Current Affairs Quiz 18th November 2022, Daily GK Update

Exp. Tripura CM launched ‘Amar Sarkar’ portal

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has launched a new portal, ‘Amar Sarkar.

Objective – To provide bridge between the people and the government.

The portal will help people to register their problems and complaints through village committee officials.

A total of 78 departments, including the panchayat department, has been included in the web portal.

Earlier, the state government had launched the ‘Har Ghar Sushasan’ initiative.

About Tripura

• Capital – Agartala
• Chief Minister – Manik Sarkar
• Governor – Satyadeo Narain Arya

Exp. Tamil Nadu introduced India’s first elephant death audit framework

Tamil Nadu became the first State in the country to bring out an Elephant Death Audit Framework that promises thorough investigation and scientific documentation of every jumbo death.

One of the important decisions taken and incorporated in the framework is to upload all the postmortem interim reports of elephants on the forest department website within 24 hours of conducting autopsy.

The periodical death audit report will also be placed on the public domain on quarterly basis for maintaining transparency.

About Tamil Nadu

• Capital –Chennai

Chief Minister – M K Stalin

Governor – R N Ravi

Exp. Cambridge Dictionary announced ‘Homer’ as Word of the Year 2022

Cambridge Dictionary has declared the word, “Homer” as the Word of the Year 2022.

‘Homer’ refers to a home run in the popular American sport Baseball.

The word ”homer” was searched for nearly 75,000 times during the first week of May 2022 owing to it being an answer in Wordle.

Cambridge Dictionary also saw other five-letter words surging in search in 2022 due to the “Wordle effect”. The American spelling of “humor” caused the second-highest spike in 2022, followed by ”caulk”, ”tacit, and ”bayou”, the third, fourth, and fifth place respectively.

Cambridge said that the decision to choose this word was influenced by the famous game ‘Wordle’

Collins Dictionary’s word of the year 2022 – ‘Permacrisis’

Exp. Bandaru Wilsonbabu appointed as the Ambassador of India to Comoros

IFS officer Bandaru Wilsonbabu has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Union of the Comoros.

Wilsonbabu is presently working as the Indian ambassador to Madagascar.

The Comoros is an independent country made up of 3 islands in southeastern Africa.

About Comoros

Capital- Moroni

Currency- Comorian franc

President- Azali Assoumani

Continent- Africa

Recent Appointment

• Ambassador of India to Cote d’Ivoir – Rajesh Ranjan
• India’s Ambassador to Slovak Republic – Apoorva Srivastava
• Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina – Partha Satpathy
• India’s Ambassadors to Kuwait – Adarsh Swaika
• India’s Ambassadors to Guinea – Avtar Singh
• India’s Ambassador to Madagascar – Bandaru Wilsonbabu
• India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh – Pranay Verma
• India’s High Commissioner to UK – Vikram Doraiswami
• India’s ambassador to Thailand – Nagesh Singh
• High commissioner of India to Canada – Sanjay Verma
• India’s ambassador to the Republic of Korea – Amit Kumar
• High commissioner of India to Canada – Sanjay Verma
• India’s next ambassador to Japan – Sibi George
• India’s ambassador to Eritrea – Prakash Chand

Exp. Suraj Bhan appointed as Chairman of National Pension System Trust

Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) has appointed Suraj Bhan as the chairman of the National Pension System Trust (NPS Trust).

Suraj Bhan has been a Trustee on the Board of NPS Trust since 2018.

The trust is responsible for managing funds under the National Pension System (NPS).

NPS started with the decision of the Government of India to stop defined benefit pensions for all its employees who joined after 1 April 2004.

Recent Appointment 

• Lieutenant Governor of Maryland – First Indian American Aruna Miller
• Chairman of National Monuments Authority (NMA) – Prof. Kishor Basa
• Chairperson of 22nd Law Commission of India– Former Karnataka HC Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi
• Deputy Chair of GSMA – Gopal Vittal
• Honorary Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) – Amit Dasgupta

Exp. Arun Kumar Singh appointed as Head of ONGC

BPCL’s former chairman Arun Kumar Singh has been appointed as new Chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

He will succeed Alka Mittal.

He retired from BPCL after attaining the superannuation age in Oct 2022 and was already selected to head the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).

This will be the first time that a person aged over 60 will be heading a top PSU board-level position.

ONGC is the India’s top oil and gas producer company.

About Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)

Founded – 1956

Headquarters – New Delhi

Chairman – Arun Kumar Singh

Recent Appointment 

• Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) – Dr. V G Somani (reappointment three months).
• Full-time member of NITI Aayog – Arvind Virmani
• Director of Public Policy for all Meta brands in India – Shivnath Thukral
• CEO of Prasar Bharati – Gaurav Dwivedi
• International Cricket Council (ICC) – Greg Barclay (re-elected)

Exp. C V Ananda Bose appointed as Governor of West Bengal

Former IAS officer C V Ananda Bose has been appointed as the Governor of West Bengal.

