Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

Notes:
Arunachal Pradesh has been officially declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) and has become the second state in the North East after Sikkim to achieve the status. On 1st January 2018, Upper Subansiri, Siang and Changlang were officially declared ODF. The project undertaken under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) SBM (G) saw the light of day only after the state government extended an incentive of Rs 8,000 per toilet. This is in addition to the Centres support of Rs 12,000, raising the grant for constructing a toilet to Rs 20,000. The state government also launched Swachh Arunachal Mission on October 2, 2017 at Tawang which envisaged the Swachh Protocol (Cleanliness Protocol) aimed at ensuring sustainability of assets created under SBM (Gramin). The state has achieved the ODF status before the national target, which is October 2019.

Notes:
US buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) & Co. has become the first foreign investor to fully own an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) in India as it received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at a time when lenders are fighting with a pile of bad loans that have crippled their businesses. KKR is one of the most aggressive investors in financial services. It has plans to deploy a major chunk from its record Asia fund for buying troubled assets in the country, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Its headquarters is located in New York, United States. An ARC is in the business of acquiring Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). The Banks and an ARC get into an agreement in which the ARC take over the NPAs from the Banks Balance Sheet at a certain amount, lower than the Book Value. After this process, the particular ARC tries to recover this amount from the borrowers.

Notes:
China has launched the world’s largest human genome research project to document the genetic makeup of one lakh people to help generate the precision medicines for the future. The project would detect the genetic links between health and sickness and involve one person from different ethnic backgrounds and regions. The project will collect the genetic data of Han ethnic majority people from all over the country and 9 other ethnic minority groups with a population of more than 5 million. There are about 25,000 human genes and the project aims to decode the hereditary information contained in each. The project includes four stages – collecting, sequencing gene samples, gathering the data and sharing the findings. As per report, the project will conclude all its gene sequencing and analysis within four years, which will also make it the fastest genome engineering project in the world, the report said. The report did not disclose the budget.

Notes:
Vidarbha cricket team has created history by winning the 2017 Ranji Trophy tournament with a thumping 9-wicket win over Delhi at the Holkar stadium in Indore on the 4th and penultimate day of their final on January 1, 2018. It is Vidarbha’s first Ranji Trophy title. After conceding a 252-run first innings lead, Delhi were bowled out for 280 in their second innings, setting a target of merely 29 runs for Vidarbha. Vidarbha lost only one wicket and took only five overs to chase down the target which gave them their first Ranji Trophy title. Rajneesh Gurbani’s 6 for 59, including a hat-trick and a century from Akshay Wadkar were the key moments in Vidarbha scripting a fairytale run.

Notes:
Maneka Gandhi, the union minister of Women and Child Development (WCD), has inaugurated an online portal NARI in New Delhi for the empowerment of women. The portal – nari.nic.in – will provide easy access to information on government schemes and initiatives for women. The portal, which is developed by the Ministry, summarise over 350 government schemes and other important information. It elaborates how the Government is focussed to economically empower women through schemes under Direct Benefit Transfer. The portal provides links to the Ministries, Departments and autonomous bodies offering these schemes as well as easy access to online applications and grievance redressal. Also, there are tips on nutrition, suggestions for health check-ups, tips for job search, investment and savings advice, information on crimes against women and reporting procedures, contacts of legal aid cells, adoption procedures and much more.

Notes:
Vijay Keshav Gokhale, the 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed the new Foreign Secretary of India. He will succeed S Jaishankar, whose term ends on January 28, 2018. Currently, he is Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He has also held the post of India’s ambassador to China during the term of the Narendra Modi government. Before that, he served as India’s envoy to Germany and Hong Kong. Above all, he is known for his fluency in the Chinese language, as well as his long experience in dealing with East Asia, and China in particular. He has served as Director (China and East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and went on to be Joint Secretary (East Asia). Gokhale is the only IFS to have served as India’s Representative both in Taiwan and China.

Notes:
Rajneesh Gurbani is the India’s right-arm fast bowler who plays for Vidarbha cricket team. Recently, Vidarbha cricket team has created history by winning the 2017 Ranji Trophy tournament with a thumping 9-wicket win over Delhi in the final at the Holkar stadium in Indore on January 1, 2018. In the final, Gurbani took 6 wickets for 59 including a hat-trick and has been named as Man of the Match. He finished the season as the second-highest wicket-taker with 39 wickets.

Notes:
The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany (BSIP) is an autonomous institute constituted under the Department of Science and Technology, GoI. The institute is located at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and is a seat of higher learning in the field of plant fossil research. The BSIP, established in 1946, was an outcome of vision of the renowned Indian botanist Prof. Birbal Sahni.

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Turkey’s endangered ‘bird language’ has entered the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is an unusual and very efficient whistle language used as a means of communication by villagers in remote northern Turkey. UNESCO has accepted the “bird language” of Black Sea villagers as an endangered part of world heritage in need of urgent protection. Around 10,000 people, mostly in the district of Canakci in Giresun province, still use the highly-developed and high pitch system of whistling to communicate in the rugged terrain where most of the times they cannot see each other. This form of communication which dates to some 500 years ago, during the Ottoman Empire, was widespread across the Black Sea regions, but 50 years ago it suffered the impact of the progression of technology and nowadays the ever rapid growing of cellular mobile systems has put this cultural heritage under serious threat.

Notes:
Recently, the Rajasthan Government and HDFC Bank have signed MoU to promote and nurture startups in the state. As per pact, HDFC Bank will team up with the state government to provide end-to-end solutions including current accounts, credit cards and more under its SmartUp programme. HDFC Bank will also assist startups in showcasing their offerings to the general public.