Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2018

Notes:
Indian golfer Shiv Kapur has won the Royal Cup at Pattaya on December 31, 2017, which is his third Asian Tour title of 2017. Kapur, who had just one win in almost 11 years till April this year, has now won three times in last 8 months. This latest win marks Kapur’s fourth Asian Tour win and sixth international title as he won twice on European Challenge Tour also.

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:
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:
The Chamera Dam is located near the town of Dalhousie, in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. It impounds the River Ravi and supports the hydroelectricity project in the region. The reservoir of the dam is the Chamera Lake. The catchment of the dam is 472.5 square kilometres. The reservoir has a live storage capacity of 110 MCN and mean annual inflow of 1,273 BCM. The unique feature of the region is the fluctuating day and night temperature. The temperature during the day near the dam rises up to 35 degrees Celsius and drops to a minimum of 18 to 20 °C at night. The water level in the Chamera Lake rises to a maximum of 763 meters while the minimum water level is 747 meters.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has recently received the approval for purchase of electric vehicles from the Department of Heavy Industries of the Union Government under FAME India subsidised scheme. The state will purchase 40 electric buses, 100 four wheelers and 500 three wheelers at maximum of 60% subsidy under the scheme. The subsidy support is also provided for setting up electricity charging infrastructure across Bengaluru. The electric vehicles to ply in the city as public transport will protect the environment, save fossil fuel and ensure public health. The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) India was launched in 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission (NEMM) aims at promoting eco-friendly vehicles in the country.

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:
Pankaj Jain, a 1990 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre , has taken charge as the Managing Director (MD) of India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL). He will be holding additional charge of IIFCL along with his present position as Joint Secretary at Department of Financial Services (DFS). IIFCL is a state-owned company focused on infrastructure financing and development.

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.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) and NABARD have signed an agreement with 5 NGOs in Bengal for the promotion of 2,500 Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) in select districts of the State on January 2, 2018. JLGs are informal groups of 4-10 members engaged in similar economic activities and willing to jointly undertake the responsibility to repay loans taken by the group from a bank. They are typically credit groups of small or marginal tenant farmers who do not have a proper title of their farmland. Through these JLGs, SBI plans to extend assistance to the financially excluded sections of the society, especially landless farmers in the districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas. Plans are also afoot to scale up the project in a phased manner to cover the remaining districts. NABARD has fixed a target of credit linking 80,000 JLGs in West Bengal in 2017-18. Till date, NABARD has sanctioned assistance for the promotion of 60,000 JLGs by various NGOs in the State through 339 projects in different districts.

Notes:
B Rajendran, the former Madras High Court judge, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (REAT) for Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The monthly salary of the chairperson would be Rs 80,000. As per Section 43 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the State government has to establish the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal for Tamil Nadu. Under Section 45 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the tribunal should consist of a chairperson and not less than two whole-time members, of which one shall be a judicial member and another has to be a technical or administrative member appointed by the government.