Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

Notes:
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.

Notes:
The veteran actress Shakuntala Barua has been honoured with the 2017 Mahanayak Samman at Nazrul Mancha in Kolkata for her contribution to the world of cinema. Awards were also presented to Prosenjit Chatterjee, Nusrat Jahan, Arindam Sil, Bickram Ghosh, Soumik Halder and Padmanabha Dasgupta in various categories. Suparnokanti Karati for Bisarjan and Shiboprasad Mukhopadhyay of Windows Productions for Praktan were among awardees for the Best Film and Best Producer categories. The Mahanayak Samman is the highest film award given by the West Bengal government. The awards were instituted in the year 2012 in the memory of the legendary actor ‘Mahanayak’ Uttam Kumar.

Notes:
The Madras High Court has ruled that the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ be made compulsory in all educational institutions and government or private organisations in Tamil Nadu. As per ruling, the national song be played and sung in all schools, colleges and universities at least once a week, preferably on Monday or Friday and in government offices, private companies, factories and industries at least once a month. The issue pertains to a case filed by K Veeramani who lost the state recruitment board exam by a mark as he answered Bengali for the question on the language of ‘Vande Mataram’ while the answer key said that it was written in Sanskrit. Opposing his submission, Veeramani approached the Madras High Court and sought clarity on whether ‘Vande Mataram’ was written in Sanskrit or Bengali. As per ruling, it is the duty of every citizen to abide by the ideals ingrained in the Constitution and as such show respect to the National Anthem and the National Flag.

Notes:
Nitish Kumar, the President of Janata Dal(United), has been sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Bihar for the sixth time and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister. Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Raj Bhavan in Patna on July 27, 2017. Earlier, on July 26, 2017, Nitish Kumar had resigned as the Chief Minister citing irreconcilable differences with RJD on corruption charges against Lalu Prasad’s son and former Deputy CM Tejaswi Prasad Yadav. Then, the JDU President joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in the state.

Notes:
Indian delegation led by Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment, participated in the BRICS Labour & Employment Ministers’ Meet, held on July 26-27, 2017 at Chonqging, China. China is the chair for the BRICS Labour & Employment Ministers’ Meet for the year 2017. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration by the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers. The declaration covered a variety of areas that are of critical importance to all BRICS countries including India and called upon strengthening collaboration and cooperation on these through appropriate institutionalisation . These areas consisted of : “Governance in the Future of Work”, “Skills for development in BRICS”, “Universal and sustainable social security systems”, “BRICS Network of Labour Research Institutions”, “BRICS Social Security Cooperation Framework” and “BRICS entrepreneurship research”.

Notes:
India’s first bullet train project “Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor” will be launched during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September 12-14, 2017. Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will jointly inaugurate the bullet train project with the laying of foundation stone and a ground breaking ceremony. This is expected to take place in Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar (Gujarat). This is Rs 1 lakh crore project which involves construction of a 505-km line using Japanese ‘Shinkansen’ technology. For this, Japan will provide a soft loan worth $12 billion, at a cost of 0.1%, for a 50-year period including a 15-year moratorium. The Japanese government will be bearing 80% of the total project cost and the increase in cost estimate has to be borne by both India and Japan.

Notes:
Ajay Singh from India has won bronze medal in 77 kgs men’s junior category at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships at Kathmandu, Nepal. With this, India medals tally goes to three. Apart from him, S. Nirpupama Devi had won bronze in 69 kgs women youth category and Konsam Ormila Devi had won gold in 44kg weight category.

Notes:
Recently, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has started a full-fledged merchant banking operations to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) utilise capital markets for their funding requirements. The purpose of the initiative is to enhance the access of MSMEs to the capital markets, including the SME Trading Platform and Institutional Trading Platform. This move will prove beneficial to the SME exchange as well as investors seeking liquidity or exit from their investment. The bank has supported over 125 venture capital funds and thus can provide help for listing the investee companies on SME exchanges via its merchant banking operations. The headquarters of SIDBI is located at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
The Canara Bank has launched its first digital banking branch “CANDI” at Spencer Towers in MG Road, Bengaluru to provide an end-to-end digital experience to customers. As a part of its digital campaign, the bank has introduced customer-friendly mobile apps which help customers get most of the information related to their accounts from the app without the need to visit the branch. The most attractive feature of the Digital Branch is a humanoid robot that addresses basic queries of customers on banking products and services. This is a first-of-its kind initiative by a public sector bank in the country.

Notes:
K. E. Mammen (96), the noted Gandhian and freedom fighter, has recently passed away in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and is often referred to as the Kerala Gandhi. He became active in the freedom movement as a college student. He was first jailed for taking an open stand against C.P Ramaswamy Iyer, the then Dewan of the erstwhile Travancore state. After being denied an opportunity at continued studies here, he shifted to Madras Christian College in 1940. He was ousted from there too, following his participation in the Quit India Movement. He was also actively involved in anti-liquour campaigns across the state of Kerala till his death.