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 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:
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 19th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) meetings and other related meetings were held from 17 to 28 July 2017 in Hyderabad, India. RCEP is a proposed comprehensive regional economic integration agreement amongst the 10-ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and its six Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) partners, viz. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea and India. During the 19th round, parallel meetings were held by the three main Working Groups on Trade Trade in goods, services, and investment. The RCEP meeting also highlighted the need to have balanced discussions to progress negotiation across all areas, and to continue to deliver outcomes.

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:
The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR) is located in the Sahyadri ranges of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. It is in news because the Maharashtra government is planning to relocate tigers from Vidarbha region to the sanctuaries elsewhere where their population is smaller, including the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (STR). At present, STR has only seven tigers. For this, the state government has also set up a committee to examine this issue, and a decision will be taken based on its recommendations. It will also consult experts from the Centre and submit its report in 2-3 months.

Notes:
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:
The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is observed every year from August 1st to 7th to focus attention on the important aspect of promotion and support of breastfeeding. The 2017 theme is “Sustaining Breastfeeding Together”. To intensify the efforts for promotion of breastfeeding in India, the Union Health Ministry has initiated a nationwide programme called “MAA-Mother’s Absolute Affection’’ to bring undiluted focus on promotion of breastfeeding and provision of services towards supporting breastfeeding, along with ongoing efforts of routine health systems. In addition, “National Guidelines on Lactation Management Centres in Public Health Facilities” have been recently released to facilitate establishment of lactation management centres for ensuring that the sick and pre-term babies are fed with safe human breast milk.

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.