Current Affairs Quiz -9th August, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

The Indian Under-20 football team has created history by winning the 2018 Cotif Cup football tournament by defeating the 6-time U20 World Cup champions Argentina by 2-1 in their final match in Spain on 6 August. Deepak Tangri scored for India in the 4th minute and Anwar Ali's 68th minute put India 2-0 up against the most successful team in U-20 World Cup history. Argentina pulled one back in the 72nd minute, and hit the cross bar in added time, but failed to break the Indian resolve as India concluded the tournament with a memorable performance.

The Parliament of India has passed the 123rd Constitutional Amendment Bill, which grants constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The bill was passed after the House repealed the NCBC Act, 1993. It will contribute to the empowerment of the OBC communities across India. The bill states that the President may specify the socially and educationally backward classes in the various states and union territories. He may do this in consultation with the Governor of the concerned state. It will give the institution all powers to safeguard the rights of the socially and educationally backward classes and fulfils a long pending commitment of the central govt to the OBCs. The Clause-3 (5) of the Bill gives the proposed Commission the power to inquire into complaints of deprivation of rights and safeguards. Clause 3 (8) gives it the powers of a civil court trying a suit and allows it to summon anyone, require documents to be produced and receive evidence on affidavit.

To mark 25 years of its existence, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) unveiled a new logo symbolizing integrity, excellence, trust and commitment. The National Stock Exchange of India Limited is the leading stock exchange of India, located in Mumbai. The NSE was established in 1992 as the first demutualized electronic exchange in the country.

IKEA, Swedish home furnishings major, opened its first store in Hyderabad, India. IKEA has already been sourcing for the past three decades in India. It will be opening its other branches in Mumbai, Bengaluru and National Capital Region. The store is of 400,000 sq. ft located at the heart of city's IT hub. IKEA in Hyderabad employs 950 people directly, half of them women, and 1,500 indirectly in services and expects to host close to 7 million visitors each year.

The communication exercise "Pacific Endeavor-2018 (PE-18)" under the Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP) has started in Kathmandu, Nepal on August 6, 2018. The basic objective of 12 day exercise is to develop common communications operating procedures to enable military forces in the Asia Pacific region to collectively work in the wake of disaster. Around 270 personnel from 20 Asia-Pacific Countries are participating in the exercise, which is jointly organised by the Nepali Army and United States Pacific Command (USPC). The Pacific Endeavor began in 2005 and it focuses on establishing rapid and effective inter-operable communication systems to jointly act in disaster relief operations.

The Centre appointed S. Gurumurthy and Satish Kashinath Marathe as part time non-official directors on the central board of Reserve Bank of India for four years. Gurumurthy is a noted chartered accountant, economic and political columnist, and editor of Tamil magazine Thuglak. The proposal for the appointment came from the Finance Ministry's Department of Financial Services.

UN (United Nations) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has chosen former two time Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to be new UN high commissioner for human rights. She would replace Jordan's Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein. Bachelet who ranks among the world's most powerful women in politics, also served in 2010 as the first director of UN Women, the UN agency promoting gender equality worldwide.

A facial recognition system using artificial intelligence will be used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Tokyo Olympics will be the first games to have this kind of security system using facial recognition technology. It is aimed at strengthening security and preventing terrorism, as well as shortening waiting times to lower athlete stress.

The new Oscar will be awarded for "Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film" and will be introduced this coming year, at the 91st Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, has added a new category after 17 years to recognise popular films. The last category to be added was 'Best Animated Feature Film'.

An eighth-century stone sculpture of Goddess Durga and a third century limestone sculpture 'Head of a Male Deity' will be returned to India by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest museum in the US. The stone sculpture of Durga Mahishasuramardini was donated to the museum in 2015. The limestone sculpture, donated in 1986, was part of Nagarjunakonda Site Museum's excavated inventory.

State Bank of India launched a payments machine called MOPAD. The full form of MOPAD is Multi Option Payment Acceptance Device. It is a Point of Sale (PoS) terminal that will allow to facilitate transactions from cards to QR code based payments. It would accept payments through UPI, Bharat QR, and SBI Buddy wallet which till now required different tools to receive payments. Customers won't have to carry cards and can just scan the QR code to make the payment.

The 22nd edition of 'Parampara series - National Festival of Music and Dance' festival will be held at Kamani Auditorim in New Delhi from August 10, 2018. The purpose of the festival is to offer a platform to young talents trying to make their foothold in the world of art and culture. It is organised by Natya Tarangini led by Padma Bhushan awardee Kuchipudi couple Raja and Radha Reddy. The 3-day event will also see performances by veteran classical dance couple 'The Dhananjayans' (Shanta and Vannadil Pudiyaveettil Dhananjayan) and Kathak exponent Uma Dogra. The festival has featured artistes like Grammy winning instrumentalist Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Carnatic vocalist Abhishek Raghuram, Khyal singers Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra are among the many eminent artistes.

Rashida Tlaib set to become 1st Muslim woman in US Congress. She (42-year-old) is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and won a Democratic primary election to represent Michigan's 13th district, securing 33.6 percent of the vote. Tlaib is set to replace John Conyers. She served in the Michigan state house from 2009 to 2014, and was also the first Muslim woman ever elected to the state's legislature.

The Indian women chess team has clinched the gold in the Blitz event at the Asian Nations Chess Cup 2018 at Hamadan, Iran on August 3. It's India's first gold-medal finish at the event since 2014. The Indian team comprising Harika Dronavalli, Eesha Karavade, Padmini Rout, Vaishali R and Aakanksha Haga left the teams from Vietnam and China behind to clinch gold. Apart from this, they also bagged a silver and a bronze in the Rapid and Classical categories, respectively. India (1st) finished with 21.5 points, Vietnam (2nd) settled for silver with 18.5 and China (3rd) bagged bronze with 17.5.

SpaceX relaunched its newest version of its Falcon 9 rocket booster to send a communication satellite for Indonesia into the orbit. The so-called Block 5 booster, which SpaceX says will be able to fly as many as 10 times with routine maintenance. The booster first flew on May 11 2018, when it delivered the first Bangladeshi satellite into space.