Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
Arun Jaitley, the Union Finance Minister, has chaired the 17th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) in New Delhi on August 22, 2017. The Council discussed the issues and challenges facing the Indian economy and stressed the need to keep constant vigil to manage any external and internal vulnerability. The Council noted that India has macro-economic stability today on the back of improvements in its macro-economic fundamentals, structural reforms with the launch of the GST and long-term positive consequences of demonetization. The FSDC also took note of the developments and progress made in setting up of Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) and Financial Data Management Centre. The meeting was attended by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi, IRDAI Chairman TS Vijayan, PFRDA Chairman Hemant Contractor, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, and other government officials.

Notes:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in New Delhi to jointly conduct capacity building exercises in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications regulation. The agreement would help both regulators to work closely in enhancing mutual cooperation and bilateral relations in telecom and broadcasting regulation. The agreement will facilitate exchange of information and regulatory best practices in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications, including new and emerging areas.

Notes:
Brian Aldiss (92), one of the most prolific and influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, has passed away in Oxford, England. Aldiss served in India and Burma with the British Army during World War II and later became a bookseller, publishing his first stories in a trade magazine. He was the author of science fiction classics including Non-Stop, Hothouse and Greybeard and Helliconia trilogy. His numerous short stories include Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, formed the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film “AI”, while his Horatio Stubbs saga was based on his time during the war in Burma and the far east.

Notes:
Microsoft has launched its ‘Project Brainwave’ deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of ultra-low latency, the system processes requests as fast as it receives them. The ‘Project Brainwave’ uses the massive Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) infrastructure that Microsoft has been deploying over the past few years. The real-time AI is becoming increasingly important as cloud infrastructures process live data streams, whether they be search queries, videos, sensor streams, or interactions with users.

Notes:
Rajiv Bansal, the 1988 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India for three months. Bansal, who is additional secretary and financial adviser at the petroleum ministry, will replace Ashwani Lohani — who has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board. It must be noted that Bansal is taking over as Air India CMD at a time when the government is working on the modalities for the disinvestment of the loss-making national carrier. He had served at the civil aviation ministry between 2006 and 2008.

Notes:
Sushma Swaraj, the Union External Affairs Minister, will inaugurate India’s first Videsh Bhavan on August 27, 2017 at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, Maharashtra. As a first pilot project, four offices of MEA – Regional Passport Office (RPO), Protector of Emigrants (PoE) office, Branch Secretariat and Regional Office of ICCR – have been assimilated and brought under one roof at the state-of-art office. The pilot project of the Videsh Bhavan of Mumbai is part of the Centre’s policy to bring together different offices of the MEA under a single roof and work closely with states as more and more Indians are going abroad for employment, education, business and tourism. In other words, the “Videsh Bhavan” at Mumbai is the first integrated office complex of the Ministry of External Affairs established in any State of India.

Notes:
The book “I Do What I Do” has been authored by Rahguram Rajan, the former RBI governor. This book conveys what it was like to be at the helm of RBI in those turbulent but exciting times. Rajan explains economic concepts in a readily accessible way. Equally, he addresses key issues that are not in any banking manual but essential to growth: the need for tolerance and respect to assure India’s economic progress, for instance, or the connection between political freedom and prosperity. The book is published by HarperCollins India and will be launched in Chennai on 4th September 2017, exactly a year after Rajan quit as RBI governor.

Notes:
According to 2017 report by the United Nations World Tourism (UNWTO), the island of Tuvalu was the least visited country in 2016. Only 2,000 people ventured to the South Pacific paradise of Tuvalu in 2016. The latest report reveals that there are 15 least-visited countries globally. Kiribati is the 2nd least visited country, followed by Sao Tome and Principe, Montserrat, Comoros, Djibouti, San Marino, Timor-Leste, Liechtenstein, Sierra Leone, Anguilla, Moldova, Bangladesh, Bhutan and French Guiana.

Notes:
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recently conferred the Biju Patnaik Award for Scientific Excellence for the year 2016 to Prof Digambar Behera. Behera is senior professor and Head, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh. Beside this, Prof Prasanta Mohapatra, a professor at the University of California, was also conferred this award for 2015. The award was instituted by Odisha Bigyan Academy (OBA) and is given to any Odia scientist working anywhere in India or abroad each year for his/her lifetime research contributions in the field of science and technology.

Notes:
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has recently signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) to establish mutual co-operation for the advancement of accounting knowledge, professional and intellectual development, advancing the interests of their respective members and positively contributing to the development of the accounting profession in Nepal and India. ICAI has a membership base of over 5,000 members in Nepal. The ICAI was established on July 1, 1949 as a statutory body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India. Its headquarters is located in New Delhi.