Current Affairs Quiz - 4th August, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

Maharashtra state minister informed that Maharashtra govt. has approved over Rs 7,000 crore to fulfill the drinking water projects in scarcity hit regions. The government has approved Rs 7,952 crore to finish 6,624 water projects in 10,583 villages under the National Rural Drinking Water Scheme. The government has aimed to provide water supply to all regions and villages that are perennially drought-hit and also to finish the project in Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Pune divisions. Around 6,500 projects have already been completed in the last four years by spending Rs 5,500 crore.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship took place up skilling and certification of 100,000 RAC service technicians. This is under under the Skill India Mission - Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). It was attended by representatives of UN Environment, UNDP, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),etc. Skill training will happen under HCFC Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP) Stage-I being implemented by the Ozone Cell, MoEFCC and Electronic Sector Skill Council of India (ESSCI).

The Government of Odisha has launched a 360 degree nation-wide publicity campaign "Heartbeats for Hockey" to attract fans for 2018 men's hockey World Cup. The movement attempts to get India behind the game by way of music, entertainment, fashion, pure sport and panel discussions. Each time anyone holds the custom-made hockey stick, named 'Heart Beat', their heart beat will be recorded as a pledge to support hockey. The 'Heart Beat' will take a round of the country through 'Hockey Adda', a curated on-ground discussion platform for hockey players and experts. The event will take place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16. The state is the title partner for the hockey event and Odisha Tourism is the host partner. The maximum players in the national team are also from Odisha.

K. Anvar Sadath, the vice chairman and executive director of the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), has won the 2018 International Contributions Award given by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), USA. He has been chosen for the award to recognize his outstanding contribution to the field of educational communication and technology in an international setting. With this, he has become the first Indian to be honoured with the International Contributions award. The award will be presented at 2018 AECT International Convention function to be held in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 26, 2018. The AECT is a premier professional association for instructional design and educational technology.

In a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amendments of GST Laws were approved. It has 46 amendments. It includes hiking threshold limit to Rs.1.5 crore, allowance of employers to claim input tax credit on food, transport and insurance provided to employees under any law. It also has modification of reverse charge mechanism, separate registration for companies having different business verticals, cancellation of registration, new return filing norms and issuance of consolidated debit/credit notes covering multiple invoices.

Akshay Venkatesh, a renowned Indian-Australian mathematician, has won the 2018 Fields Medal for his profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics. Venkatesh is one of four winners of mathematics' top honour known as the Nobel prize for math. The Fields medals are awarded every four years to the most promising mathematicians under the age of 40. Each winner receives a 15,000 Canadian-dollar cash prize. The other three winners are: Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin; Germany's Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich.

As a result of China's trade war with the US and its campaign to cut debt, the value of China's stock market fell to $6.09 trillion, losing its position as the World's second biggest stock market to Japan ($6.17 trillion). The U.S. has the world's largest stock market at just over $31 trillion. China's stock market overtook Japan's in 2014 and soared to an all-time high of over $10 trillion in 2015.

Indian women's cricket team opener, 22-year-old, Smriti Mandhana scored 102 runs off 61 balls for Western Storm against Lancashire Thunder, slamming 12 fours and four sixes. The first Indian who scored century in women's T20 cricket is Mithali Raj (100* for Railways, 2017).

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50% in its third bi-monthly monetary policy review of 2018-19. Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. Reverse repo rate, the rate at which the Reserve Bank borrows money from commercial banks within the country, was adjusted to 6.25%. Accordingly, the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate too stand adjusted at 6.75%. This time too, RBI has maintained neutral stance with an objective of achieving the medium-term target for headline inflation of 4 per cent while supporting growth.

Chief Justice Gita Mittal has been appointed as the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court (HC). She is the acting Chief Justice of Delhi HC. She is the first woman Chief Justice of J&K HC. Justice B.D. Ahmed, the State's last Chief Justice, was retired on March 15, 2018. Patna High Court Chief Justice Rajendra Menon has been appointed as the Chief Justice Delhi HC

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is setting up the floating solar power plants on the three water storage reservoirs on its premises. Floating solar power plants would not only generate around 6 MW of energy but also minimise water evaporation from the reservoirs. The 6 MW of solar power is already being tapped from the rooftop panels. Also, MRPL would be distributing 31,867 LED bulbs to 8,000 families, angadwadis, schools, community halls and shops in Bala, Kalavar, Permude, Kuthethoor, Jokatte, Thokur, Soorinje, Delanthabettu, Chelyar and Madya villages, at a cost of around Rs.43 lakh. These bulbs being would have a warranty period of two years.

India test-fired the endo-atmospheric Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast. It is a part of the country's ballistic missile defence (BMD) shield against a multiple target scenario. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) test-fired the AAD interceptor from a canister against multiple simulated targets. The interceptor is a 7.5-meter long single stage solid rocket propelled guided missile.

A team from the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi and stakeholders in the Bamboo handicraft sector of Tripura took part in a workshop called 'Bridging Japan and India by Bamboo'. The Japanese team, led by Kenko Sone, Minister, Economic and Development, Embassy of Japan, India.

The Telangana State Information Technology, Electronics and Communication department (ITE&C) signed an MoU with Tech Mahindra to launch India's first Blockchain district in Telengana at the International Blockchain Congress 2018. It will have process development for the emerging technology with innovative infrastructure and facilities. This will start the growth of Indian blockchain start-ups and companies. The blockchain district will provide the platform and technology assistance to all the incubators in it. It will be a centre of excellence and an incubator.

Ms. Vijay Thakur Singh is currently India's envoy to Ireland and will take over as Secretary (EAST) from October 1 after superannuation of Preeti Saran on September 30. She is a 1985 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service.