the year 2018-19.The MoU envisages provision of enhanced services by NSIC under its marketing, financial, technology and other support services schemes, for MSMEs in the country. The corporation projects to increase its total business by 21.30% from Rs. 22,258 crore in the year 2017-18 to Rs. 27,000 crore in the year 2018-19. The NSIC is a Mini Ratna PSU established by the Government of India (GoI) in 1955. The headquarters is located in New Delhi. It is the nodal office for several schemes of Ministry of MSME such as Performance & Credit Rating, Single Point Registration, MSME Databank, National SC ST Hub, etc.

Notes:
On May 9, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched the website of Digital India Internship Scheme in New Delhi. Under this scheme, 25 interns will be inducted for a period of three months. These interns will be paid a stipend of Rs. 10, 000 per month. The internship is an opportunity for a student to secure first hand and practical work experience under the guidance of qualified and experienced Supervisor and Mentor. It also aims at active participation in the learning process through experimentation and putting into practice the knowledge acquired in the classrooms.

Notes:
On May 8, the Madhya Pradesh government has launched India’s first Integrated Control and Command Centre (ICCC) for its smart cities at the Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd. (BSCDCL) facility in the Berkheda area. The ICCC will enable Madhya Pradesh State Administration to monitor and administer multiple cities civic utilities and citizen services across seven smart cities include Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Indore, Ujjain, Satna, and Sagar. It will also enable statewide monitoring of these cities from central command view and result in significant cost savings as compared to deploying full-fledged data and discovery data along with the control centers in each center in every seven cities. ICCC is a cloud-based Universal Internet of Things (UIoT) platform developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). It can run multiple city command centre operations through its multi-efficiency capabilities.

Notes:
The Telangana government has launched Rythu Bandhu (friend of farmers) scheme at Dharmarajupalle-Indiranagar village in Karimnagar district on May 10, 2018. The scheme is a first-of-its-kind initiative providing investment support to farmers, who own land. It is expected to provide the much needed breather to the marginal and small farmers who constitute a major chunk of land owners in the State. Under the scheme, each eligible farmer will get at least Rs 4,000 per acre for two crops in a year — kharif in May and rabi in October. The farmers can utilize the assistance either for purchase of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides or any other input requirement as per their requirement. The scheme will cover both agriculture and horticulture crops and benefits all farmers irrespective of the size of their land holdings.

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In its latest report “Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Outlook”, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reaffirmed that India will be the fastest-growing major economy in 2018, with a growth rate of 7.4% that rises to 7.8% in 2019 with medium-term prospects remaining positive. As per report, India was recovering from the effects of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the recovery is expected to be underpinned by a rebound from transitory shocks as well as robust private consumption. The report said, Medium-term consumer price index inflation is forecast to remain within but closer to the upper bound of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s inflation-targeting band of 4% with a plus or minus 2% change. It said, the consumer price increase in 2017 was 3.6% and projected it to be 5% in 2018 and 2019. Overall, the report stated that Asia continues to be both the fastest-growing region in the world and the main engine of the world’s economy.