GK & Current Affairs Quiz: October 12, 2017

Notes:
The 48th Conference of Governors has started at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 12, 2017. The 2-day conference is being attended by 27 Governors and 3 Lt. Governors of States and Union Territories. The two-day Conference will deliberate on distinct agenda items in different sessions. The theme of the opening session was ‘New India-2022’. The second session is on the subjects of ‘Higher Education in States’ and ‘Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to Make Youth Employable’. In the third session, to take place on October 13, 2017, Governors will make brief remarks on any special issues pertaining to their respective States/Union Territories. In the concluding session, a brief report on the deliberations will be presented by the respective conveners.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently approved signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with Japan on establishing a Liquid, Flexible and Global LNG Market. The MoC will provides a framework to cooperate in facilitating flexibility in LNG contracts, abolition of Destination Restriction Clause (DRC) and also explore possibilities of cooperation in establishing reliable LNG spot price indices, reflecting true LNG demand and supply. This MoC is expected to be signed during the forthcoming visit of Hon’ble Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship during October 16-18, 2017 at Tokyo. Apart from this, India and Japan will also sign MoC for a Technical Intern Training Program (TITP). The TITP is an ambitious program to send Indian technical interns to Japan for on the job training for a period of three to five years.

Notes:
The first-ever meeting of the newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (EAC-PM) was held at NITI Aayog, in New Delhi on October 11, 2017. It was chaired by Dr. Bibey Debroy. In it, 10 priority areas for reviving growth and employment in the next six months has been identified. The 10 themes are economic growth, employment and job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure, institutions of economic governance, agriculture and animal husbandry, patterns of consumption and production and social sector.

Notes:
The Union Law Ministry has finalized the appointment of a Second National Judicial Pay Commission to recommend salary hikes for the 21,000 lower court judges in India. The proposed commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge PV Reddi. The commission will submit its recommendations in early 2019 and the hike again is expected to be given with retrospective effect. The move comes after directions from the Supreme Court in May. The first judicial pay commission, headed by Justice Jagannatha Shetty, was set up in March 1996 and it submitted its report in November 1999. The judges and judicial officers got the last pay hike in 2010, a three-fold jump, from their salaries decided in 1999. The 2010 hike was applied retrospectively from January 1, 2006. The current entry level salary for a junior civil judge is Rs 45000 while a senior judge gets nearly Rs 80,000.

Notes:
Indian boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu has been honoured with the 2017 National Awards for senior citizens by President Ramnath Kovind. Sandhu was India’s longest-serving men’s national coach, occupying the position for two decades before he was handed charge of the women campers earlier in 2017. He was the chief coach when India won its maiden Olympic medal in boxing through Vijender Singh in 2008.

Notes:
The parliamentary committee on External Affairs, which will examine the relations between India and China, is headed by Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor. The committee will examine in detail the issue of cooperation between both the countries in international organizations including Doklam standoff. The standing committee has also decided to closely look at India’s “Relations with Myanmar and the Rohingya situation”, India’s “Act East Policy, including BIMSTEC”, the “Situation in the Far East: Japan and North Korea”, India’s engagement with SAARC countries, global terrorism and voting rights for NRIs.

Notes:
The Balpakram National Park (BNP) is located near the Garo Hills in Meghalaya and is famous for the golden cat and the barking deer. The park is often referred to as the “abode of perpetual winds” as well as the “land of spirits. Beside this, the park is home to wild water buffalo, red panda, elephant, tiger, etc.

Notes:
The mixed pair of Jemson Ningthoujam and Ankita Bhakat clinched gold at the 2017 World Archery Youth Championship in Rosario, Argentina.This is India’s first world title at the youth championships since Deepika Kumari’s victories in 2009 and 2011. India also bagged one silver and one bronze in a promising show by the youngsters.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government has tied up with financial services company Visa for Vizag Digital Dhan Sankalp (VDDS) project, which is an initiative to develop Visakhapatnam into India’s first ‘less cash’ city as well as a Fintech valley. In collaboration with Visa, the state government will make efforts to enable digital payments to educational institutions, small and micro merchants, street market vendors, etc.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh government has implemented the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS) to provide easy access to curative geriatric health care services by way of additional cover. The scheme will provide top up coverage of Rs. 30,000 per senior citizen to all existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) smart card holders in addition to basic coverage of Rs.30,000 in Trust/Society mode. the targeted beneficiaries of this scheme are RSBY enrolled persons aged 60 years and above. The senior citizens of those families that are eligible for RSBY but not currently rolled in this scheme will not get benefit of SCHIS.