Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
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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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:
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:
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%.

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.

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Dr. Sanjaya Baru has been named as the new secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He will assume the charge from September 1, 2017 and will succeed A Didar Singh.

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Hassan Rouhani has been officially sworn-in as the 7th President of Iran for his second term on August 3, 2017. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei gave his official approval for the president-elect by giving him a decree to assign him his duties. Rouhani won re-election in May 2017, after securing 57% of the votes and defeating his main contender Ebrahim Raeisi. Under Iran’s election law, a president-elect is required to gain the Leader’s official approval before being sworn in before the Parliament. Rouhani will take the oath of office in Iran’s Parliament on August 5, 2017. The oath of office will be administered by Chief Justice, Sadeq Larijani.

Notes:
Former Indian hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay has been honored with the East Bengal football club’s highest honour “Bharat Gaurav” on its foundation day on August 1, 2017. Pillay has played a huge role in reviving the Indian team and performed brilliantly during his 15-year career, representing the country in four Olympics, World Cups, Champions Trophy and Asian Games. He played total 339 matches for India, scoring 170 goals. He led India to Asian Games glory in 1998 and also won the Asia Cup in 2003. Beside him, Gurwinder Singh and Boddupalli Amit have won the Footballer of the Year award and the Cricketer of the Year, respectively. Former India International Subhash Bhowmick, a member of the 1970 Asian Games bronze medal-winning national football team and former national team coach Syed Naeemuddin were honored with lifetime achievement awards.

Notes:
Peter O’Neill has been re-elected as the new Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG) for a second five-year term with a healthy majority, 60 to 46 by a newly elected parliament. He is the leader of the People’s National Congress and represents the constituency of Ialibu-Pangia.

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.