Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
Kacheguda railway station in Hyderabad has become the India’s first Energy-Efficient ‘A1 Category’ Railway Station. It is operated by the South Central Railway (SCR) zone of Indian Railways. The station achieved the feat by replacing 1,312 conventional lights with Light-Emitting Diode (LED). It also replaced 370 ceiling fans with fans that run on Brushless DC Electrical motors, and installed 12 energy efficient inverter-type air conditioners. All these measures will save about 1.76 lakh units and Rs14.08 lakh per annum with reduction of the connected load by 46.18 kW for Railways. The station was built in 1916 during the reign of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan.

Notes:
The World Human Rights Day (WHRD) is observed every year on December 10 to commemorate the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. It establishes the equal dignity and worth of every person. This year, in 2017, the Human Rights Day kicks off a year-long campaign to mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 2017 theme is ‘Let’s stand up for equality, justice and human dignity’.

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:
The UN Women in collaboration with Facebook launched ‘We The Women’ event in Mumbai, Maharashtra on December 9, 2017 to empower and recognize the magnificent contribution of women in our society. It was a two-day participatory, open-to-all forum for women offering a ‘Break Free’ 48 hours to bring together diverse viewpoints, challenges, concerns and a celebration of everything that women have achieved. It’s annual space giving women a platform to voice their unfettered expressions, forging bonds, great conversation and a wide community of friends.

Notes:
The Union Government has sanctioned Rs. 75 crore for setting up a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Meghalaya. Meghalaya is the only state in the region which has no bottling plant. The new bottling plant will be constructed at an existing site located in Shillong. A memorandum of understanding was inked between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the state government in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in Shillong on December 09, 2017.

Notes:
Indian national hockey team has reclaimed the bronze medal at the Hockey World League (HWL-2017) tournament by defeating Germany in the final by 2-1 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha on December 11, 2017. Indian players took the lead in 21st minute through SV Sunil. Germany equalized 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:
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:
President Ramnath Kovind would be the chief guest at the valedictory function of the World Telugu Conference (WTC), which will be organized at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad by the Telangana government from December 15 to 19, 2017. According to official release, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will be the chief guest for the inaugural session of the Conference and the Telangana Sahitya Akademi will be the nodal agency for the conference. The conference will focus on how the Telugu language is preserved, protected, enriched in the Telangana region. It will provide the data related to Telugu Conferences (Telugu Maha Sabhalu) and eminent Telugu Personalities across the Globe.

Notes:
The Bandhavgarh National Park (BNP) is located in the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh and covers an area of 105 square kilometres. The park has one of the highest density of Bengal tigers known in the world, and is home to some famous named tigers which are large in size and are beautiful.

Notes:
The Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate supply of sand for highways construction work on December 13, 2017. The concessionaires working on highways projects have been facing a shortage of sand at many sites. The MoU aims to fill this gap by facilitating the availability of sand for these concessionaires. As per the MoU, business intermediaries will ship and store this sand at various ports in India and market it in India. NHAI will facilitate the process by displaying the availability of sand at various stockyards at the ports. The headquarters of the DCI is located at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.