Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2017

Notes:
Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, who won four Super Series titles in 2017, has won the Sportsman of the Year award at the first edition of Indian Sports Honours (ISH) in Mumbai on November 27, 2017. Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu was the Sportswoman of the Year award in the individual sport category. In the Team Sport category. Ravichandran Ashwin, who has became the fastest bowler to reach ‘Club 300’ in Test cricket, was awarded Sportsman of the Year award while women’s cricket team skipper Mithali Raj was awarded Sportswoman of the Year award. The Indian Women’s Cricket Team, which ended as runners-up in the ICC Women’s World Cup, were named as the Team of the Year. The ISH is an initiative partnered by India skipper Virat Kohli and Sanjiv Goenka, in line with their vision to support the development of Indian sports.

Notes:
India and Russia have recently signed anti-terror pact to help each other in combating terrorism. The agreement between the two countries for cooperation in tackling all forms of terrorism was signed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Russia’s Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev in Moscow, Russia. Indian and Russian representatives also signed a joint action plan for countering the threat posed by narcotics. This agreement will provide legal framework for bilateral cooperation in this field.

Notes:
Under the chairmanship of NK Singh, who is the former bureaucrat and ex-Member of Parliament, the 15th Finance Commission has been constituted by the Union Government. The Commission will make recommendations for the five years commencing 1st April 2020. It will recommend devolution of shareable central taxes to the States and will also review several important aspects of federal fiscal finance. It will also look at the impact of the GST, including payment of compensation for possible loss of revenues for 5 years. Former Secretary Economic Affairs Shaktikanta Das and Adjunct Professor of Georgetown University, Dr Anoop Singh will be the members of the Commission. Chairman of Bandhan Bank, Dr Ashok Lahiri and NITI Aayog Member Dr Ramesh Chand will be the Part-time members. Arvind Mehta will be the Secretary to the Commission. The Commission will make its report available by 30th October 2019.

Notes:
The Golden Temple in Amritsar has officially been declared the most visited place of the world in 2017 by London-based organization World Book of Records (WBR). The WBR team presented the award certificate to Shriomani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee (SGPC), the management body of the Golden Temple. The certificate was given to Golden Temple as over a lakh devotees visit the holy shrine every day. The award, which is bestowed after every three months, has been conferred basis observations made from September 2017. The international organization, established in 2015, catalogues and verifies world records with authentic certification. The Golden Temple stands as a symbol of peace, unity and spirituality and is the holiest pilgrimage site of Sikhism.

Notes:
Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Defence Minister, has been elected as the new President of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA). The IDSA was set up in 1965 by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as an autonomous think tank, and it is customary to have the Defence Minister as its President. The Minister chairs the Executive Council which governs the Institute. IDSA is funded by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its faculty conducts research in military, foreign and strategic affairs. Significantly, the Government has sought its views before taking major policy initiatives, like conducting nuclear tests, as in 1974 and 1998. IDSA also executes specific assignments from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The headquarters of IDSA is loacted in New Delhi.

Notes:
Badri Narain Sharma, the 1985 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed the chairman of the newly constituted National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Prior to this appointment, Sharma was an Additional Secretary in the Department of Revenue. The NAA has been set up for a two-year period and is mandated to ensure that the benefits of input credit and the reduction in tax rates effected by the GST Council are passed on to the consumers.

Notes:
Indian men’s national Kabaddi team has won the gold medal at the 2017 Asian Kabaddi Championships after defeating Pakistan in the final by 36-22 under the captaincy of Ajay Thakur in Gorgan, Iran on November 26, 2017. Beside this, Indian women’s national team has also won gold medal at the Asian Kabaddi Champions 2017 by defeating South Korea in the final by 42-20.

Notes:
Valtteri Bottas, a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One with Mercedes, has won the 2017 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tournament on November 26.

Notes:
Raj Shah, who holds a key position in the White House, has become the first Indian-American to hold press gaggle with reporters on board US Presidential chopper Air Force One. Gaggle is the term used for informal briefing by the White House Press Secretary, which is on the record but bars reporters from video-graphing. Mr Shah did so in the capacity of the Principal Deputy Press Secretary. For this position, he was promoted by President Donald Trump in September 2017 as he restructured his press office by making Hope Hicks Director of Communications. He was accompanying Mr Trump as he flew to Missouri to deliver a major speech on middle-class tax relief and business tax relief.

Notes:
In its 2018 edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has approved modern, animal-free tests for drug manufacturers. This step would spare animals from suffering due to drug experiments. The 2018 edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia has provided guidelines on tests for drugs manufactured and marketed in India. In it, IPC has replaced the pyrogen test carried out on rabbits and the abnormal toxicity test carried out on guinea pigs and mice with tests that can be done in test tubes. The guidelines in the edition will come into effect from July 1. The pyrogen test is carried out to check impurity or substance that can cause adverse side-effects. For the test, the drug is injected into a rabbit and the animal is closely observed for feverish symptoms. The abnormal toxicity test is carried out to check potential hazardous biological contamination in vaccine formulation. IPC is an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which sets standards for all drugs that are manufactured, sold and consumed in India. It is headquartered in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.