Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2017

Notes:
Indian-American Gitanjali Rao has won the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her prototype water lead contamination detector ‘Tethys’. The sensor-based device detects the quality of water and shares the results to a mobile application via bluetooth. The aim of the competition, open to citizens of the US who are enrolled from Class 5 to 8, is to identify a solution to an everyday problem that directly impacts either the contestant or the global population. The winner of the competition is awarded $25,000 along with the title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist 2017’.

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According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s revised guidelines on interest subvention scheme, banks will provide funds to women Self Help Groups (SHGs) in rural areas at 7% under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) in the current fiscal FY18. These guidelines will be implemented in 21 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and 19 private banks. All women SHGs will be eligible for interest subvention on credit upto Rs 3 lakh at 7% per annum. Banks will be subvented to the extent of difference between the Weighted Average Interest Charged and 7% subject to the maximum limit of 5.5% for the year 2017-18. The subvention will be available to banks on the condition that they make SHG credit available at 7% per annum. The interest subvention scheme on credit to women SHG during 2017-18 is applicable in 250 districts across the country.

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The 4th ADMM (ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting)-Plus meeting will be held in Philippines from October 23, 2017 to deliberate extensively on the situation in Afghanistan and Syria besides China’s growing military presence in the disputed South China Sea. The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region. The two-day meeting will discuss ways to enhance defence and security cooperation among the member nations to effectively counter various transnational security challenges facing the region. From India, Union defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend the meeting.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched India’s first Roll On-Roll Off (Ro-Ro) ferry service between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch district, which will facilitate vehicular and passenger ferry services across the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. The Ghogha-Dahej Ferry Service will reduce the distance between the two coastal towns from 310 km by road to 30 km, saving time and money. The travel time will be cut by at least 5 hours. The ferry will be able to carry up to 100 vehicles (cars, buses and trucks) and 250 passengers between the two ports. The ro-ro ferry services are vessels made to carry wheeled cargo that are driven on and off the ferry on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle. The wheeled cargo includes cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars. This ferry service project cost stands at Rs 614 crore.

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Former IB Chief Dineshwar Sharma, a 1976 batch Kerala cadre IPS officer, has been appointed as the Government of India (GoI) special representative to hold sustained dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with all stakeholders. He will hold the position of a Cabinet Secretary. As an interlocutor, he will hold peace talks with Assam’s insurgent groups, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and will be free to decide whom to talk to. Sharma is retired as director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on December 31, 2016.

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The World Development Information Day (WDID) is observed every year on October 24 to draw the attention of the world to development problems and the necessity of strengthening international cooperation to solve them.

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The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is in news because it will analyse the social media trends and data for the first time in monitoring security. The data will be used to monitor the India’s most vital assets such as airports and nuclear and aerospace installations. A special team of CISF men and women has been trained to track social media trends, news, reports and indicators across various platforms, collate them and dish them out as vital pieces of actionable intelligence to its various airports and other vital units. According to CISF Director-General, this project is being done on experimental basis and based on the experiences; this smart centre will be further strengthened. The CISF is directly under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and its headquarters are at New Delhi.

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Rakesh Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Gujarat-cadre, has been appointed the special director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. (CBI). Currently, he is posted as additional director in CBI. Apart from him, Gurbachan Singh has been appointed as the special director in Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Sudeep Lakhtakia as Special DG in CRPF. Rajesh Ranjan and AP Maheshwari have been promoted as Special DG in the Border Security Force (BSF).

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The Meghalaya Election department has entered the Limca Book of Records for the formation of the biggest human logo by newly-enrolled young voters of Meghalaya. Limca official Garima Manon conveyed this in a message to the office of Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer on October 24, 2017. It will feature in the forthcoming edition of the book 2018. A total of 2870 students from 113 schools, 3 colleges in the age group of 18 and 19 enrolled as new voters and formed a 75 feet by 120 feet size human logo named You ‘N’ I on July 1, 2017. The logo formation was part of the launching of the statewide special drive to enroll left-out voters with a special focus on first-time electors. Election to the 10th Meghalaya Assembly is expected to be held in February-March, 2018.

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Suresh Sethi, the former MD of Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd., has been appointed as the new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). He succeeded A.P. Singh, who had been the interim MD & CEO of IPPB since January 2017. Sethi has broad international experience of over 27 years in the banking and financial services industry with Citigroup and YES Bank, across India, Kenya, the UK, Argentina and the US.