Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2017

Notes:
India and Switzerland have signed two pacts for technical cooperation in the field of Railways after delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting President of Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard in New Delhi. The aim of pacts is to cooperate in the areas of traction rolling stock, EMU and Train sets, traction propulsion equipments, freight and passenger cars, etc. To boost bilateral ties, Swiss president, Doris Leuthard is on a 3-day visit to India. The visit is significant as Switzerland is the chair of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) where India has been seeking membership. The main theme of the presidential visit is the Treaty of Friendship signed between Switzerland and India in 1948, in which the two countries gave assurances of “perpetual peace” and “unalterable friendship”.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the annual conference – Rajaswa Gyan Sangam (RGS-2017) in New Delhi on September 1, 2017. The conference is jointly organised by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). The objective of the Conference is to enable a two-way communication between the policy-makers and the senior officers in the field offices with a view to increase revenue collection and facilitate effective implementation of law and policies in key result areas. Apart from the joint sessions, separate technical sessions of each Board will be held during the two-day Conference. Issues arising in implementation of policies and strategies to achieve targets in core functional areas will also be discussed. Crucial issues like Tax Evasion, GST, Customs Reforms and Modernisation will also come up for discussion. For the first time, senior officers of the Finance Department of the States and Union Territories will attend the event.

Notes:
Nirmala Sitharaman, the former minister of state for the commerce and industry ministry, has become the new Defence Minister of India on September 3, 2017 after latest Union cabinet reshuffle. She succeeded Arun Jaitley. With this, she has become the India’s first woman Defence Minister after Indira Gandhi. Currently, she is Member of Parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha representing the state of Karnataka. Now, Suresh Prabhu has become the new Union Minister of Commerce and Industry.

Notes:
Shirish Pai (88), the renowned Marathi poet and activist, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on September 2, 2017. She was credited with introducing ‘Haiku’ to the Marathi speaking world. Pai was the daughter of noted writer-journalist ‘Acharya’ Pralhad Keshav Atre. She started writing ‘Haiku’ in 1975. She studied Japanese ‘Haiku’, its origin and nature and published five Marathi ‘Haiku’ books. Ms. Pai also translated some Japanese ‘Haiku’ from English to Marathi. She also worked as a journalist in the Maratha newspaper and participated in the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ (United Maharashtra) movement.

Notes:
Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, has been promoted as Cabinet Minister and got additional charge of Union Ministry of Skill Development after latest Union cabinet reshuffle on September 3, 2017. In the latest reshuffle, four Union ministers were promoted to Cabinet rank and nine new Ministers of state were inducted in the Union Council of Ministers. Excerpts are as follows: Nirmala Sitharaman has been appointed as new Union Defence Minister while Piyush Goyal is the new Rail Minister in addition to Coal. Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been elevated to the Cabinet rank. Suresh Prabhu is now new Commerce Minister, while Nitin Gadkari has been given additional charge of Water resources.

Notes:
Konsam Ormila Devi from India bagged a gold medal in 44kg weight category at the Commonwealth Youth (boys & girls) weightlifting championships at Gold Coast, Australia on September 4, 2017. Ormila lifted 57kg in snatch and 76kg in clean and jerk for an overall effort of 133kg, to finish on the top of the podium. With this effort, Ormila has registered her best lift so far.

Notes:
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has launched Gyankunj e-class project on the occasion of Teachers day on September 5, 2017. The project has been launched at Shahpur primary school in Gandhinagar in presence of state Chief Secretary. The entire project will work on pilot basis with Interactive e-class room and smart boards have been provided under this initiative. According to official sources, 1609 government primary schools have been provided laptop, projector, infrared camera, smart board, speaker and wifi router facilities for 3,173 class rooms of standard 7 and 8. About 10,000 tablets are to be given to standard 7 and 8 students across 100 more schools on free of cost. Education for all courses in standard 5 to 8 will be given through e-content and internet.

Notes:
Raj Kumar Singh has recently take charge as new Union Minister of State (IC) in Ministries of Power & New & Renewable Energy after latest reshuffle in the Union Cabinet on September 3, 2017. He succeeded Piyush Goyal, who is now Cabinet Minister for Railways. Singh is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Arrah Lok Sabha constituency. Singh is also the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Notes:
The Assam government has recently set up a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Cell for implementation of DBT across schemes in the Country and to coordinate efforts at the State Level in taking the DBT initiative forward with immediate effect. The Chief Secretary will be the chairman of the cell and the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary, Finance Department will be the convenor. The Cell will Coordinate with Central Ministries & disseminate the directives to the respective Departments in States. It will closely monitor & evaluate the progress of various Departments on DBT related indicators and in addition, the Cell will also function as the research unit to explore possibility of using information technology for better service delivery across range of Govt. Services in the State.

Notes:
Gauri Lankesh, the noted journalist and activists, was shot dead at her Rajarajeshwari Nagar’s residence in Bengaluru, Karnataka on September 5, 2017. She was the editor of popular Kannada tabloid Lankesh Patrike founded by her father and well-known writer P Lankesh. Lankesh was also part of a panel formed by State government to help surrender Naxals to reform. She was known to be a notable social and political commentator and acclaimed for her lifelong support for free speech and strong journalistic ethics, her works were popular in all quarters, her critics alike. The state government has formed a three team comprising of senior police officer to investigate the crime. AIR correspondent reports that killing of senior journalist known for her out spoken views, is being compared with the murder of rationalist, liberal thinkers, M M Kulburgi, Pansare and Dabholkar in recent years. Several associations of writers and journalists are holding protest in the state demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators of crime.