Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
Santosh Mohan Dev (83), the veteran congress leader and former union minister, has passed away today in Silchar, Assam. He was first elected to the Parliament in 1980, the first of his seven terms in office as the Member of Parliament. Out of these seven, he has represented Silchar, Assam five times and he was elected from Tripura twice. He has the rare distinction of being elected from two different states. Dev was the eldest son of the renowned Bengali North Eastern Freedom Fighter Satindra Mohan Dev.

Notes:
The world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge “Europaweg (or Europe Bridge)” has recently opened in Randa, Switzerland. It measures 1,620 feet long and rises as high as 278 feet above the Grabengufer ravine. The bridge connects a hiking trail through the Alps between Zermatt and Graechen.

Notes:
The Indian Army has developed a mobile application ‘Humraaz’ through which serving soldiers can track details like postings and promotions. Through the ‘Humraaz’ app, soldiers can also view their monthly salary slips and the Form 16 and also download them. For security reasons, the installation of the application has been linked to verification of Aadhaar details. The Aadhaar details will be verified with the Army database over National Information Centre (NIC) cloud and he will get a one-time-password on his registered mobile number. Thus, to enable usage of this mobile application, the latest mobile number of individuals should be linked to his Aadhaar number. The mobile app has been developed in-house by the Army and will be launched in the second week of August for prompt communication of information to junior commissioner officers and other personnels.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Maharashtra Government has launched two online portals MahaDBT and MahaVASTU to streamline the process of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and to bring in more transparency in construction sector. With this, Maharashtra has become the first state in India to launch such a system that will provide direct benefits with Aadhaar authentication. The MahaDBT portal is an Aadhaar-authenticated electronic mechanism that will enable direct transfer of benefits for over 40 schemes currently implemented. MahaDBT’s design is based on central government’s direct transfer benefit scheme and Aadhaar will be mandatory to claim benefits through this portal. On the other hand, MahaVASTU portal is an online building permission management system, through which construction approvals will be sanctioned with full transparency.

Notes:
Indian shooter Ankur Mittal has clinched the individual as well as the team gold medal in men’s double trap at the 7th Asian Shotgun Championship at Astana, Kazakhstan on August 5, 2017. Mittal shot 71 in the six-man final to finish at the top of the podium. With scores of Sangram Dahiya and Mohammad Asab added to Mittal’s final total, India managed to bag the top prize in the team event also. Dahiya had a score of 43 and Asab had shot 34.

Notes:
Paul Kagame, the current president of Rwanda who is ruling the tiny African nation for 17 years, has won the 2017 Rwandan presidential election with 99% of votes. He is the leader of the political party Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR). With this, he secured his third term in office as president and will extend his 17 years in power.

Notes:
The 8th edition of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES)-2017 will be hosted by India and is scheduled to be held on November 28, 2017. The NITI Aayog in association with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Andhra Pradesh government have been assigned with organising the event. The GES brings together investors and entrepreneurs from around the world to create new opportunities for collaboration. The summit will promote economic growth, inclusion and opportunities among entrepreneurs from across the world, with a special focus on emerging nations from Africa and Asia. The summit was started in 2010 under the leadership of then US President Barack Obama at Washington DC to bring entrepreneurs from across the globe on one platform.

Notes:
India’s first micro forest will be built in Raipur, Chattisgarh. Approximately, 19 acres of land which housed around 70 government office buildings will be converted into micro forest in order to create an oxy-zone. The micro forest will provide fresh air to Raipur which is the 7th most polluted city in the world. It will reportedly be open to the public in the next 8 months.