Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2017

Notes:
Assam’s female one-horned rhino “Guppy” has been unveiled as the official mascot of the 2017 AIBA Youth Women’s World Boxing Championship in Guwahati, Assam on November 7, 2017. Guppy has been chosen as it is a symbol of strength and endurance, something that Indian women are known for, traits that are also synonymous with the game of boxing. Apart from this, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh has also released the championship’s official logo and anthem ‘Make Some Noise’. Approx 200 participants (16-17 years) from 38 countries will take part in the event, which is scheduled to be held from November 19 to 26.

Notes:
The Union Environment ministry has constituted a 7-member committee to continuously monitor the short-term and long-term solutions to air pollution. It will be headed by C.K Mishra, the Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The committee will meet at regular, short intervals to draw up a plan and ensure enforcement.

Notes:
The think tank NITI Aayog in collaboration with Proffer, a blockchain startup founded by graduates of MIT and Harvard, will organise a ‘Blockchain Summit’ and hackathon at IIT Delhi from Nov 10-13, 2017. The objective of the event is to explore how blockchain architectures can enable a new digital infrastructure for India, improving efficiency, transparency, privacy, and cost across all sectors. 1,500+ students from IITs, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, and top engineering institutions around the world will be participating in the event, with 500 attending in-person on IIT Delhi’s campus. Multinational majors that include Microsoft, IBM, Accel, Coinbase, and Amazon AWS are sponsoring $17,000+ in prizes to reward the top 5 blockchain-based applications addressing problems in government/enterprise infrastructure, finance, energy markets, supply chain, decentralized Aadhar identities, information exchange, and more.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government will soon set up village climate resilient committees for adopting different agricultural practices in over 5,000 villages of 15 districts in the state. A 13-member committee will be set up in all these villages to stress on adopting new agricultural practices, judicious use of water and soil testing to keep a check on its health. As per a Government Resolution (GR) issued on November 7, 2017, under the Nanaji Deshmukh Krushi Sanjivanee Project, Village Climate Resilient Agriculture Management Committees (VCRMCs) would be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore. The project would be funded by the World Bank. The project recommends use of seed technology, precision farming along with diversification of agriculture to coarse grains.

Notes:
The 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit has started in Danang, Vietnam with theme “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future” on November 10, 2017. The 2-day summit will gives an opportunity to tout the benefits of global free trade. The 2017 summit will highlight Vietnamese culture, as well as represent the five components, which are as follows: Dynamism, creativity, action, unity, and movement to the future.

Notes:
The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) will celebrate the Child Rights Week Hausla 2017 between 16 and 20 November. To mark the occasion various events will be held including Bal Sansad, painting competition, athletics meet, football, chess competition and speech writing. The country celebrates the Children’s Day on 14 November and the International Child Rights Day on 20 November every year. The period between the two important events will be celebrated as Child Rights Week by WCD Ministry by hosting an Inter CCI Festival for the children who reside in Child Care Institutions (CCIs). The fest “Hausala 2017” will provide an occasion to showcase the talents of children from CCIs from various child care institutions across the country and provide them with a space to express their dreams and aspiration.

Notes:
Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy has been appointed the new Director General of Police (DGP) of Telangana State. He will be the second DGP of the state after its formation in 2014. He succeeded Anurag Sharma, who has been appointed as advisor to Home Department of Telangana State Government. Meanwhile, Hyderabad Police Additional Commissioner V.V. Srinivas Rao will be in-charge Hyderabad Commissioner of Police.

Notes:
The 12th edition of East Asia Summit (EAS) will be held in Angeles, Philippines on November 13–14, 2017. It is a unique Leaders-led forum of 18 countries of the Asia-Pacific region formed to further the objectives of regional peace, security and prosperity. The membership of EAS consists of ten ASEAN Member States (i.e. Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam), Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and the USA.

Notes:
Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani clinched his 17th world title after thrashing his arch-rival Mike Russell of England in the 2017 IBSF World Billiards Championship at Doha on November 12, 2017. In the best-of-11 summit clash, Advani beat Russell 6-2 to defend the 150-up format title he had won in Bengaluru last year. Advani will be eyeing a ‘Grand Double’ as the lengthier format (long-up) of the IBSF World Billiards Championship 2017, which will begin on November 13, 2017 at Doha.

Notes:
Odisha and its neighboring state West Bengal will soon organize a joint security exercise named as ‘Sagar Kavach’ to strengthen coastal security mechanism along the 630 km long coastline. It is a real-time security exercise, which will be conducted with an aim to check the efficacy of the security parameters and preparedness of various security forces. The Indian Navy, Marine police force, Indian Coast Guard (ICG), Forest Department, Fisheries and district administration would take part in the exercise. During the course of this two-day exercise, a simulated terror attack named ‘red force’ will be organized at a random place along the coast of Odisha or West Bengal.