Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
The 2nd edition of Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on August 31, 2017 with theme “Peace, progress, and prosperity”. The 2-day conference is being co-hosted by the India Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank, in collaboration with RSIS, Singapore, and NIFS, Colombo — both research and study centers. The representatives from around 35 countries are expected to participate in the event. From India, External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will participate in the conference. The conference will also be attended by officials from the USA, Australia and Germany among others.

Notes:
The Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary (AWLS) is located at a distance of 15 km from the city Abohar in the Fazilka district of Punjab and spread over 186.5 sq km area. It is a unique open sanctuary which encompasses 13 revenue villages. The sanctuary is known for highest number of black bucks, besides other protected species. Its 100-m diameter area is termed as Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). It is home to several varieties of flora and fauna such as Acacia nilotica, Azadirachata indica, Blue Bull, Porcupines, Hare and Wild Boar.

Notes:
National Sports Day is celebrated on August 29 in India. This day marks the birthday of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand, regarded as one of the greatest field hockey players of all time. National Sports Day aims to raise awareness on the importance of sports and physical fitness.

Notes:
The Nungthaang Tampak village in Manipur has become North-East (NE)’s first 100% computer literacy village. The training program was organised by Mangaal Rural, an NGO working for rural development, as a part of the Digital India program and is affiliated to All India Society for Electronic and Computer Technology (AISECT). Kerala’s Chamravattom village is the India’s first 100% computer literate village.

Notes:
Ashish kumar Chauhan has been re-appointed as the new Managing Director and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period of 5 years from November 2, 2017 to November 1, 2022. For this, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently gave its approval to re-appoint Chauhan as MD and CEO of the company for next 5 years.

Notes:
Kolkata-based Nitasha Biswas has been crowned India’s first-ever Miss TransQueen 2017 in Gurugram, Haryana. Currently, Biswas is pursuing Masters in Business Management in Kolkata, West Bengal. Loiloi Haorongbam from Manipur became the first runner-up, while Ragasiya from Tamil Nadu was the second runner-up. Now, Biswas will represent India at the Miss International TransQueen in Thailand, one of the most prestigious international pageants for the transgender community, in March 2018. And, Loiloi will compete at Miss Transsexual Australia. The event was judged by a panel of eight comprising social activists, actors, beauty experts and media professionals.

Notes:
The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) is the technology transfer and commercialization arm of the Union Ministry of Science & Technology. Its primary objective is to help develop and promote technologies developed at various national R&D institutions. Recently, it is in news because the organization has won the 2017 ASSOCHAM Services Excellence Award and its CMD Dr. H Purushotham won an international recognition. The International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Sweden honored Dr. Purushotham with the IAAM Medal 2017 for his outstanding R&D contributions in the Advanced Materials Science & Technology during its award ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently informed that India and Canada have mutually agreed to jointly issue a set of two Commemorative Postage Stamps on the theme Diwali. The joint stamps will be released on September 21, 2017, as per MoU signed between the postal departments of the two countries. In this joint issue, the theme “Diwali” has been selected as it is a cultural theme for both the countries and also considering the large presence of Indian Diaspora in Canada.

Notes:
Rajiv Mehrishi, the former home secretary, will be the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. He will replace the present incumbent Shashi Kant Sharma who completes his term on September 30, 2017. Meanwhile, three senior bureaucrats were appointed as Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General. They are Ashwini Attri, Anita Pattanayak and Ranjan Kumar Ghose.

Notes:
The Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd., has been included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934. With this, Ujjivan SFB has attained the status of a Scheduled Bank. This status will enhance the market acceptability of the bank in its effort to garner institutional deposits at a competitive price and participate more actively in the inter-bank market. It also opens the door for issuing Certificates of Deposits (CDs), which will be an important source of funding. Currently, Ujjivan SFB has 65 full-fledged brick and mortar branches in eight states and two Union Territories. It plans to convert 160 existing branches and 29 new Unbanked Rural Centres (URCs) by the end of FY 2017-18 and the remaining branches will be converted over a period of two years in line with RBI approval. The headquarters of Ujjivan SFB is located in Bengaluru.