Current Affairs Quiz - 19th April, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

A MoU was signed between the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), India, and the Groupement des Industries Francaises Aeronautiques et Spatiales (GIFAS), France, to promote a sustainable framework for present and future partnerships and cooperative actions between the French aerospace industry and the Indian defence industry. The MoU was signed during a major industrial mission in India in the aerospace and defence sector, which was organised by GIFAS with the support of SIDM from 16th April to 19th April 2018. The MoU was signed by Pierre Bourlot, managing director of GIFAS and Lt Gen Subrata Saha, director general of SIDM. This agreement will work on expanding trade, through better economic and industrial cooperation between France and India and towards export customers. It will enable implementation of various measures to promote a mutually beneficial cooperation in aerospace and defence manufacturing, research and technology, human capital, engineering services, systems integration.

India's largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank announced that it has on-boarded over 250 corporates on its blockchain platform for domestic and international trade finance. In August 2016, ICICI Bank became the first bank in India to successfully undertake pilot transactions on its blockchain platform for international trade finance. Since then, more than 250 Indian corporate, including the leading ones are now undertaking domestic/international trade finance transactions on this platform. ICICI Bank's blockchain platform digitises the paper-intensive international trade finance process as an electronic, distributed and unalterable ledger, which is accessible to all the participating entities including banks. This is not just more time and cost efficient but also a secure way of undertaking domestic and international trade transactions.

The 'Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting - 2018' under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has started in Guwahati, Assam on April 18, 2018. The team is led by the Chairman and Transport Minister of Rajasthan, Yunus Khan, and transport ministers of various states are its members. In total 24 states are participating in the two-day programme. The meeting will mainly focus on the following agenda: frame a National Road Safety Code with the objective to reduce fatalities and road accidents by 50% by 2020; improving road accident victims' assistance infrastructure; strategies for road safety advocacy programmes; harmonization of motor vehicles taxes across different states; strategies for improving the inter-state passenger and goods transport, harmonization of permit conditions and permit fees across the states, etc.

Facebook would begin rolling out changes to how it handles private data this week to comply with forthcoming EU rules. Under the new policy, FB users will be asked to review & make choices about ads they receive, including whether they want Facebook to use data from third parties. FB has recently been rocked by disclosures about hijacking of personal data on tens of millions of its users.

Aditi Rao Hydari will be awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke excellence award 2018 for the Best Leading Lady (Critics Award) for her performance in the Bollywood movie 'Bhoomi'. The film 'Bhoomi' also featured actor Sanjay Dutt. The story revolved around a protective father who saved his daughter from all evils surrounding her. The award ceremony will be held on 21st April 2018, at St. Andrews Auditorium in Mumbai. The event will see participation from producers, directors, distributors, exhibitors etc.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated a 2.5-km-long bridge built over the Ib river in Sambalpur district. This is Odisha's second longest bridge and has been built at a cost of Rs. 117.50 crore. The bridge has enabled direct road connectivity between Sambalpur and Brajarajnagar in Jharsuguda district. By Commuting through this bridge, distance between these two places is reduced by 50 km.

Scientists in Britain and the United States have discovered "PETase" an enzyme that can digest some commonly polluting plastics. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is a strong plastic that is commonly used in bottles. It takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment. The discovery was made by researchers from Britain's University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. PETase is secreted by Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 to digest plastic. The enzyme is able to digest PET (polyethylene terephthalate).

Amazon has launched an international shopping feature that will enable customers across the world to shop more than 45 million items that can be shipped to their country from U.S. It will allow customers to shop in 25 currencies, with more languages and currencies to be added in 2018. The international shopping feature will display pricing, shipping costs and import duty estimates.

India & Sweden have agreed to deepen their cooperation in Smart Cities initiative, transport & energy sectors.The 2 countries will exchange knowledge & explore cooperation on smart cities, including transit-oriented urban development, air pollution control & waste management.Both sides will also exchange know-how & explore cooperation in areas of electro-mobility as well as renewable fuels.

