Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The Gangotri National Park (GNP) is located in the upper catchment of Bhagirathi river in the Uttarkashi District of Uttrakhand and covers an area of about 2,390 square km. The park is home to the snow leopard, ibex, tahr, himalayan barbet, serow, pheasants, partridges, doves, pigeons, etc. It provides majestic beauty of coniferous forests and grandeur of glacial world combined with lush green meadows.

Notes:
Indian shuttler Rahul Yadav Chittaboina has won the men’s singles title by defeating his compatriot Karan Rajan Rajarajan by 21-15 21-13 in the summit clash at the 2017 Lagos International Badminton Classics in Lagos, Nigeria. Beside him, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy from India have won the men’s doubles title in the tournament.

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:
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:
B B Shivappa (89), the veteran Karnataka BJP leader, has passed away in Bengaluru, Karnataka. He is credited with building the party brick by brick in its early years in the State and served as its State president from 1983 to 88. Shivappa played an important role in the formation of the first ever non-Congress government in Karnataka, led by Ramakrishna Hegde in 1983.

Notes:
Mohammad Mustafa, a 1995 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for a period of 3 years. At present, he is the joint Secretary in Department of Financial Services. SIDBI is an independent financial institution aimed to aid the growth and development of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) in India and is headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
India has recently signed a $329 million loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for Gujarat Rural Roads Project. The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility to more than one thousand villages in all the 33 districts of the state benefiting about 80 lakh people. The project will also benefit the service providers such as public transport operators, educational institutions, hospitals, local markets and traders.

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.