Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2018

Notes:
In a unique ruling, the Uttarakhand High Court has recently declared the “entire animal kingdom including avian and aquatic” as legal entities with a distinct persona and corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person. A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Lokpal Singh bestowed the unique status on animal kingdom while issuing a series of directions to prevent cruelty against animals. All the citizens throughout the State of Uttarakhand are hereby declared persons in loco parentis as the human face for the welfare/protection of animals. The court also declared all Uttarakhand natives the guardians of animals and endowed them with the duty to ensure their welfare and protection.

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Sunita Parmar, a Hindu woman in Sindh province, has created history by becoming the first from the minority community to contest the provincial assembly elections in Pakistan that are scheduled to be held on July 25. Parmar, who is from the Meghwar community will contest as an independent candidate for the Sindh Assembly constituency from Tharparkar district which has the highest number of Hindus in Pakistan. Sunita vowed to improve standards of education for women and poor health facilities in her constituency.

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Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, who retired from the Supreme Court on 7th July 2018, has been appointed the new chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). His tenure as NGT Chairperson has been specified as being for a period of 5 years from the date he assumes office, or till he reaches the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier. He will succeed Justice Jawad Rahim, who is the acting chairperson of NGT. The NGT was established on October 18, 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. The tribunal’s principal bench is located in New Delhi while its zonal benches are in Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai and its circuit benches are in Shimla, Shillong, Jodhpur and Kochi.

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The International Day of Cooperatives (IDC) is observed every year on first Saturday of July to recognize and reaffirms the role of cooperatives in economic, social and cultural development and in the achievement of social policy objectives. The 2018 IDC was celebrated on the 7th of July with theme ‘Sustainable societies through cooperation’. The 2018 theme is to create an opportunity for cooperatives to show how they run successful businesses while respecting our natural environment and the resources it offers.

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The book “Winning Like Sourav: Think & Succeed Like Ganguly” has been authored by Abhirup Bhattacharya. As per the book, Ganguly’s mantra was simple: If he believed that a youngster was talented, he would have enough opportunities to prove his worth. This provided a much-needed calmer atmosphere for the young player as it was certain that he will not be dropped after one failure. Ganguly is credited with nurturing players such as Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and building concept of ‘Team India’ and ‘Men in Blue’. It was Sourav Ganguly’s gamble on talented youngsters waiting for the opportunity that helped India from losing one of its greatest cricketers of all times – Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ganguly had taken over the reins of the Indian cricket team from Sachin Tendulkar after the match-fixing exposes in 2000. Bhattacharya says the book, replete with statistics and anecdotes, is not a biography but attempts at drawing management lessons and inspiration from the life of an exemplary skipper like Ganguly.

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The first-ever ‘India Tourism Mart (ITM)’ will be hosted by the Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi from 16th to 18th September 2018. Regarding to this, the Tourism Ministry has partnered with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) to organize the event. The purpose of the event is to create an annual Global Tourism Mart for India in line with major international travel marts being held in countries across the world. The Mart will provide a platform for all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industries to interact and transact business opportunities.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved Lining Project of Son Canal in Shahbad-Bhojpur region of Bihar, which would benefit the agriculture sector immensely in the region. The estimated cost of this project is USD 503 million out of which US 352 million is being provided by ADB. This project on completion will bring immense benefits to agriculture sector of Shahbad-Bhojpur region of Bihar.

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On July 10, the Indian naval ship INS Sumitra became the first-ever warship to enter port of Sabang in Indonesia. It was received by traditional dancers and Indonesian traditional band. The ship was welcomed by Indian Ambassador to Indonesia PK Rawat, Indonesian foreign affairs officials, members from Indian embassy, Indian businessmen and Indonesian naval and air force officers onboard. The warship was deployed in Malacca Straits. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jakarta in May 2018, in a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, it was decided that New Delhi will develop the strategically important Indonesian port Sabang in the Indian Ocean, close to the Andamans.

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The India-Korea Technology Exchange Centre has been established at the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) premises in New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Giriraj Singh (Minister of State (I/C) MSME ) and Hong Jong- hak (Minister of SMEs and Start-ups of Republic of Korea). The purpose of the Technology Exchange Centre is to create a platform for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) of India and Korea where they can be assisted to identify and exchange latest technologies, share management expertise, product development and technology applications for product development. The centre will work towards identifying Indian technologies which can be exported to Korea and find suitable Korean partners for the same.

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The Rajasthan government has signed a MoU with Microsoft to provide free digital training to 9,500 students of 50 government colleges in a year. It will also train 500 faculty members. The objective of this pact is to develop technical education at government colleges, capacity building, increasing digital literacy and improving digital education in Rajasthan. The initiative will enhance the employability of youth in the state in addition to empowering them with technical education. Microsoft will also train educators from government colleges through the Microsoft Innovative Educator Programme, building capacity for innovative use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the classroom