He is a 1977-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Kerala cadre.

He has replaced Manipur Governor La Ganesan, who had taken the additional charge of West Bengal since after the incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar was nominated as the vice president candidate.

He had worked as an administrator in the National Museum and district collector of Quilon district in Kerala.

About West Bengal

• Capital –Kolkata

Chief Minister – Mamata Banerjee

Governor – C V Ananda Bose

Recent Appointment 

• President of FICCI  Subhrakant Panda
• Chairman of BPCL – VR Krishna Gupta
• Director General of Police of Rajasthan – Umesh Mishra
• Executive Chairman of Samsung Electronic – Jay Y Lee
• Chairperson of Air Transport Committee of ICAO – Shefali Juneja

Exp. Phrygian Caps unveiled as the Paris Olympic & Paralympic 2024 Mascots

Phrygian cap has been unveiled as the mascot for the Paris Olympics & Paralympics 2024.

These red caps date back to ancient times & were a symbol of the pursuit of liberty in the French Revolution.

The Paralympic version of the mascot features a prosthetic leg.

The Olympic Games will be held from July 26-Aug. 11 and the Paralympics from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.

The Games will feature the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event.

Summer Olympic

2024 – Paris, France

2028 – Los Angeles, USA

Winter Olympic

2022 – Beijing, China

2026 – Milan & Cortina , Italy

Exp. NTPC team won Gold award at 47th ICQCC-2022

NTPC’s Quality Control Team from Unchahar ABHYUDAYA has won the Gold award in the 47th International Convention on Quality Control Circle (ICQCC-2022).

The convention is being held in Jakarta under the theme of “Built Back Better through Quality Efforts”.

In March 2022, NTPC had been declared the “Dream Employer of the Year” at the 30th Session of the World HRD Congress.

Recent Awards

• Lifetime Achievement Award at 53rd IFFI Goa – Carlos Saura
• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna 2022 – Sharath Kamal
• Responsible Tourism Global Award – Kerala Tourism
• UK’s royal Order of Merit – Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan
• Bihari Puraskar – Madhu Kankariya (31st) and Dr. Madhav Hada (32^nd)

Exp. INS Trikand participated in ‘Sea Sword 2’ counter-terrorism drill

INS Trikand has participated in the Combined Maritime Forces led Operation “Sea Sword 2” in the Northwest Arabian Sea.

The operation was held to prevent narcotics trade & stop smuggling entities from using the seas for their nefarious activities.

Earlier, the 26th edition of the multinational maritime exercise “MALABAR 22” culminated in Japan on November 15th.

Recent Exercise

• The 3rd edition of the ‘Pan-India’ Coastal Defence Exercise ‘Sea Vigil-22’ has concluded.
• 18^thedition of India-US joint military exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas’ started in Uttrakhand
• India has participated in 26th International Malabar Naval Exercise, organized in Yokosuka of Japan.
• The first edition of the India-Mozambique-Tanzania Trilateral Exercise (IMT TRILAT) concluded at Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Indian Air Force (IAF) and French Air and Space Force (FASF) are participating in a bilateral exercise named ‘Garuda’ from 26th Oct to 12th Nov 2022 at Air Force Station Jodhpur

Exp. 18 November – National Naturopathy Day

National Naturopathy Day is observed every year on 18 November.

This year celebrated 5th edition of the National Naturopathy Day.

Objective – To promote positive mental and physical health through drug-free therapy.

National Naturopathy Day was established on November 18th 2018 by the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), Government of India.

On November 18th 1945, Mahatma Gandhi became the Chairman of the All India Nature Cure Foundation Trust and signed the agreement aimed at making the benefits of Nature Cure available to all classes of people, therefore, this day was chosen to be observed as National Naturopathy Day.

Exp. 18 – 24 November 2022 – World Antimicrobial Awareness Week

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) is observed every year from 18 to 24 November.

Objective – To increase awareness of the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines.

Theme 2022 – Preventing antimicrobial resistance together

Exp. Indian basketball player Abbas Moontasir passed away

The former India basketball captain and Arjuna awardee Gulam Abbas Moontasir passed away at the age of 80.

He was the captain of the Indian team at the Asian Basketball Championships in 1969 and 1975.

His basketball debut came in 1960 in an exhibition game against Australia.

He was also the first basketball player from the country to get the Arjuna Award in 1970.

Post-retirement, he did appear in a few movies, two with Amitabh Bachchan.