Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the member of the Pakistan Muslim League (N)(PML-N), is the newly elected interim Prime Minister of Pakistan after defeating his rival Naveed Qamar of PPP by 221 votes on August 1, 2017. Abbasi was chosen by Nawaz Sharif as an interim Prime Minister for 45 days which would allow significant time for Shehbaz Sharif to contest elections from Nawaz’s vacated constituency, be elected to the National Assembly and become eligible to hold the office of Prime Ministership. Previously, Abbasi served as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources in the third Sharif ministry from 2013 to 2017. Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as the Prime Minister by the Supreme Court in July 2017 in connection with Panama Papers scam.

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:
In Tamil Nadu, the Aadi Perukku festival is celebrated with traditional gaiety to pay tribute to water’s life-sustaining properties. The festival, also known as ‘Aadi 18’, is celebrated on the 18th of Aadi month in Tamil calendar year to express gratitude to water bodies especially Cauvery river. The 18th day of Aadi is usually August 2, is observed as ‘Aadi pirappu’, a day of offerings and prayers to these rivers. The day is an occasion for rejoicing particularly for those living on the banks of the all the main rivers, its branches and tributaries.

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:
According to recently released report-ICT Facts and Figures 2017, India and China are home to 39% of the 830 million young people worldwide who use the Internet. The report, released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), shows that of the 830 million young people online worldwide, 320 million ( or 39%), are in China and India. The ICT data shows that youths (15-24 years old) are at the forefront of Internet adoption. In Least Developed Countries (LDCs), up to 35% of individuals using the Internet are aged 15-24, compared with 13% in developed countries and 23% globally. The ITU is the United Nations (UN) specialized agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It has 193 countries as its members and also 800 private-sectors.

Notes:
The Union Government has launched the 2nd AGRI-UDAAN programme in New Delhi on August 4, 2017 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture. It will mentor startups and help them connect with potential investors. The program focuses on catalyzing scale-up stage food and agribusiness startups through rigorous mentoring, industry networking and investor pitching. The 6 month program is a unique platform for scale up stage innovators, entrepreneurs and startups in the Food and Agribusiness sectors. The applications will be available at www.aidea.naarm.org.in. Top 40 startups will be shortlisted and allowed to pitch in front of panel of evaluators during cohort finalization programme. Out of these about 8 to 12 startups will be selected for final cohort for capacity building workshop. The AGRI UDAAN has organised by NAARM, a-IDEA and IIM-A, CIIE in partnership with Caspian Inpact Investment and supported by DST.

Notes:
Manju Kumari from India has won the bronze medal in 59kg category with a 2-0 victory over Ilona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine in the Junior World Wrestling Championship in Tampere, Finland on August 3, 2017.

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:
The high level committee under the Chairmanship of Justice BN Srikrishna has recently submitted its on review of the Institutionalization of Arbitration Mechanism in India. The committee has recommended for setting up an Autonomous Body, Arbitration Promotion Council of India (APCI) having representatives from all stakeholders for grading arbitral institutions in India. The APCI may recognize professional institutes providing for accreditation of arbitrators. The APCI may hold training workshops and interact with law firms and law schools to train advocates with interest in arbitration and with a goal to create a specialist arbitration bar comprising of advocates dedicated to the field. It has also recommended for creation of a specialist Arbitration Bench to deal with such Commercial disputes, in the domain of the Courts. 

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.