Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: April 2nd week (08 April – 15 April)

Akshay Kumar for movie Rustom

Kasaav (Marathi)

With autonomous vehicles and robot-executed surgeries becoming commonplace around the world, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has initiated a Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) programme. It deals with self-driven cars, autonomous unmanned vehicles and aircraft navigation systems An initial budget of Rs.100 crore has been earmarked for the project in the current financial year.

In a joint statement after signing of agreements in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new line of concessional credit of $4.5 billion for implementation of development projects in Bangladesh.
Apart from that, Modi also announced $500 million of credit for defence procurement in the country.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the launch of NBA Basketball School, a network of tuition-based basketball development programs around the world open to international male and female players ages 6-18 in Mumbai.

India has jumped 12 places to 40th rank globally in travel and tourism competitiveness list by World Economic Forum.
Top- Spain

India moved up to 101st in the latest FIFA rankings.
Brazil is at top followed by Argentina and Germany.

June 30, 2017. Earlier it was February 28, 2017

Independence in 1971.

Dame Asha Khemka has been named the ‘Asian Businesswoman of the Year’.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix by defeating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Bollywood actor Vidya Balan will be the brand ambassador of silk materials produced in Jharkhand.

Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

At present, the government debt, including market borrowings, is managed by the Reserve Bank of India. The finance ministry is likely to set up a full-fledged independent public debt management agency by the end of next year to manage government borrowing programme that runs into lakhs of crore.

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated an exhibition titled “Swachhagraha – Bapu Ko Karyanjali – Ek Abhiyan, Ek Pradarshani”in New Delhi to mark the 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s first experiment of Satyagraha in Champaran.

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull is on a 4-day visit to India. He and PM Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the TERI-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre in Gurugram, Haryana.

Bareilly, UP. A DNA bank exists in Hyderabad at present. And the bank in Bareilly would be the second after this.

Following the yearly global attention drawn by the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that takes place in Barcelona, India is all set to have its own version this year, for the first time, from September 27 to 29 in New Delhi.

A unique programme to pay tribute to mothers will be introduced in the government-run schools in Andhra Pradesh from this year. Under ‘Ammaku Vandanam’ — mother worship — the school children will take the blessings of their mothers and may also do ‘paada pooja’ (washing her feet). Inspired by a programme in an Indonesian school, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in February mooted the idea of ‘Ammaku Vandanam’

Flipkart announced its biggest funding round by buying rival eBay’s Indian operations. As part of this transaction, eBay Inc has put $500 million in Flipkart and sold its India business to the Bengaluru firm

This website is technically supported by National Informatics Centre (NIC) and powered by State Bank of India.

United Arab Emirates-based AsterDM Healthcare has agreed a $295 million credit facility with India’s Axis Bank.

ESAF Small Finance Bank has launched a social deposit scheme called Hrudaya Deposit. The deposit scheme, as the name suggests, stands for a social cause, through which, ESAF Bank provides the customers an opportunity to be a part in social welfare projects, which none of the other banks has given so far.

Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal launched the ‘Urja Mitra’ mobile application that allows consumers across India to exchange real-time information with electricity distribution companies (discoms) on power supply.

Dehradun , Uttarakhand
The Survey of India, the principal mapping agency of the country is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. Origin of the Survey of India is traced back to Year 1767.

A new web portal “nakshe” was launched by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi, on the occasion of 250th anniversary of Survey of India (SoI)

Karnataka Chief Minster Siddaramaiah has unveiled mobile app ‘Suraksha’ for the safety of women in Bengaluru. Launched by the Bengaluru police, the integrated personal app is aimed at helping women for their safety and security in emergency.

International Convention on World Homoeopathy Day held in New Delhi. The theme of the convention is “Enhancing Quality Research in Homeopathy through scientific evidence and rich clinical experiences”.

Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) hosted National Childrens Film Festival (NCFF) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

For the upcoming Champions Trophy, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has named global chipmaker Intel as its ‘Innovation Partner’ to help coaches and players improve performance. The tournament will be held in England and Wales between June 1 and June 18.

The Panama Papers investigation into the offshore secrets of the rich and famous has been awarded a prestigious Pulitzer prize. The prize was given to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), together with two US titles, McClatchy and the Miami Herald.

The government has reduced the number of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) to 28 umbrella schemes from 66

Lucca, Italy

Bangladesh- India. It is a joint venture company and incorporated pursuant to the Joint Venture Agreement executed on 29 January 2012 between Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and NTPC Limited (NTPC) with equal equity participation of BPDB and NTPC. The Company has been promoted by, and with equal (50:50) equity participation of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and NTPC Limited of India.

The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended $1.6 billion loan to the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL) for financing 1,320 MW ultra-super-critical Maitree Super Thermal Power Project in Bangladesh.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said under the new partnership Victoria University and the University of Canberra would work with India to assist in the establishment of a National Sports University similar to the Australian Institute of Sport.

The Haldia port of West Bengal has emerged as the cleanest in a first-ever ranking of all major Indian ports on sanitation parameters.

