Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2017

Notes:
The Union Law Ministry has finalized the appointment of a Second National Judicial Pay Commission to recommend salary hikes for the 21,000 lower court judges in India. The proposed commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge PV Reddi. The commission will submit its recommendations in early 2019 and the hike again is expected to be given with retrospective effect. The move comes after directions from the Supreme Court in May. The first judicial pay commission, headed by Justice Jagannatha Shetty, was set up in March 1996 and it submitted its report in November 1999. The judges and judicial officers got the last pay hike in 2010, a three-fold jump, from their salaries decided in 1999. The 2010 hike was applied retrospectively from January 1, 2006. The current entry level salary for a junior civil judge is Rs 45000 while a senior judge gets nearly Rs 80,000.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh government has implemented the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS) to provide easy access to curative geriatric health care services by way of additional cover. The scheme will provide top up coverage of Rs. 30,000 per senior citizen to all existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) smart card holders in addition to basic coverage of Rs.30,000 in Trust/Society mode. the targeted beneficiaries of this scheme are RSBY enrolled persons aged 60 years and above. The senior citizens of those families that are eligible for RSBY but not currently rolled in this scheme will not get benefit of SCHIS.

Notes:
Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna has won the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for 2015 -16 for his services in promoting and preserving national integration in the country. He will be presented with the honour by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on October 31, Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary. The award consists of a citation and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.

Notes:
Prof. Satish Chandra, the veteran historian of medieval India and noted educational administrator, has passed away on October 13, 2017. He was the author of the NCERT’s medieval India textbook ‘History of Medieval India’ that was in circulation from some time in the 1970s till the early 2000s and was considered the most comprehensive textbook of the era, loaded with information. His information-rich work on medieval India was known to uphold India’s composite culture and showed the medieval state as broadly secular in orientation. He was also the chairman and vice chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India during 1970s.

Notes:
India’s first-ever All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Sarita Vihar in New Delhi on the occasion of 2nd National Ayurveda Day (NAD) i.e. on 17 Oct 2017. It has been set up along the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The purpose of AIIA is to integrate traditional Ayurveda with new diagnostic tools and technology. It will offer postgraduate and doctoral courses in various disciplines of Ayurveda. Currently, the AIIA’s hospital block includes neurological and degenerative disease care unit, diabetes and metabolic disorders care unit, Yoga, Panchakarma, diabetic retinopathy and infertility clinics. Pathology, biochemistry, microbiology and radiology laboratories and diagnostic facilities are also available in the hospital, which has provision of 200 beds.

Notes:
The Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) has launched India’s first commodity options in gold and gave stakeholders a new set of financial instruments to hedge their price risks. It is launched by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on October 17, 2017. MCX has currently launched a Gold Option contract, with Gold (1 Kg) futures as the underlying asset, with expiry on November 28, 2017 and January 29, 2018. The options product is unique and the first of its kind, giving buyers the right to buy or sell the underlying asset, but no obligation, at a specified price at the expiry. Thus, for buyers, the risk is limited only to the premium paid to the option seller (i.e. Option writer).

Notes:
E-commerce major Myntra has launched its CSR initiative in association with the Union Ministry of Textile to work directly with weavers and promote the handloom industry. It will work on bringing artisans and their products online to provide them with access to new customers and opportunities. These products will retail on Myntra via a dedicated online store, creating a one-stop shop for handloom products. Myntra will also launch a new handloom brand during its upcoming annual Brand Summit “The Tech Threads” on November 2 in Bengaluru. So far, about 49 brands associated with Myntra have pledged to be a part of this initiative and source handloom products from the weaver community. These include names like W, Biba, Peter England, Raymond, Welspun, Chennai Silks, Metro and others.

Notes:
Shamsher Khan (86), India’s first swimmer who had participated in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, has passed away at his native village Repalle in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh on October 15, 2017. Mr. Khan had enrolled himself in the Indian Army in 1949. He had taken part in various national swimming competitions. He won a place in the Indian Olympics contingent that had visited Australia in 1956. However, he secured 4th place in the competition. He continued to serve in the Army till he retired in 1973.

Notes:
Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber from Germany has won the 2017 Blue Planet Prize for establishing a new field of science ‘Earth System Analysis’ and introducing most influential concepts including the notion of tipping elements in the climate system in Tokyo. He is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Beside him, Prof. Gretchen C. Daily (from USA) has also won the award for her work promoting practical conservation by revealing the value of nature. Each will receive a prize of 50 million yen, about $450,000. The Blue Planet Prize, which is instituted by Asahi Glass Foundation, is the world’s most prestigious award for pioneers in environmental science.

Notes:
Indian-American Gitanjali Rao has won the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her prototype water lead contamination detector ‘Tethys’. The sensor-based device detects the quality of water and shares the results to a mobile application via bluetooth. The aim of the competition, open to citizens of the US who are enrolled from Class 5 to 8, is to identify a solution to an everyday problem that directly impacts either the contestant or the global population. The winner of the competition is awarded $25,000 along with the title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist 2017’.