Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

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Maryam Mirzakhani (40), an Iranian- born mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University, has died of cancer in a US hospital on July 14, 2017. Mirzakhani was the first woman and the first Iranian to win the coveted Fields Medal in 2014, the most prestigious award in mathematics. The award recognized her sophisticated and highly original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres. Her research topics include Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.

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Nar Bahadur Bhandari (76), the former Chief Minister of Sikkim, has passed away in New Delhi on July 16, 2017. He was the founder leader of Sikkim Sangram Parishad, who governed Sikkim from 1979 to 1994.

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The State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a dedicated portal ‘SBI Realty’ that will help home buyers to choose flats from its 3,000 approved projects across the country. The portal will help customers to choose their dream home from 3,000 SBI approved projects, which are spread across 13 states and Union Territories covering 30 cities. At present, there are 9.5 lakh home units available on the website. Customers can compare current and past trends of prices for the properties in various localities in the city. The portal will assist customers in calculating appropriate loan amount a customer should borrow based on income and credit profile. The SBI Realty website “www.sbirealty.in” has been developed by SBICAP Securities in association with PropEquity in terms of data support, project information, etc.

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The 9-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar will determine whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right or not under the Constitution. The nine-judge bench also comprises Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer. The bench is dealing with the limited issue of right to privacy and matters challenging the Aadhaar scheme would be referred back to a smaller bench. The hearing is in progress.

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The Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) has launched a low-cost indigenous newborn hearing screening device “Sohum” in New Delhi to detect a congenital hearing loss in newborns. The device has been developed by School of International Biodesign (SIB) startup M/s Sohum Innovation Labs India Pvt. Ltd. The portable Sohum hearing screening device measures auditory brain waves via three electrodes placed on the baby’s head. When stimulated, they detect electrical responses generated by the brain’s auditory system. If there is no response, the child cannot hear. The battery-operated device is non-invasive, which means babies do not need to be sedated, which is the current and risky, testing in process at present. It must be noted that 800,000 hearing impaired babies are born annually across the world, of which nearly 100,000 are in India.

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Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the UAE Minister of State for Tolerance, has topped a poll of the most powerful Arab women in government 2017, according to latest Forbes Middle East report. Ms Qasimi was followed by Sahar Nasr, Ghada Wali, Hind Subaih Barrak Al-Subaih, Iman Houda Feraoun and Iman Houda Feraoun. Forbes has also released a list of the top 100 most powerful Arab businesswomen for 2017, and the UAE represents the highest number of women, with 18, followed by Egypt, with 16. As per the report, women in the Arab world were pioneering in the banking sector and women in this industry represents 28% of the 2017 businesswoman list. The rankings were compiled by taking into account scope of the role or ministry, years of experience and company revenues, or GDP in the case of government.

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Sanjay Kothari, a 1978 batch IAS of Haryana cadre, has been appointed as Secretary to President elect Ram Nath Kovind. Currently, he is the Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). Beside this, Bharat Lal, a forest service officer, has been appointed as Joint Secretary to the President. Ashok Malik, the senior journalist and distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), will be Press Secretary to the President.

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The 5th edition of South India Writers Ensemble (SIWE) will be held at Chengannur in coastal Alappuza district, Kerala from July 24, 2017 with ‘Tolerance’ as the core theme. The 3-day annual literary will be organised by People for Performing Arts and More, an art-cum-cultural outfit. The purpose of the SIWE is to bring about an enriching interaction between writers from different languages and regions. This year, Hindi has been selected as the main language and related creative writers, journalists, theatre and film personalities and other personalities would take part in it.

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Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, has inaugurated the Research Institution of World Ancient, Traditional, Culture & Heritage (RIWATCH) Museum at Roing in Arunachal Pradesh on July 22, 2017. The museum will serve as a place of exchange of cultural values of various tribes of the state and the North East. The MoS also pressed for documentation and research to preserve age-old culture and traditions of the state and exhorted people to shoulder the responsibility to pass on traditional and cultural values to the next generation. According to UNESCO report, there are 32 languages in Arunachal Pradesh that are on the verge of extinction and the state government is initiating programmes and policies to find out and to revive those minor and major tribal languages. Beside this, Rijiju also inaugurated the 235-meter long Chimari Bridge, which would serve as a life line between the National Highway 52 of Roing-Tezu. The bridge has been constructed by BRO.

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Subhash Chandra Garg, the secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), has been appointed as India’s Alternate Governor on the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, Philippines with effect from July 12, 2017. He succeeded Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of DEA.