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:
Eminent Bengali poet Joy Goswami has been chosen for the 31st Moortidevi Award for the year 2017 for his poetry collection titled “Du Dondo Phowara Matro”. It is an autobiographical account of the poet’s life featuring his close ones including a pet cat. The work also echoes secret trysts, chance loves and more of the fantastical quotidian which makes up the poets consciousness. The award consists of a Saraswati Statue, a Citation Plaque and cash award of Rupees 4 lakh. It is first time that this award is given to Bengali poet.

Notes:
The Samsung India has signed pact with UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) to launch 360 video and virtual reality (VR) content of two magnificent Indian heritage sites – the Sun Temple in Konark, Odisha and Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. The project will provide experiential educational content to students across the country. The immersive content will also be available to students at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), where Samsung Smart Classes have been set up in over 500 schools since 2013. The content on Indian heritage sites will be available freely across all social media channels in both 360 and VR formats. VR content will also be provided to the Union Ministry of Tourism and State Tourism Boards to be used for tourism promotion in India and across the world. There are 36 UNESCO heritage sites in India at present.

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 Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has signed an agreement with Maruti Suzuki Ltd to impart training to youth and enhance their employment potential. The Flexi MoU was signed by Vijay Kumar Dev, Director General, DGT (MSDE) and Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Vice President (Maruti Suzuki India Limited) in New Delhi on Dec 18, 2017. As part of the agreement, Maruti Suzuki in consultation with Directorate General of Training (DGT) will develop specific training modules as per need of the automobile industry. The company shall conduct courses at pan-India locations leveraging the facilities and services available at ITIs, regional training centers, training centers of training partners, vendors and dealers associated with Maruti Suzuki. The courses include Manufacturing, Automotive Service & Repair, Automotive Body Repair and Automotive Paint Repair.

Notes:
Delhi has been ranked 7th in most expensive office locations list in the world, according to latest JLL India Report 2017. According to a study by JLL, Delhi’s rents are more expensive than San Francisco, Dubai and Washington DC whereas Mumbai at 16th position scores higher than Los Angeles, Singapore and Paris. The findings reveal that the most expensive premium office rent in the world is in Hong Kong, followed by London, New York, Beijing and Tokyo.

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:
Manoj Sinha, the union minister of communications, has launched project “DARPAN – The Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” in New Delhi on December 21, 2017. The project has an outlay of Rs 1400 crore and intends to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM). This will enable each of approximately 1.29 lakhs branch post offices to improve service delivery. DARPAN offers core banking services to the account holders. The project will improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve financial inclusion of un-banked rural population. It is targeted to complete the project by March 2018.

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:
Lieutenant General B S Sahrawat has taken charge as new Director General (DG) of National Cadet Corps (NCC). He is a third generation army officer and is alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla & Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. The General Officer was commissioned in Dec 1980 in 13th Battalion (REZANG LA), the KUMAON Regiment. The Gen Officer has done all professional courses to include the prestigious NDC Course. He holds a Masters degree in Management Studies from Osmania University, Hyderabad and M. Phil from Madras University. He has been awarded the Sena Medal during the floods of Kosi River in Bihar in 2008.