Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

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:
To promote digital transactions, the union cabinet has recently decided to bear the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) applicable on digital payments via debit cards, etc., up to Rs 2,000. The MDR applicable on transactions made through debit cards, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar-Enabled Payments System (AEPS) up to and including a value of Rs 2,000 will be borne by the government for a period of two years with effect from 1 January, 2018. MDR is the charge paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from customers via credit or debit cards. It is expressed as a percentage of the transaction amount.

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.

Notes:
The Adichunchanagiri Wildlife Sanctuary (AWS) is located in Mandya district of Karnataka and covers an area of over 0.88 square kilometres. This was created mainly for the conservation of peacocks. It also houses nearly 250 species of birds

Notes:
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) ) has signed an agreement with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on December 20, 2017 to execute the Swami Samarth Nagar-Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Metro VI corridor. As per the agreement, DMRC will invite bids and assign contracts for execution of civil work and for procurement of systems and services required for the project. The entire 14.5-kilometer long Metro-6 corridor, costing about 5,490-crore rupees will have 13 stations. The project will provide rail based access to areas such as Lokhandwala, SEEPZ and IIT – Bombay. This Metro corridor is expected to carry 6.5 lakh commuters daily in 2021.

Notes:
The Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has recently accorded environmental clearance for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) in Telangana. Excerpts of KLIS project are as follows: The project envisages construction of a barrage across River Godavari near Madigadda village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. Apart from Medigadda barrage, two more barrages between Medigadda and Sripada Yellampally are proposed to be constructed. However, the Centre has put some conditions before granting the clearance. The conditions are: As the submergence area is very large (about 13,706 hectares), micro-climatic change conditions in the project area during construction/post-construction period to be reported at regular intervals. Preference shall also be given to plant local indigenous species. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 80,499.7 crore and proposed to be completed in 3 years.

Notes:
In a move aimed at combating black money stashed abroad, India has signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from 1 January, 2018. The agreement was signed by CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra and Swiss ambassador to India Andreas Baum at the North Block in New Delhi on December 21, 2017. With this pact, it will now be possible for India to receive the financial information of accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and subsequent years on an automatic basis from September 2019 onwards.

Notes:
The 2017 bilateral naval exercise “Naseem-Al-Bahr” (or known as Sea Breeze) has started between Indian Navy and Oman Navy at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam on December 17, 2017. The Indian Navy deployed a submarine, P8I long-range maritime aircraft, two naval ships – INS Trikand and INS Teg – for the bilateral exercise. This exercise was the 11th edition and has been a biennial feature since 1993. India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dates back to over 4000 years B.C. The bilateral relation between India and Oman were formally established with signing of a 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country. Since then, Naval exercises have contributed to strengthening of bilateral ties between India and Sultanate of Oman. The first exercise Indian Navy with Royal Navy of Oman was conducted in 1993 and this year marks 24 years of Indian Navy -Royal Navy of Oman bilateral exercises.

Notes:
The Birmingham city has been officially selected to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games on December 21, 2017. This will be the third Commonwealth Games to be hosted in England following London 1934 and Manchester 2002. The international multi-sports event are expected to take place between 27 July and 7 August 2022.The 2022 Commonwealth Games were originally given to Durban in 2015, but the South African city was stripped of the event this year because of financial difficulties.

Notes:
The United Kingdom (UK) has topped the Forbes’ rankings of best countries in the world for business in 2018. It is the first time this country has taken the top spot in the Forbes 12th annual survey after rising from 5th in 2016. The UK scored well on technology plus the size and education of the workforce although ‘political risk’ was seen as the weakest point. The list ranks 153 countries on 15 factors including property rights, innovation, taxes and red tape. New Zealand ranked second overall for the third straight year, followed by Sweden and Canada. India was ranked 62nd on the list.