Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
The Koderma Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) is located in Koderma district of Jharkhand and covers an area of 150.62 square kilometres. It is home to tiger, leopard, sloth bear, sambhar, cheetal, barking deer, nilgai, wild boar, giant squirrel, jackal, fox, hyaena, langur, porcupine etc. besides a variety of bird and reptile species. This wildlife sanctuary comprises hilly range of dry deciduous forests, traversed by plenty of rivulets. Besides shrubs and grasses, the important tree species here are Sal, Asan, Panjan, Kendu, Salai, Mahua, Piar, Sidha, Amla, Jamun, Bauhinia, Khair, Palas, Ber etc.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the BR Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi on December 7, 2017 to encourage research and original thinking among the youth. The purpose of the centre is to promote the thoughts and teachings of Dr Ambedkar. It will be an important place for research on social and economic issues. The prime minister also unveiled two statues of the Dalit icon at the centre in Janpath.

Notes:
Recently, Gurdeep Singh from India created three new senior national records in +105 Kilogram weight category in the just-concluded IWF World Weightlifting Championships at Anaheim in USA. Singh finished 13th overall with a total lift of 388kg (172 + 216) but created national records in snatch, clean and jerk, and the total lift. In snatch, he bettered his own earlier national record of 171kg by one kilogramme. In the total lift also, Gurdeep bettered the earlier national record of 384kg.

Notes:
The 7th International Ground Water Conference (IGWC-2017) will be hosted by India in New Delhi with a theme of “Ground water Vision 2030- Water Security, Challenges and Climate Change Adaptation” from December 11 to 13, 2017. The conference has been organized by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the aegis of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. The delegates from 15 countries are expected to participate in the conference and 250 research papers will be presented, including 32 Keynote papers. The Conference is expected to take stock of present status and challenges of Groundwater management in the country under the changing water use and climatic scenarios.

Notes:
The ASEAN India Connectivity Summit (AICS) will held in New Delhi from December 11, 2017. The theme of the two-day Summit is “Powering Digital and Physical Linkages for Asia in the 21st Century”. The purpose of the AICS is to accelerate existing connectivity prospects, identify issues of concern, evolve suitable policy recommendations and develop strategies to enhance economic, industrial and trade relations between ASEAN and India. Its focus areas are Infrastructure, Roadways, Shipping, Digital, Finance, Energy and Aviation. In addition, the AICS will be bringing together, policymakers, senior officials from the Government, investors, industry leaders, representatives of trade associations and entrepreneurs on the same platform.

Notes:
Mehuli Ghosh and Tushar Mane became the first Indian shooters to secure the women’s and men’s quota places for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) by winning a gold and bronze each at the 10th Asian Championship 10M Rifle/Pistol at Wako City, Japan on December 9, 2017. Ghosh struck gold to bag one out of three quota places up for grabs in women’s 10m Air Rifle Youth, while Mane settled for a bronze medal to secure one out of four quota places available in the men’s 10m Air Rifle Youth. Apart from booking two quota places at YOG, India bagged a total of three gold and three bronze to add to their five medals won on the first day of the competitions.

Notes:
Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, has launched the first NIC-CERT in New Delhi to prevent and predict cyber attacks on government utilities. The NIC-CERT is a setup of National Informatics Centre. It has been setup with an objective of creating a comprehensive framework that integrates world class security components and inbuilt threat intelligence for detection, prevention and incident response. Using the tools, the team will correlate events that would help in generating a canvas of the attack surface and identify the vulnerabilities and possible exploits.

Notes:
The 54th meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) programming committee has started at the Kathmandu-based SAARC Secretariat in Nepal on December 11, 2017. The 2-day meeting will discuss about budget issues of the Secretariat, SAARC five regional centers and four specialized bodies. The representatives of all 8 member countries are participating in it. The SAARC is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia. Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Notes:
The Australian hockey team has defeated Rio Olympics champions Argentina 2-1 in the final of the Hockey World League Final to win gold at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on December 11, 2017. Goals from Blake Govers and Jeremy Hayward helped the defending champions to beat Argentina hockey team. Earlier in the day, India reclaimed the bronze medal in the tournament. In the third-fourth place classification match, they defeated Germany 2-1. Indian took the lead in the 21st minute through SV Sunil. Germany equalised through its reserve custodian Mark Appel in the 36th minute. A penalty corner conversion by Harmanpreet Singh in the 54th minute sealed the win and the third place for the Indians. India had also won the bronze in the last edition of the tournament in Raipur in 2015

Notes:
Uma Shankar has been appointed as the new Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). She has been elevated after Meena Hemchandra the executive director in charge of the central bank’s supervision department retired at the end of November. Currently, RBI has 11 EDs and each of them supervises the 34 departments headed by CGMs at the central bank. Prior to this post, Shankar was the chief general manager in charge of RBI’s financial inclusion & development department.