January 22, 2018, Current Affairs, Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

President Ram Nath Kovind approved disqualification of 20 MLAs of AamAadmi Party (AAP) for holding offices of profit.Accepting recommendations of the Election Commission (EC) President Ram Nath Kovind has disqualified 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly.The AAP MLAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries. The Election Commission has stated that, being parliamentary secretaries, they held office of profit and they should be disqualified as MLAs of the Delhi Assembly.The members who have been disqualified are: Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Adarsh Shastri, Madan Lal, CharanGoel, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Jarnail Singh, Rajesh Gupta, AlkaLamba, Nitin Tyagi, Sanjeev Jha, Kailash Gehlot, Vijendera Garg, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar Vajpayee, Somdutt, Sukhvir Singh, Avtar Singh Kalka and Manoj Kumar.

Explanation :Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri along with the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar launched the ‘Protocol for Star Rating of Garbage-Free Cities’ in Goa.This seven star-rating system has been developed by the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban. Under this system, cities will be assessed on multiple cleanliness indicators for solid waste management . Some of the indicators are door to door collection, source segregation, bulk generator compliance, sweeping, scientific processing of waste, scientific land filling, plastic waste management and dump remediation.Based on the assessment, cities can be rated as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 star in accordance with the protocol conditions specified for each of the rating.This is a SMART rating (Single metric, Measurable, Achievable, Rigorous verification, Targeted towards outcomes) system that provides stakeholders with a single metric to rate a city’s cleanliness.

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) announced that, it has partnered with DP World to develop an investment platform for ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India.The platform will work on investment avenues in the ports sector, including sea ports, river ports and transportation.Investment will also be done in freight corridors, port-led special economic zones, inland container terminals, and logistics infrastructure including cold storage.This platform will invest $3 billion of equity to acquire assets and develop projects. This partnership is part of a MoU signed in May 2017.

S S C Shenoi, Director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has stated that India will soon have its own automated ocean pollution observation system.This new ocean data acquisition system (called automated moorings), which is expected to be functional in April 2018 will not only help in tracking ocean pollution levels but will also offer insights on how the marine system is changing.Estimated cost for setting up this system is Rs 100 crore.After being fully operational, this system will do away with the present practice of collecting water samples from sea and studying their pollution levels thereafter.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurated the World War II Memorial Museum in state’s Changlang district. World War II Memorial Museum in Changlang has been built by the Union Culture Ministry at a cost of Rs 2.25 crore. It has been built in memory of those who laid down their lives in World War II. Remnants of the war, personal belongings of the soldiers and other persons involved have been preserved at this museum. Traditional items from indigenous Tangsa community have also been displayed at the museum. This memorial museum is expected to boost international and domestic tourist inflow especially from Southeast Asian countries.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh launched the Chief Minister-giHakshelgiTengbang (CMHT), a health assurance scheme for the poor and disabled people.Under this scheme, poor people of Manipur will be provided cashless treatment at government hospitals, health centres and other empanelled selected private hospitals. All eligible families, identified from the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC), will be provided Rs. lakh cover for treatment of seven critical identified critical ailments viz. cardiovascular diseases, neurological conditions, kidney ailments, liver ailments, neo-natal diseases, cancer and burns.Chief Minister-giHakshelgiTengbang (CMHT) will have convergence with Central Government programmes like Prime Minister Jana Aushadhi Programme and Free Diagnostic Programme.

Maharashtra State Government will soon start a system to issue daily district-wise weather advisory to farmers across the State. Objective behind this initiative is to help farmer to minimise their crop losses due to adverse weather conditions. Maharashtra’s Agriculture commissionerate has already completed setting up of weather stations at 2050 sites across the state. These stations have started collecting data and are uploading it on central server of the state government.It is to be noted that Union and state governments get their weather alerts and inputs from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). However, information provided by IMD gives a broader view while the system that will be introduced by Maharashtra State Government will provide more accurate information, which will be beneficial for farmers in scheduling their activities.

‘Kachra Mahotsav 2018’, India’s first garbage festival was organised by the Raipur Municipal Corporation in Chhattisgarh. Kachra Mahotsav’s aim was to increase awareness, utilise the waste accumulated in a creative way, and to display various techniques for reusing things that are branded as garbage.Workshops, talks, and performances were conducted as a part of the event.

India has ranked at the 62nd place among 74 emerging economies on the annual ‘Inclusive Development Index 2018’ released by World Economic Forum (WEF). It is to be noted that, in 2017, India ranked 60th among 79 developing economies on this index. Inclusive Development Index 2018 measures progress of 103 economies on three individual pillars viz. growth and development, inclusion and inter-generational equity. The index has been divided into two parts – First part covering 29 advanced economies and the second part covering 74 emerging economies. Countries have also been classified into five sub-categories in terms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growth score. These five sub-categories are ‘receding’, ‘slowly receding’, ‘stable’, ‘slowly advancing’ and ‘advancing’.

