Current Affairs Quiz -3rd October, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently launched a new alcohol control initiative 'SAFER' to prevent and reduce alcohol-related death and disability. It provides five high-impact strategies that can help governments reduce the harmful use of alcohol and related health, social and economic consequences. The WHO-led initiative and action package aim to support global target of reducing harmful use of alcohol by 10% by 2025. It is the newest WHO-led roadmap to support governments in taking practical steps to accelerate progress on health, beat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) through addressing the harmful use of alcohol, and achieves development targets.

Teenage shooting star Manu Bhaker was named as the flag-bearer of the Indian contingent for the 3rd Youth Olympic Games to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October 6-18. Goa Olympic Association Secretary Gurudutta D Bhakta will be the Chef-de-Mission of the contingent. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra announced that the 16-year-old Bhaker will lead the Indian team in the opening ceremony. A contingent of 68 members, including 46 athletes, will compete in 13 sports during the prestigious event.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi. The same event also marked the inauguration of the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest (Renewable Energy Investors' Meet and Expo). The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, was present on the occasion. As per the PM, India is also working on biomass, biofuel and bio-energy.

Indian Ports Association (IPA) has appointed M/s Tech Mahindra as the Managed Service Provider for 5 major ports: Mumbai Port Trust, Kolkata Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, Deendayal Port Trust and Paradip Port Trust. M/s Tech Mahindra has partnered with M/s SAP, M/s Envision, M/s CISCO, M/s Dell, M/s RTCom etc. IPA has also hired M/s Ernst Young to support in conceptualizing Port-EBS (Enterprise Business System) and support IPA and ports to implement this initiative. The Enterprise Business System will consist of Port Operations Solution, standard ERP solutions, and auxiliary solutions.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has expected India's economy to grow 7.0% in calendar year 2018 compared with 6.2% in 2017. As per the report "Trade and Development", the effects of demonetization are still evident in private consumption trends within the economy. It also emphasised that countries like India and Thailand, which have been most favoured by foreign investors and experienced the largest spike in asset prices, would be most vulnerable to capital outflows. Further, countries like India which are dealing with Current Account Deficits (CAD) have a tendency of reducing imports. This assumes significance in the wake of India putting in place measures to control the rising CAD and capital outflows.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi has sworn-in as new Chief Justice of India. President Ram Nath Kovind administered him the oath of office at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan. He is succeeding Justice Dipak Misra who retired as Chief Justice of India recently. Justice Gogoi is the 46th Chief Justice of India. He will have a tenure of a little over 13 months and will retire on November 17, 2019. Justice Gogoi was enrolled as an advocate in 1978. He practised in the Gauhati high court on constitutional, taxation and company matters. He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Gauhati high court on February 28, 2001.

Public sector Assam Petrochemicals Limited will roll out India's first methanol-based alternative cooking fuel at Namrup methanol plant in Dibrugarh district, Assam on October 5. The pilot project involves 500 burners and stoves, each fuelled by a 1.2-litre canister of methanol. It will be priced at around Rs 32 and about 18 of them would be equivalent to one conventional domestic LPG cylinder. The technology for the canister and the special burner has been provided by Sweden. At present, the Namrup plant produces 100 tonnes of methanol per day. The ongoing expansion of the plant will push production by 500 tonnes per day by September 2019. As per experts, methanol is clean and green fuel besides being 30% cheaper than Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). It is a scalable and sustainable fuel that can be produced from a variety of feedstock like natural gas, coal, bio-mass, municipal solid waste and CO2.

Odisha government launched the State's own food security scheme to cover the poor people. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the scheme via video conferencing at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar. As per the provisions of the scheme, 25 lakh poor people left out from the benefits of the National Food Security Act, will get rice of 5 kg per month for one rupee. The government will spend Rs 442 crore per year for implementation of the scheme.

The Vice President of India M. Venkiah Naidu gave "Vayoshreshtha Samman-2018" to senior citizens on October 1, 2018. The award is given to eminent senior citizens and institutions in recognition of their services towards the cause of the elderly persons. Vayoshreshtha Samman is a Scheme of National Awards instituted by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

State Bank of India has slashed the daily withdrawal limit on its classic debit card from Rs 40,000 to Rs 20,000. There is no change in the daily withdrawal limits on other cards. The new limit will be effective from October 31st 2018. The bank has been receiving many complaints regarding cloning and the decision is taken to reduce the withdrawal limit on these cards to check fraudulent transactions.

Alibaba and SoftBank-backed Paytm registered over 137 million UPI transactions in September, becoming the leading contributor to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments with over 33% of the overall market share. One97 Communications Limited, that owns the brand Paytm, is enabling BHIM UPI for offline payments and over five million offline merchants, out of its 9.5 million merchant-base, now accept Paytm UPI.

Iraq's parliament has elected the moderate Kurdish politician Barham Salih as president. He has named Shiite Adel Abdul Mahdi as Prime Minister of the country. The move will pave the way to form a new government, nearly five months after national elections.

Australian midfielder Mile Jedinak announced his retirement from international football, bringing the curtain down on a 79-cap career which included leading the Socceroos at two World Cups. The Aston Villa player led his country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and this year's tournament in Russia. Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev has also retired from international soccer after leading the national side as captain to this year's World Cup quarter-finals on home soil. The 32-year-old earned 112 caps for his country since his debut in 2004 as an 18-year-old, according to the Russian Football Union.

On the occasion of Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), had launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign, Udyam Abhilasha in 115 Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States and reaching to around 15,000 youth. SIDBI will join to contribute to "the transformation mission" unleashed for these districts. The campaign would create and strengthen cadre of more than 800 trainers to provide entrepreneurship training to the aspiring youths across these districts thus encouraging them to enter the admired segment of entrepreneurs.

Indian midfielder Manpreet Singh will be captain of the 18-member Indian team at the 5th edition of Asian Men's Hockey Champions Trophy 2018, which is scheduled to be held in Muscat, Oman from October 18 to 28. This is India's first tournament after the retirement of Sardar Singh. The tournament will feature host nation Oman, reigning champions India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, and Japan.

The new edition of Tirukkural will be released on October 5, 2018. Vedagiri Mudaliar, who taught Tamil in Madurai Tamil Sangam, set up a printing press exclusively for the purpose. In the 19th century, 1850 to be precise, Tamil scholars turned their attention to Kalathur as Vedagiri Mudaliar first printed the Tirukkural with commentaries. The revised version was released in 1853. Vedagiri Mudaliar's book was never printed again. Now, Sivalayam J. Mohan will release the new edition on October 5, exactly 165 years after it was first published.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the "Swachh Campus rankings" under various categories. The rankings were decided on the basis of a survey under the 'Swachhta Hi Sewa' campaign. The Cleanest 'Government Universities' are; 1. Maharashi Dayanand University, Haryana. 2. Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, Punjab. 3. Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to Award the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics to Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics"

Manipur won the 24th Senior Women's National football championships for the 19th time in Cuttack, Odisha. Manipur beat Odisha by securing 2-1 in the final. In the semifinals, Manipur had beaten Railways 4-3 in a penalty shootout, while Odisha dethroned Tamil Nadu 4-3.

China will hold the fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) in its river town of Wuzhen on November 7-9 2019. Theme: "creating a digital world for mutual trust and collective governance - towards a community with a shared future in cyberspace". The conference will advocate exchanges, mutual learning, cooperation and sharing in the digital fields.