Current Affairs Quiz -21th August, 2018 - Current Affairs MCQ

Maxxis India, the Indian subsidiary of Taiwan-based tyre-maker Maxxis, plans to launch 5 new manufacturing plants in India. The company had been supplying Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) tyre fitments to HMSCI through the Vietnam facility since 2016. But recently, it rolled out its first two-wheeler tyre consignment from its Sanand facility, Gujarat to Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSCI), Gurgaon. The Sanand facility is currently manufacturing two-wheeler tyres and tubes. It has a capacity to produce about 20,000 tyres and 40,000 tubes a day. The company now targets to supply one million tyres to its OEM partners by the end of this year. It also aims to capture at least 15% of the country's two-wheeler tyre market by 2023.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) has proposed to set up a 5-member committee to suggest changes to the JEE (Advanced) examination in the wake of an inadequate number of candidates qualifying the entrance test this year. The aim of the committee, which will be headed by IIT-Madras director "Bhaskar Ramamurthy", is to develop a robust and scientifically designed entrance exam system to test the potential of the candidates as well as to reduce their dependence on coaching institutes. The proposal is on the agenda of the IIT Council, which is considered to be the top decision-making body of all the IITs. Additionally, the IIT-Council is expected to discuss a suggestion made by one of the 23 premier engineering schools that the students who qualify JEE (Advanced) should be allocated an institute and not the engineering branch. According to the suggestion, the student should be allocated an engineering branch only in the second year, based on the aptitude exhibited in the first year.

16-Year-Old Saurabh Chaudhary became only the fifth Indian shooter to claim a gold in the Asian Games history, beating a field of multiple world and Olympic champions in the 10m air pistol finals in Indonesia. Another Indian making his international debut, 29-year-old Abhishek Verma, shot 219.3 to secure bronze.

India and Japan have resolved to expand their maritime cooperation and work together to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Both sides also exchanged views on the current security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including developments in the Korean Peninsula.

India got its second Gold medal at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia when Vinesh Phogat defeated Japan's Yuki Irie in the final of freestyle 50 kg category in Women's Wrestling. With this victory, Vinesh created history as she is the first Indian woman wrestler to win gold in the Asian Games. Vinesh Phogat had entered the final after beating Uzbekistan's Yakhshimuratova Dauletbike on technical superiority. Bajrang Punia had given India its first Gold of the Games in men's freestyle 65 Kg category.

World Mosquito Day observed on 20th August every year. This day is a honor of British doctor Sir Ronald Ross's discovery in 1897 that female mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans. Mosquitoes have been around for over a hundred million years. Mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria, West Nile virus, dengue, chikungunya, Zika among human beings. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine holds Mosquito Day celebrations every year, including events such as parties and exhibitions, a tradition dating back to as early as the 1930s.

In Sri Lanka, the ten-day festival of the historic Esala Maha Perehera began in Kandy with a grand procession. The procession set off from the biggest Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka, Sri Dalada Maligawa at an auspicious time. The Esala Perahera is one of the oldest and grandest of all Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka, featuring dancers, jugglers, musicians, fire-breathers and lavishly decorated elephants.

Pakistan's newly elected Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi extended the hand of friendship. He offered an Uninterrupted dialogue. This talk is aimed to resolve all outstanding issues so that peace can be maintained between the countries. He also said that Pakistan is interested in resolving the Kashmir issue and to rebuild ties with eastern and western neighbours and to create peace in the region. Mr.Qureshi welcomed the wishes from India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. He said Pakistan will bilaterally try to resolve all issues with Afghanistan as it will be working through socio-economic development.

All India Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) by NABARD was released. According to the survey; more than 88 per cent of rural householdshave bank accounts. Only about 24per cent of the 88% of rural households use ATM services at least once in three months, 7.4per cent of these households use debit or credit card. 7.5per cent use cheque to make a payment at least once in three months.

Union Ministry of Women and Child Development announced to observe September 2018 as the National Nutrition Month to mark the country's fight against malnutrition. The month-long intensive campaign will be undertaken with an aim of reaching every household with message of nutrition - 'har ghar posha'.

Telangana Government has launched Disaster Response Force (DRF) vehicles in Hyderabad to handle situations like flash floods, heavy rains, building collapse and fire mishaps. The DRF vehicles will be parked at 24 locations with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) DRF staff. It will reached affected spots for relief work during necessary situations. DRF personnel will be available on the field for 24/7. Hyderabad is the second city to have an exclusive Enforcement Vigilance Disaster Management wing.

Srikumar Menon was appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. Currently, he is the Ambassador of India to Angola. He has been concurrently appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, with residence in Luanda.

One97 Communications, the parent entity of Paytm launched "Paytm AI Cloud for India", an AI Cloud computing platform designed for developers, startups and enterprises. Paytm AI Cloud will process and store all the data of the consumer locally in servers located only in India while conforming to the highest security and privacy standards. For this cloud computing infrastructure, Paytm had partnered with Chinese technology giant Alibaba. The company has committed around Rs.250 crore in this business. The AI Cloud computing platform will offer a suite of business-centric apps for organisations that need solutions for cloud computing, ready-to-use services to automate their workflow, easy to integrate payments, messaging and customer engagement.

The Indian and Thailand's armed forces concluded a two-week long platoon level military exercise called 'Exercise Maitree 2018' in Jammu & Kashmir's Srinagar. The exercise was an annual event designed to strengthen the partnership between armies of the two countries. The exercise began on August 6 and comprised of cross-training period, which included familiarization between the two armies to evolve drills and procedures that help in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in varied terrains under the United Nations (UN) mandate.

Maruti Suzuki launched a new version of Ciaz 2018 with prices starting from Rs.8.19 lakh. The mid-sized sedan is designed with a new 1.5-litre K15 petrol engine along with smart hybrid technology featuring a lithium-ion battery. Manual, as well as automatic transmissions, are available for the petrol version. The price of the manual variants of the petrol version is between Rs.8.19 lakh and Rs.9.97 lakh and the automatic transmission version is between Rs.9.8 lakh and Rs.10.97 lakh. The fuel efficiency of the newly launched Ciaz will be 21.56 km/litre. The diesel versions of the same would continue to be powered by the original 1.3-litre diesel engine with hybrid technology. It would be priced between Rs.9.19 lakh and Rs.10.97 lakh.