Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

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The Punjab government has recently launched its flagship ‘Apni Gaddi Apna Rozgar’ scheme for jobless youth by flagging off over 100 uberMOTO bikes. Under the scheme, the state government will provide commercial two wheelers and four wheelers to unemployed youth at subsidised rates. The scheme will be a game-changer for the youth of Punjab and will play a catalysing role in encouraging micro-entrepreneurship opportunities throughout the state. The target of Uber is to create 10,000 entrepreneurial opportunities in Punjab in one year and a total of 45,000 in next five years.

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Sebastian Vettel, a German racing driver currently driving in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, has won the 2017 Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix tournament at the Hungaroring in Mogyorod, Hungary.

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Sam Shepard (73), the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, has passed away in Kentucky, United States on July 27, 2017. He was Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West. He wrote nearly 50 plays and won the Pulitzer for drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. His plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recently announced that the 2024 Summer Olympics will be hosted by Paris in France, which is scheduled to be held from August 8-18. Beside this, the IOC has also announced that the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to be hosted by Los Angeles (United States). Both the decisions will be ratified at the 131st IOC Conference in Lima, Peru on September 13, 2017. The IOC decision means that Los Angeles will become a three-time Olympic city, after hosting the 1932 and 1984 Games – and Paris, which held the Games in 1900 and 1924, will host a centenary celebration in 2024.

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According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s 3rd bi-monthly monetary policy statement for year 2016-17, the policy repo rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) has reduced by 25 basis points from 6.25% to 6.0% with immediate effect. This move is expected to lower EMIs for home, auto and personal loans. This is the first rate cut since October 2016 and the interest rate is now at 6-year low. In line with record low retail inflation, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75%, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.25%. The RBI Governor headed, six member Monetary Policy Committee also decided to keep the policy stance neutral in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index inflation of 4%.

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Veer Dev Gulia from India has won bronze in the men’s 74 kg freestyle category at the Junior World Wrestling Championships at Tampere in Finland on August 2, 2017. Gulia finished third after beating Yamasaki Yajuro of Japan, 8-5 in the bronze medal play-off bout. Beside him, Ravinder from India has also won bronze medal in 60 kg freestyle section in the tournament.

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The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR) is located in the Sahyadri ranges of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. It is in news because the Maharashtra government is planning to relocate tigers from Vidarbha region to the sanctuaries elsewhere where their population is smaller, including the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR). At present, STR has only seven tigers. For this, the state government has also set up a committee to examine this issue, and a decision will be taken based on its recommendations. It will also consult experts from the Centre and submit its report in 2-3 months.

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Mukesh Ambani has become the Asia’s second richest man according to the 2017 Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI). According to the 2017 index, Ambani’s net worth has risen to 35.8 billion (around Rs 2.2 lakh crore), making him the 19th richest person in the world, up from 29 at the end of 2016. The increase in the net worth of the chief of Reliance Industries comes partially from the rise in stock price of the energy major, which has made major bets on the retail and telecom industries. Currently, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of 43.2 billion.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently constituted a committee on fair market conduct, which will be headed by former Lok Sabha secretary and law secretary T K Viswanathan. The panel will have representations from SEBI, mutual funds, brokers, audit firms, stock exchanges, data analytics firms and legal firms. The committee has been tasked with suggesting improvements to the existing SEBI norms, including on insider trading and Fraudulent and Unfair Trade practices (FUTP). It has been specifically asked to look at trading plans, handling of price-sensitive information during takeovers and aligning of insider-trading rules with provisions of the Companies Act. The committee has also been tasked with suggesting short-term and medium-term measures for improved surveillance of the markets, as well as issues of high-frequency trades and harnessing of technology and analytics in surveillance. The committee will submit its report within 4 months.

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The Maharashtra government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla to suggest measures to ensure safety of women working in the Information and Technology sector. The committee will suggest measures that can be undertaken to ensure safety of women working in the IT sector. This information was given by the state government to Bombay High Court. The government also sought four weeks’ time to file a detailed affidavit on long-term steps it was contemplating to enhance women’s safety. The court has taken up the PIL ‘suo motu’ (on its own) on the issue of women’s safety in the state. In January 2017, a woman software engineer working with Infosys was allegedly killed by a security guard on the company’s premises in Pune.