Bengaluru has been ranked the top-paying city for professionals in India with an average yearly salary of ₹14.6 lakh, by the Randstad Salary Trends Study 2017. It was followed by Mumbai and Hyderabad with average yearly salaries of ₹14.2 lakh and ₹13.6 lakh respectively. Java programmers are the best-paid professionals in the country, with an average salary of ₹18 lakh.

Named after Thespis of Icaria, believed to be the first actor in Greek drama (6th century BC), the day-long event ‘Thespis’ saw screening of 28 independent plays at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art.

Veteran actor Dilip Kumar was honoured with the Living Legend Lifetime Award by the Punjab Association

Colson Whitehead
The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.

Global technology major Nokia and India’s leading network service provider Airtel along with state-owned network BSNL have announced that they have planned a strategy to reach the network evolution to 5G services introduce a fast internet ecosystem in the country.

India defeated Malaysia

Bhopal, MP.
5th Asian School Hockey Championship was held at the Aishbagh Hockey Stadium.

Veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was named one of the eight ambassadors for the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled in England from June 1 to 18. Other ambassadors are – Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, Bangladesh’s Habibul Bashar, England’s Ian Bell, New Zealand’s Shane Bond, Australia’s Mike Hussey, Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and Graeme Smith of South Africa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a book ‘Matoshree’, authored by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in New Delhi.

As per the report, most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan in the same order.

Vice President of India M. Hamid Ansari received the first copy of the book, which is authored by Ashwini Kumar.

The World Bank has approved a $375 million loan to India’s first waterway project. The National Waterway 1 project is to create a water transport fairway on a 1,360-km stretch of the Ganga river between Varanasi and Haldia.

The Government has set up an Inter-Disciplinary Committee to examine the existing framework with regard to Virtual Currencies like Bitcoins. The Committee will be chaired by Special Secretary of Economic Affairs, Shri Dinesh Sharma.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture has selected Himachal Pradesh for the Krishi Karman Award 2015-16 for commendable increase in food grains production.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has launched a mobile application to inform people about various welfare schemes and programmes of the state government.

TAL Manufacturing Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, has launched a Made-in-India robot catering primarily to micro, small and medium industries. The indigenously built robot — TAL Brabo — is available in two variants of payloads of 2 kg and 10 kg, priced at Rs5 lakh and Rs7 lakh, respectively.

The Chief General Manager of the Karnataka Bank, Mahabaleshwara MS, has been appointed as the new MD and CEO of the bank and will assume office on April 15.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has appointed the internationally acclaimed actress and philanthropist Kristin Davis as its Goodwill Ambassador.

Nepal and China will be holding their first-ever joint military exercise from April 16 to 25 in Kathmandu. The military exercise is named ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2017’.

The government will soon launch an umbrella programme ‘SAMPADA’ for food processing sector with Rs 6,000 crore outlay to integrate current and new schemes aimed at reducing food wastage and doubling farmers’ income.

Khalid Mohamed

Rs. 495 crore for a period of six months.

The Prime Minister also launched two new incentive schemes for the BHIM – Cash back and Referral bonus – with an outlay of Rs. 495 crore for a period of six months. Both schemes are to be administered by MEITY and implemented by NPCI.

M/s. Bansal Pathways Ltd – an SPV of Bansal Construction Works and Prakash Asphalting and Toll Highways (India) has taken over the management of the Habibganj station (in Bhopal) – thus making Habibganj emerging as the first Railway station on Indian Railways to be managed by a private party, and marking it as the historic day for station redevelopment programme of Indian Railways.

Haryana launched ‘Operation Durga’ to ensure women safety in the state, under which the police caught at least 72 eve-teasers on its first day.

With a motive to enlighten children in naxal-affected areas of Jharkhand’s Palamau district, Jharkhand Police has initiated Tare Zameen Par program to encourage children to lead happy lives.

Google launches Areo, a food delivery & home services app for India

Actress Alia Bhatt has featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. She is the only Bollywood actress who has made it to this year’s list.

Pankaj Advani, 16-time world champion, won his seventh Asian title by defeating Sourav Kothari 6-3 in an entertaining final of the Asian Billiards Championship

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched a new mobile app CM Connect, which runs on Microsoft’s Kaizala platform

Moving goods worth more than ₹50,000 under GST will require prior online registration of the consignment and securing an ‘ewaybill’ that tax officials can inspect any time during transit to check tax evasion.

Rs 100 crore

Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh has launched two web applications to check corruption and keep track of government activities. The two web applications are Anti-Corruption Cell and Digital Application for Review by Public And Nation (DARPAN)

Himachal Pradesh, the northern Indian state in the Himalayas and also one of the most beautiful states in India celebrated its 70th “Himachal Day” function on April 15, 2017. Himachal Pradesh, the hill state and one of the most beautiful states was formed in 1948 after the 30 odd princely states got merged.

R.R. Hanchinal

Actor Shah Rukh Khan was honoured with a tribute at the ongoing 60th San Francisco Film Festival today. He engaged in a conversation with American filmmaker Brett Ratner, which was live-streamed on Twitter. Shah Rukh’s 2010 film ‘My Name Is Khan’ was also screened at the festival.

He held the office of the Governor J&K from 26 May 1990 to 13 March 1993.