Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
The International Youth Day (IYD) is observed every year on August 12 to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth. The 2017 theme is “Youth Building Peace”, which recognizes the contributions of young people to preventing conflict, supporting inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.

Notes:
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister, has launched a nationwide campaign “Gaj Yatra” in New Delhi to protect elephants on the occasion of World Elephant Day (WED). The campaign is planned to cover 12 elephant range states. The World Elephant Day (WED) is celebrated every year on August 12 to focus the attention of various stakeholders in supporting various conservation policies to protect elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent illegal poaching and trade in ivory.

Notes:
Dr Ruth Pfau (87), a German doctor and nun who dedicated her life to eradicating leprosy in Pakistan, has passed in Karachi, Pakistan on August 10, 2017. She was hailed as Pakistan’s “Mother Teresa” after her work towards helping people displaced by the 2010 Pakistan floods. Dr. Pfau trained Pakistani doctors and attracted foreign donations, founded Pakistan’s National Leprosy Control Programme and the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, which has a presence in every Pakistani province. She received numerous awards in Pakistan and Germany including the Hilal-e-Imtiaz – Pakistan’s second highest civilian award – in 1979, the Hilal-e-Pakistan in 1989 and the German Staufer Medal in 2015. She wrote four books in German about her work in Pakistan, including To Light A Candle, which has been translated into English.

Notes:
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, has recently launched Facebook’s ‘She Means Business’ programme in Bhubaneswar to train women entrepreneurs in the state. For this, Facebook has partnered the Odisha’s MSME department and Project Mission Shakti to train 25,000 women entrepreneurs and self-help group (SHG) members on digital marketing skills by the end of 2018. After imparting training, Facebook will make a database of entrepreneurs in the state and will monitor their growth, turnover and profit after one year.

Notes:
The Orang National Park (ONP) is located on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River in the Darrang and Sonitpur districts of Assam and covers an area of 78.81 square kilometers. The park has a rich flora and fauna, including great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, pigmy hog, elephants, wild buffalo and tigers. It is the only stronghold of rhinoceros on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river.

Notes:
Stephen Wooldridge (39), Australia’s former Olympic and world cycle champion, has passed away in Australia on August 14, 2017. The former star team pursuiter won gold for Australia in the 2004 Athens Olympics, was also a four-time world champion in the discipline and the 2002 Commonwealth Games champion. There were no details about when and how Wooldridge died.

Notes:
India will host the next steering committee meeting of the proposed 1,814 kilometre-long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline in New Delhi. The decision was taken during the 6th joint Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) meeting on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation. The benefit of the TAPI project is that it will give an opportunity to India to secure its interest in Central Asia. The project’s success will also ensure that India, Pakistan and Afghanistan find ways of cooperating on other issues as well.

Notes:
The Parambikulam Tiger Reserve (PTR) is a protected area located in Chittur taluk in Palakkad district of Kerala and covers an area of 391 square kilometers. It is alos home to lion-tailed macaques, Nilgiri tahr, elephants, Bengal tigers, Indian leopards, Nilgiri marten small Travancore flying squirrel, etc. According to recently conducted tiger census at the regional level in 2016, there are 33 tigers in Periyar reserve and 25 in Parambikulam reserve respectively, which is informed by the Forest Minister K Raju in the state assembly on August 18, 2017. It must be noted that as per a tiger census conducted at the national level in 2010, considered as authoritative figure, there were 38 tigers in Parambikulam spread over 643 sq feet area and 34 in Periyar that covers an area of 925 sq feet.

Notes:
Tata Power has become the first power utility to introduce a QR code based bill payments system in India. The QR code linked to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be printed on the electricity bills. The customers can scan the QR code with BHIM app or any other UPI linked bank app and pay their bills without any hassle. The bill details will be displayed on the app, post which the customer can authorise the payment within a few seconds and his bill will be paid instantaneously. Some of the advantages of QR code service are that the consumer need not visit any Tata Power bill collection/ customer relation centre or any other payment avenues and can make the payment from the comfort of his home/office or on-the-go. The Tata Power Company Limited is an Indian electric utility company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra and is part of the Tata Group.

Notes:
The Periyar National Park (PNR) is a protected area near Thekkady in the districts of Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta in Kerala and covers an area of 925 km2. It is notable as both elephant reserve and tiger reserve. The park is made up of tropical evergreen and moist deciduous forests, grasslands, stands of eucalyptus, and lake and river ecosystems. It is surrounded by agricultural regions such as tea, cardamom, and coffee. It is also home to gaur, sambar, wild pig, Indian giant squirrel, Travancore flying squirrel, jungle cat, sloth bear, Nilgiri tahr, lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri langur, etc.