Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2017

Notes:
India’s longest expressway from Agra to Lucknow will soon provide free Wi-Fi services on the entire 302-kilometre stretch. As per officials, the UP government has offered to provide space to lay an optical fiber cable (OFC) along the expressway. The plan is to earn revenue to maintain the expressway and gain from the agreement with the private firm by leasing rights to lay the OFCs to offer free WiFi along the entire stretch. this will also help the state to have a world-class advanced traffic management system (ATMS) for convenience and safety. Safety will be assured by the usage of traffic monitoring and event detection along with speed enforcement through a network of CCTV cameras and phone helplines at every two kilometers.

Notes:
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) has concluded on November 17, 2017 after two weeks of talks in Boon, Germany. Envoys from nearly 200 countries, including delegates from Washington, negotiated on implementing the Paris climate change agreement including a rulebook to be adopted next year and for enacting the global deal reached to cheers and champagne in 2015. The Paris pact commits countries to limiting average global warming to under two degrees Celsius over Industrial Revolution levels, and 1.5 Celcius if possible, to avert worst-case-scenario climate change. The November 6-17 conference is the first of the UN’s climate body since US President Donald Trump announced in June that the US will withdraw from the agreement. Meanwhile, United States again expressed its desire to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

Notes:
The Navegaon National Park (NNP) is located in the Gondia district of Maharashtra and covers an area of 133.78 km2. It is an important conservation unit in Central India in general and Vidarbha in particular. It acts a “Green-lung” for the adjoining human settlements and helps in maintaining the environmental balance. It is a home to number of fishes, 209 species of birds, 9 species of reptiles and 26 species of mammals which includes Tiger, Panther, Jungle cat, Small India Civet, Palm Civet, Wolf, Jackals, Bisons, Sambars, etc. The one of the unique features of this sanctuary is the existence of diverse vegetation type ranging from dry mixed forests to moist forests. Its forests belong to the category of “Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests” – 5A/C3 as per the revised classification of the forests by Champion and Seth.

Notes:
Shagun Chowdhary from Rajasthan has bagged a national champion crown on winning the women’s trap event at the 61st National Shooting Championship in New Delhi on November 16, 2017. In the final, she overcame the challenge from Punjab’s Rajeshwari Kumari to prevail 41-38. Chowdhary is the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympic trap shooting event. She finished in 20th place in the trap shooting event at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. She is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest.

Notes:
Sergio Ramirez Mercado, the Nicaraguan author and former politician, has won the 2017 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor. He has written more than 20 novels, including “Margarita, esta linda la mar” (Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea), which won Spain’s prestigious Alfaguara award in 1998. The 125,000-euro ($148,000) Cervantes Prize is awarded annually to honour the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote.

Notes:
At the 8th edition of the Tata Literature festival-2017, the book “Age of Anger: A History of the Present” has won the Book of the Year Award 2017 in the Non–Fiction category. The book was authored by Pankaj Mishra. Apart from this, the fiction top honour was bagged by Easterine Kire’s ‘Son of the Thundercloud’. Tata Trusts’ Big Little Book Awards’ for Author in Bengali Children’s Literature, went to Nabaneeta Dev Sen. Actor-playwright Girish Karnad was conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of theatre at the Tata Literature Live in Mumbai on November 20, 2017.

Notes:
The 42nd World Congress of the International Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) has started in New Delhi on November 19, 2017. The 5-day event is organised for the first time in India, and is the largest medical conference ever organised by the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS). The theme of this 42nd World Congress is “Military Medicine in Transition: Looking Ahead”. The ICMM is an international inter-governmental organisation created in 1921 with its secretariat at Brussels in Belgium and currently has 112 nations as members. Approx350-400 foreign delegates from 80 countries are participating in the event.

Notes:
Afghanistan U-19 cricket team has clinched the 2017 Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-19 Asia Cup tournament by defeating Pakistan in the final by 185-run at the Kinrara Academy Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 19, 2017. It is their first Asia Cup title.

Notes:
Jana Novotna (49), a professional tennis player from the Czech Republic, has passed away in Brno, Czech Republic on November 19, 2017. She won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon in 1998, 12 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles and four mixed doubles titles. She was also inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in 1997, and achieved the No. 1 ranking in doubles.

Notes:
Popular Bengali writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen has been has been declared winner of the 2017 Big Little Book Award in the “Author in Bengali Language” category for her contribution to the children’s literature. The Big Little Book Award, a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, seeks to recognise and honour authors and illustrators who have contributed to children’s literature that are global in appeal and contextual in nature. The award has been instituted under Parag initiative of Tata Trusts to promote children’s literature.