The 10th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) was held in Berlin, Germany. The theme of the 10th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture was “Shaping the Future of Livestock – sustainably, responsibly, efficiently”. The GFFA focuses on issues related to the future of global agri-food industry. It had participation from 69 agricultural ministers and heads of 6 international organisations such as FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), WTO (World Trade Organization) and World Organisation for Animal Health. Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat lead the Indian delegation to GFFA. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat held talks with Agriculture Ministers from Germany, Argentina and Uzbekistan.

Paisabazaar.com, an online marketplace for Loans and Credit Cards announced to offer direct Mutual Fund plans to retail customers and has thereby became India’s first major platform to come up with such offering.Broadly speaking, Mutual Fund plans are available in two variants – ‘Regular’ and ‘Direct’. Both these variants are exactly same in terms of investment strategy and fund management.However, the key difference is that, in Regular plans, a part of customers’ investment (1% in most cases) is paid to the brokers/financial advisor as commission by the mutual fund company, while in a direct mutual fund there is no such type of commission payout. Owing to this, net investible amount will always be higher in Direct plans and thus the ensuing returns too shall be higher. Moreover, for longer time horizon (10 years and above) returns from Direct plans are significantly higher as compared to Regular plans.

Mercedes-Benz unveiled India’s first Bharat Stage BS-VI-compliant car produced at its Pune facility. The unveiling of this car was does in presence of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. On January 19, 2018, Mercedes-Benz also received certificate of compliance to the Central motor vehicles rule (CMVR) from the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for its BS-VI-compliant car.In context of this news, it is to be noted that in October 2016, Indian Government decided to skip one stage and migrate to BS-VI directly from BS-IV from April 2020.

ixigo, has launched AR Coach Position feature, India’s first augmented reality (AR) feature on its trains app. Using the AR Coach Position feature, train travellers can locate their coach positions exactly, for more than 13,000 passenger trains at nearly 7,000 railway stations in India.Using iPhone 6+ or latest versions of iPhone, users can get their coaches categorized and labeled and find out how far they are from their coach.ixigo has also released Station Alarm and Rescheduled trains features. The Station Alarm feature alerts users when they approach their destination station.The rescheduled trains feature helps users check if their train is cancelled, diverted or rescheduled.

Om Prakash Rawat was appointed as the next Chief Election Commissioner. Om Prakash Rawat replaces AK Joti as Chief Election Commissioner. Om Prakash Rawat is a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch.He was joint secretary in the Ministry of Defence earlier. He became the Election Commissioner in August 2015. He becomes the 22nd Chief Election Commissioner of India. Ashok Lavasa has been appointed as an Election Commissioner in place of Om Prakash Rawat. Sunil Arora is another Election Commissioner at present.

O P Singh has been appointed as DGP (Director General of Police) of Uttar Pradesh.O P Singh is a 1983 batch Indian Police Services (IPS) officer. He has taken charge as Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh.He has been relieved from the post of Director General of Central Industrial Security Force (DGCISF).

Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh was honoured with the Kalam Innovations in Governance Award (KIGA) at an event organised by the APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation, in New Delhi. The Kalam Innovations in Governance Award (KIGA) award was presented to Nara Lokesh by Desh Deepak Verma, Rajya Sabha Secretary General, for outstanding work in improving governance.A P J Abdul Kalam International Foundation was established in memory of former President A P J Abdul Kalam. It focuses on development of the society in various fields.

Larsen Toubro Shipbuilding Ltd. launched ‘Vijaya’, the second offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Indian Coast Guard.’Vijaya’ has been indigenously built at L&T Shipbuilding Ltd’sKattupalli Shipyard in Tamil Nadu. 2100 tonne- ‘Vijaya’ is equipped with state-of art radar, navigational and communication system. It is 98 metre long and 14.8 metres wide.Indian Coast Guard will deploy it for day and night patrol and surveillance, anti-smuggling operations and for enhancing coastal security. In March 2017, Union Ministry of Defense had awarded Rs 1,432-crore contract to L&T to build seven offshore vessel patrol vessels for the Indian Coast Guard. Under this contract, the first OPV, ‘VIkram’, was handed over to Indian Coast Guard in October 2017.

Hockey Haryana became champions of the 8th Hockey India Sub Junior (Women) National Championship 2018 (A Division), in Haryana.Hockey Haryana defeated Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy 6-1 in the finals and became the champions of the 8th Hockey India Sub Junior (Women) National Championship 2018 (A Division).The Championship was hosted by Haryana. Hockey Haryana scored the first goal of the match through Deepika.Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy scored only one goal and it was by Priyanka Yadav.

Ethiopia’s Solomon Deksisa won the 15th edition of Mumbai Marathon.SolomanDeksisa won the 15th edition of Mumbai Marathon with a time of two hours, nine minutes and 33 seconds. Around 44,407 runners participated in the Mumbai Marathon. India’s Gopi Thonakal won the Indian Men’s Elite category. AmaneGobena won the top spot in the International Women’s Elite Category.

Roy Bennett, Zimbabwean opposition leader, was killed in a helicopter accident, in New Mexico, US. Five people including Roy Bennett’s wife Heather were killed in the accident. One person survived with injuries.Roy Bennett was 60 years old. He was the treasurer-general of the Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change opposition party.Earlier he fled Zimbabwe after receiving death threats. He returned to Zimbabwe in 2009 when he was made deputy agriculture minister.