F-ourteen new sites have been designated as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), including the first ones in Europe. As with other designated sites, these systems highlight agricultural traditions that promote sustainability, safeguard biodiversity and protect the environment while supporting the social and economic development necessary for stable, decent livelihoods. The 14 new sites range from oases to rice terraces, wasabi cultivation to raisin production. The 14 new sites are: 1.Siwa Oasis, Egypt 2016. 2.Chinampa Agriculture in the World Natural and Cultural Heritage Zone in Xochimilco, Tlahuac and Milpa Alta, Mexico 2017. 3.Zhagana Agriculture -Forest-Animal Husbandry Composite System, China 2017. 4.Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish Pond System, China 2017. 5.Osaki Kodo's Traditional Water Management System for Sustainable Paddy Agriculture, Japan 2017. 6.Nishi-Awa Steep Slope Land Agriculture System, Japan 2018. 7.Traditional Hadong Tea Agrosystem in Hwagae-myeon, Republic of Korea 2017. 8.The Agricultural System of Valle Salado de Anana, Spain 2017. 9.Malaga Raisin Production System in La Axarquia, Spain 2017. 10.The Cascaded Tank-Village System, Sri Lanka 2017. 11.Rice Terraces in Southern Mountainous and Hilly Areas, China 2018. 12.Xiajin Yellow River Old Course Ancient Mulberry Grove System, China 2018. 13.Traditional Wasabi Cultivation in Shizuoka, Japan 2018. 14.Barroso Agro-sylvo-pastoral System, Portugal 2018.

India ended its campaign in Gold Coast with a total of 66 medals (26 Gold, 20 Silver, 20 Bronze). This is India's third most successful Commonwealth Games. India was the best nation in 5 disciplines, weightlifting,  shooting, wrestling, badminton and  table tennis, and the second-best nation in boxing. PV Sindhu was India's flag bearer. India won the highest number of medals in Shooting.This became possible after the emergence of Young Indian Shooter like Anish Bhanwala Aged 15, who created history by becoming the country's youngest gold medal winner in Common Wealth Games.He registered a total score of 30,a new Games record.

The United Kingdom has formally joined the India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA) on April 17, 2018. The announcement was made an event held at the London Stock Exchange as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 (CHOGM). With this, UK became the 62nd signatory member of the ISA. The UK's partnership will involve providing expertise and advice to the alliance, but no monetary contributions. ISA is an inter-governmental treaty-based organisation that aims to mobilise $1 trillion in funds for future solar generation, storage and technology across the world by 2030.

The Islands Tourism Festival has inaugurated by Chief Secretary of A & N Administration Anindo Mazumdar at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar on April 18, 2018. During this five days festival, cultural programmes, adventure sports, flea market and traditional games will be organised. Artist from different parts of the country will also present cultural programme.

Yuki Bhambri entered into the top-100 ATP men's singles ranking with a rank of rank 83, for the first time since February 2016. Yuki Bhambri has improved 22 places and has reached rank 83, which is considered his career best. This is the best rank an Indian has obtained in ATP singles ranking, after Somdev Devvarman reached rank 62 in 2011. Ramkumar Ramanathan has reached his career-best rank of 116. He was Yuki Bhambri's Davis cup teammate. Sumit Nagal has been ranked 215. He is followed by Prajnesh Gunneswaran at 266 and Arjun Kadhe at 394.

The India-Wiesbaden Conference 2018 was held at the Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi. The India-Wiesbaden Conference 2018 was hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs, India, along with the Government of Germany and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) was the industry partner for the event. Title of the Conference: The Title of the Conference is 'Securing Global Supply Chains through Government-Industry Partnerships towards Effective Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1540'. The Conference saw participation from representatives of Government and Industry of 39 countries, and experts from the UNSC 1540 Committee and UN Office for Disarmament Affairs in New York. The Conference offered an opportunity to share experiences on export control systems for the participants and to identify legal and technical assistance, action plans and challenges in national level implementation of UNSC 1540. The UN Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004) establishes legally binding obligations on all States to adopt and implement measures to prevent the proliferation to non-State actors of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and their delivery systems.