Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

Notes:
Axis bank has acquired Snapdeal-owned mobile wallet FreeCharge in an all-cash deal worth Rs 385 crore to strengthen its position in the payments space. This acquisition is expected to help the bank take a significant step towards digital distribution of financial products. The platform provides access to agile customer-facing technology, which will help the bank to serve its existing customers better and approach new digitally native customers in an efficient manner.

Notes:
According to 2017 Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) index, Bengaluru (40th) and Delhi (49th) are the only Indian cities among the top 50 global cities that foster high-potential women entrepreneurs. The list is topped by New York, followed by Bay Area, London, Boston, Stockholm and Los Angeles.   The index ranks cities in terms of its ability to attract and foster growth of women-owned firms. It provides a diagnostic tool to advise entrepreneurs and policy-makers on how to improve conditions to enable businesses founded by women to thrive. The index also  ranked cities based on the impact of local policies, programmes and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs.

Notes:
The World Hepatitis Day (WHD) is observed every year on July 28 to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis and to influence real change. The 2017 theme is “Eliminate Hepatitis”. Hepatitis is a viral infection which causes inflammation in the liver. It is a group of infectious diseases known as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. The ‘ 2017 WHO Global hepatitis’ report indicates that a large majority of these people lack access to life-saving testing and treatment. As a result, millions face risk of chronic liver disease, cancer, and death. As per estimates of World Health Organisation (WHO), 4 crore people in India live with chronic Hepatitis B and an additional six lakh with Hepatitis C, which accounts for 40% and 20% of Hepatitis B and C infections in south-east Asia. Thus, hepatitis affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched two Mobile apps – India Quake and Sagar Vani to send alerts on earthquake parameters and oceanic disturbances. The ‘India Quake’ will automatically disseminate earthquake parameters like location, time and magnitude, after the occurrence of earthquakes. The app will make information dissemination faster with no restrictions on the number of recipients. Any citizen can download this App and get the real time earthquake location information on his/her mobile. While, the ‘Sagar Vani’ will disseminate ocean related information and alerts like high waves and Tsunami early warnings, to the user community in timely manner for their safety. The apps are developed by the National Centre for Seismology (NCS). The NCS is an office of the MoES and is tasked with providing earthquake monitoring and hazard reports to governmental agencies.

Notes:
The Rajaji National Park (RNP) is an Indian national park and tiger reserve located in the three districts of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal and covers an area of over 820 km2. It is home to Asian elephant, Bengal tiger, Leopard, Jungle cat, Striped hyena, Goral, Indian hare, Sloth bear, etc. The park was named after C. Rajagopalachari, a prominent leader of the Freedom Struggle, the second and last Governor-General of independent India and one of the first recipients of India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (in 1954).

Notes:
The Telangana prisons department has come up with first of its kind offer to rent out its jails to other states to lodge their convicts from 2018. The department has proposed to accommodate prisoners from overcrowded prisons in India at a monthly rent of Rs 10,000 per person that includes food, accommodation, security, mulakhat (meeting family members of visitors) and also skill development trainings. Currently, accommodation is available for 800 prisoners. However, the prisons will lodge convicts in non-grievous and non-serious offences but not under trials and hardcore criminals. Once the Telangana prisons department’s proposal gets the state government nod; Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh which have overcrowded jails, are expected to be its potential client. Presently, Norway is the only country that is shutting down its jails or leasing them out to other countries to lodge their prisoners.

Notes:
The 7th edition of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Artists Camp and Exhibition of Paintings has started at Kathmandu, Nepal on July 28, 2017. Around 40 artists from SAARC member countries except Afghanistan taking part in the 4 day camp.
The purpose of the event is to bring art and culture of member countries together. The event is organised by Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal and SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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The 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 championship will be hosted by Indonesia, which is scheduled to be held from October 18 to November 4, 2018. It is officially awarded by the AFC Competition Committee. A total of 16 teams will play in the tournament. The top four teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup as the AFC representatives.

Notes:
Ravi Mittal, additional secretary in the Ministry of Finance, has been appointed as the part-time member of the board of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA). He succeeded N S Rao at IRDAI, who is a joint secretary level officer. Former finance secretary Sushma Nath is another part-time member on the IRDAI board. Besides, Maruthi Prasad Tangirala, a 1990-batch IP&TA&FS officer, has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) at IRDAI and his position will be equivalent to a joint secretary.  Tangirala has replaced Sriram Taranikanti, who is a 1992 -batch IAS officer.

Notes:
According to the recently released OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026 report, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef, followed by Australia and India. As per report, India exported 1.56 million tonnes of beef in 2016. It is expected to maintain its position as the third-largest exporter of the meat till 2026 by exporting 1.93 tonnes that year. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD database, India imported 363,000 tonnes of beef in 2016 and the amount was projected to stay the same over the decade. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the total world beef exports in 2016 was 10.95 million tonnes and was expected to increase to 12.43 million tonnes by 2026. The type of beef exported was not specified, but the exported meat appears to be mostly from buffaloes as the report has specified the animal for imports by Myanmar from India.