Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

Notes:
India has been ranked 23rd out of 165 nations in the 2017 Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), which is released by the UN telecommunications agency International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The index measures the commitment of nations across the globe to ensuring cybersecurity to their digital systems. India is ranked 23rd on the index with a score of 0.683 and has been listed in the maturing category, which refers to 77 countries that have developed complex commitments to cybersecurity and engage in cybersecurity programmes and initiatives. The index has been topped by Singapore with a 0.925 score. The top 10 most committed countries to cybersecurity are Singapore, United States, Malaysia, Oman, Estonia, Mauritius, Australia, Georgia, France and Canada. Russia is ranked 11th.

Notes:
The 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) International Conference will takes place in Istanbul, Turkey from July 10 – 12, 2017. Dharmendra Pradhan Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, will represent India in the conference. The tri-annual WPC Conference is widely recognized as the `Olympics` of the oil and gas industry. It attracts Ministers, CEOs of Oil and Gas MNCs, experts and academics from the hydrocarbon sectors and provides an ideal forum to showcase potential of India’s hydrocarbon sector, highlight the recent policy reforms to international investors and interact with policy makers, technologists, scientists, planners and management experts, entrepreneurs, service providers and vendors in order to attract foreign investments into India’s growing oil and gas sector.

Notes:
Indian athletes, Mohammad Anas and Nirmala Sheoran have won the gold medal in the men’s and women’s 400 metres athletics event on the second day of the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. In the 1500 m race, it was Chitra PU and Ajay Kumar Saroj who bagged the other two gold medals for India. The other medal winners on the second day included Rajiv Arokia (silver), Jisna Mathew (bronze), Tejinder Pal Singh Toor (silver) and Dutee Chand (bronze).

Notes:
Khaltmaagiin Battulga, the leader of Democratic Party (DP), has won the 2017 Mongolian presidential election by 50.6% votes & has taken office on July 10, 2017. Mongolia is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, where the President is directly elected. The government is run by a prime minister, but the president has powers to veto legislation and make judicial appointments. The President of Mongolia is elected using the two-round system. Here, the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Notes:
Sumita Sanyal (71), the veteran Bengali actress, has passed away at her residence in Kolkata, West Bengal. She has worked in around 50 Bengali films and was also part of Hindi films like Guddi, Mili, Aashirwad and Mere Apne. Apart from her brilliant contribution to Bengali cinema, she is best known for co-starring with with Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna in 1970 movie Anand. She also worked with Dilip Kumar in Sagina Mahato (Bengali film) and with Biswajit and Sandhya Roy in Kuheli (Bengali film).

Notes:
The 8th edition of the SAARC Ministers of Law and Order (Interior/ Home Affairs) has started in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 11, 2017. The 3-day meeting will focus on the issue of tackling terrorism apart from discussing liberalization of visa, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and small arms. Indian side is being led by a senior official in Ministry of Home affairs (MHA).

Notes:
Arun Jaitley, the Union Finance Minister, has launched a new tax payer service module ‘Aaykar Setu’ in New Delhi on July 10, 2017 that compiles various tax tools, live chat facility, dynamic updates and important links to various processes within the Income Tax Department in a single module. This e-initiative would not only provide better taxpayer services but would also help in reducing the direct physical interface between assesses and tax assessing authorities.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of West Bengal to formalize its support to set up a state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine, also known as Metro Blood Bank, at Kolkata. The Centre has approved an outlay of about Rs 200 crores for this venture towards equipment, manpower and running costs. The land for this initiative will be provided free of cost by the State government. The move intends to strengthen the blood transfusion services in the State and the surrounding region. The Metro Blood Bank Project is conceived to be a Central Sector Scheme of the Health Ministry to set up state-of-the-art Centres of Excellence in transfusion medicine in the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. These centres are high volume blood collection centres where there is state-of-the-art technology in transfusion medicine for component separation, processing of blood and quality systems. Under the first phase, these facilities would come up in Chennai and Kolkata and the Centre has given its approval.

Notes:
Subhash C. Garg, a 1983 batch lAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, has taken charge as the new secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the finance ministry. The post fell vacant after Shaktikanta Das retired on May 31, 2017. As the secretary in the DEA, Garg will oversee capital markets, Budget preparation as well as infrastructure financing and decide on borrowing, along with RBI. He will also decide on funding by multilateral institutions. Prior to this post, Garg was Executive Director at World Bank for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka.

Notes:
The Karnataka Government has constituted a 9-member committee to study and submit a report to the government on the possibility of designing a separate flag for Karnataka and providing it a statutory standing. The committee will be headed by Principal Secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture. It must be noted that there is no prohibition in the Constitution for the State to have its own flag. As per S.R. Bommai v/s Union of India (Supreme Court 1994) case, the Supreme Court has declared that federalism is a basic feature of the Constitution and States are supreme in their sphere. This being the Constitutional position, however, the manner in which the State flag is hoisted should not dishonour the national flag. It has to be always below the national flag. The national flag code specifically authorises use of other flags subject to the regulation by the court. So, State flag is not unauthorized.