Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Recently, Indian junior judokas won a gold and three bronze medals in the ongoing 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games being held in Nassau, Bahamas. Antim Yadav of Madhya Pradesh won a bronze in the below 48Kg weight category, surpassing Russelll Jasmine of Bahamas in Repechage bout. Soni from Haryana won the gold medal in the below 73Kg Weight Category, after beating Nikolic Uros of Australia in the final bout, while Ashish won a bronze in the below 60Kg weight category, defeating Zain Prosser Harry of England in bronze medal bout. Manipur’s Rebina Devi Chanam also won a bronze medal in the below 57Kg Weight category after getting the better of Saskia of Australia. The Organising Committee of the Games that would conclude on July 24, 2017 had allowed the participation of only four weight categories Judo players (2 Boys & 2 Girls) from each country, and all the Indians won medals.

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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.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has recently approved the proposals for climate adaptation projects submitted by Rajasthan, Gujarat and Sikkim. The three projects approved by the National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC), under the Chairmanship of Secretary MoEF&CCm Ajay Narayan Jha, will receive funds under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC). The current projects address a range of climate change vulnerabilities in the states, which are not addressed under the ongoing schemes of the Central and State governments. The projects in Rajasthan and Sikkim are targeted at water security, while in Gujarat, the project will focus on increasing the adaptive capacity of communities dependent on natural resources in the Kachchh district. The NAFCC is a flagship Scheme of Government of India, which provides 100% grant to the State Governments for implementing climate change adaptation projects

Notes:
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, has recently dedicated the state’s longest road bridge “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Setu” to the nation. The 2.88 km bridge is built on river Kathajodi (a tributary of Mahanadi) at an approximate cost Rs 114 crore. The Netaji Setu will not only lessen the distance between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack by 12 km, it will also help divert traffic and ease commute.

Notes:
India and Bangladesh have signed a pact to connect both the countries by waterways. The waterways will facilitate movement of passengers and goods between India’s northeast and West Bengal with Bangladesh. Union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya has stated that infrastructure for the services would be set up along the major rivers in Bangladesh, West Bengal and Brahmaputra in Assam. The services are expected to start by the end of year 2017.

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Indian Shuttler H S Prannoy has won the 2017 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament title by defeating his compatriot Parupalli Kashyap at Anaheim, California. He beat Kashyap in the final by 21-15, 20-22, 21-12. Prannoy had found place in the final defeating Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen while Kashyap overcame Korean Kwang Hee Heo in the semi-finals. In the women’s singles of the tournament, Japanese Aya Ohori won the final beating Michelle Li of Canada.

Notes:
Raveesh Kumar, a 1995-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed as the new spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Currently, he is posted in Frankfurt as Consul General of India and will succeed Gopal Baglay, who has been appointed as the joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The MEA which is also known as the Foreign Ministry is the responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of India. The Ministry comes under Government of India (GoI) and is responsible for the country’s representation in the United Nations. It also advises other Ministries and State Governments when the latter have dealings with foreign governments or institutions.

Notes:
India bagged two medals in the high jump at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London on July 22, 2017. In it, Varun Bhati bagged bronze medal in the T42 event by successfully jumping in the final at 1.77 metre. While Sharad Kumar won a silver medal by recording his career-best performance with a jump of 1.84 metre. Earlier, Sundar Singh Gurjar from India clinched gold in the men’s javelin throw event, Amit Saroha won silver medal in the club throw event in the F-51 category. And, India’s discus thrower Karamjyoti Dalal claimed a bronze medal in the Women’s F55 category. With that, India have increased their medal tally to five in the Championships.