Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
OBOPAY, the global mobile payment solutions company, has recently secured a license for Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate a semi-closed loop wallet in India. Using the PPI license, OBOPAY will solve various payment related problems for their partner clients – bringing efficiency and transparency to the payments process, improving reporting, and reducing turnaround times for funds transfers. The PPI license can be implemented in a variety of industry segments. The license will enable the customers to do everything a prepaid payment instrument does: P2P, cash-in, bill payments, mobile recharge, and shopping. The headquarters of OBOPAY is located at California, United States.

Notes:
The National Energy Conservation Day (NECD) is celebrated every year in India by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under Ministry of Power, on December 14 with an aim to demonstrate India’s achievements in energy efficiency and conservation, while working for its ambition of holistic development as part of the nation’s overall effort towards climate change mitigation. On the 27th edition of NECD-2017, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, will give away National Energy Conservation Awards to industries that have demonstrated measurable reductions in their energy use as part of the National Energy Conservation Awards Programme.

Notes:
The Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh. It covers an area of 940 square kilometres. It is home to over 1000 species of flowering plants. The KTR has species of tigers, leopards, wild dogs, wild cats, foxes and jackals. Other commonly seen animals in the park include the spotted deer, sambar, barking deer and the four-horned antelope. It has around 300 species of birds and the most commonly seen birds are the black ibis, bee-eaters, cattle egret, blossom-headed parakeets, pond heron, drongos, common teal, crested serpent eagle, grey hornbill, Indian roller, etc.

Notes:
The 4th India-Australia-Japan Trilateral Dialogue was hosted by Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Foreign Secretary of India, with Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia Frances Adamson and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, in New Delhi on December 13, 2017. The three sides highlighted the growing convergence of their respective countries’ interests in the Indo-Pacific region and underscored their shared commitment to peace, democracy, economic growth and a rules-based order in the region. They underscored their support for ASEAN centrality in the political and security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region. They also renewed their resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed the need for enhanced cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Notes:
Jitesh Singh Deo from Lucknow has won the title of Peter England Mr India 2017 at the Bandra Fort in Mumbai, Maharashtra on December 14, 2017. Now, he will represent India in Mr World for 2020. Following him, Indian footballer Prathamesh Maulingkar won the title of Peter England Mr. India Supranational 2017 and will compete at Mr. Supranational 2018. Abhi Khajuria and Pavan Rao won the titles of Peter England Mr. India 1st Runner-Up and Peter England Mr. India 2nd Runner-Up, respectively.

Notes:
The Rajbari National Park (RNP) is located in the Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary of Tripura,and covers an area of about 31.63 square kilometres.

Notes:
Olympic silver medalist P V Sindhu has won silver medal at the 2017 women’s singles Dubai World Badminton Super Series tournament. She suffered a heart-wrenching defeat against World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan to finish as runner-up at the final of Super Series on December 17, 2017. Sindhu had won two super series titles at India Open and Korea Open, besides reaching the finals at Hong Kong Open and World Championship this year.

Notes:
The Gautam Budha Wildlife Sanctuary (GBWS) is a wildlife sanctuary located in Gaya district of Bihar state and Koderma district of Jharkhand state in east-central India. The sanctuary covers an area of 259 square kilometres. It is home to tigers, leopards, wolves, sloth bears, chitals, chinkaras, and many species of birds.

Notes:
The Union government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). At present, e-NAM participants are doing payments through traditional ways via bank branches, debit cards and net banking. Now, ICICI Bank will enable BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments. The effort is to provide seamless experience for making online payment of trade and services undertaken on the e-NAM platform. At present, 470 mandis across 14 states are live and 90 commodities are being traded on e-NAM platform, which was launched in April 2016. The target is to connect 585 mandis with e-NAM by March 2018. The e-NAM model aims at revolutionising agri markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards ‘One Nation, One Market’.

Notes:
The Assam government has become the 6th state in the country to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Isha Foundation to conserve and rejuvenate the rivers of Assam. Isha Foundation is a non-profit making and spiritual organisation—the Isha foundation. Its founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s nationwide ‘Rally for Rivers’ campaign is an initiative for revitalizing India’s rivers.