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:
Goa chief minister Manohar Parrrikar has launched an online Public Grievance Redressal System at the state secretariat on September 1, 2017. It is a single window online portal for citizens to register grievances towards any state government department. The system’s performance in terms of glitches would be monitored and addressed gradually. In the future, a call centre facility would be added to the system. Under the online Public Grievance Redressal System, citizens will be notified about the status of their complaint through SMS and email based on a unique grievance id. There is a provision for automatically escalating unaddressed grievances to higher authorities periodically. Written complaint registration will be continued and uploaded online by the public grievances department.

Notes:
The world’s highest sandcastle 54.72 feet (16.68 metres) tall has recently built in the German city of Duisburg. It was constructed in over 3 weeks and is supposed to stand until at least September 24, 2017. The representative of Guinness World Records (GWR) has certified the record. It takes the title from a 14.84-meter (48.69-foot) sandcastle built early this year in India. The new sandcastle is decorated with sand models of tourist attractions such as Athens’ Acropolis, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Notes:
Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat, has been formally accorded the status of India’s first World Heritage City (WHC) by UNESCO. Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, has handed over the certificate declaring Ahmedabad as a ‘World Heritage City’ to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar on September 1, 2017. The 606-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River, presents a rich architectural heritage. It has 28 Archaeological Survey of India’s centrally protected monuments. The city was also the center for India’s non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. In July 2017, the UN agency had inscribed Ahmedabad as India’s first World Heritage City (WHC) at the 41st session of UNESCO’s world heritage committee at Krakow in Poland.

Notes:
The Pulie Badze Wildlife Sanctuary (PWS) is located at Kohima District of Nagaland and covers an area of 923 hectares.The sanctuary is a natural habitat for Blyth’s Tragopan (or Grey-bellied Tragopan).

Notes:
Satish Kumar, the decorated West Bengal wrestler, has been awarded Rs 25 lakh as compensation by the Delhi court for being wrongly restrained from taking part in the 14th Asian Games-2002 at Busan in South Korea under the mistaken impression that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs. The court also directed the government to ensure that such incidents are never repeated and no other sportsperson goes through the humiliation which Satish Kumar has undergone. Kumar was selected by Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for the 14th Asian Games, but was wrongly stopped from boarding the flight with other athletes as he was confused with another wrestler of same name who hailed from West Bengal. He was then banned for two years after testing positive in the dope test.

Notes:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former India captain, has become the first wicketkeeper in world cricket to effect 100 stumpings in One Day Internationals (ODI). He surpassed former Sri Lankan wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara, who had 99 stumpings in 404 matches. Dhoni achieved the feat in his 301st ODI in Colombo on September 3, 2017 when he whipped off the bails to remove Sri Lankan batsman Akila Dananjaya off leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling. Till date, Dhoni has also taken 281 catches apart from scoring 9,657 runs so far. He played 90 Tests and 77 T20 Internationals as well. In 90 Tests, Dhoni has taken 256 catches and effected 38 stumpings. In T20 Internationals, Dhoni has taken 43 catches and affected 23 stumpings. Recently, Dhoni has become the 6th Indian player to play 300 matches in the 50-over format. With this, he joined the elite club comprising of Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh.

Notes:
Lt. Col. (Retd.) Rajyavardhan Rathore, the Olympic silver medallist and a former professional shooter, has been appointed as a Cabinet minister with independent charge for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on September 3, 2017 in the latest cabinet reshuffle of the Narendra Modi government. He replaced Vijay Goel. Rathore is also holding the portfolio of Minister of State in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). He is Member of Parliament (MP) from Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha constituency.

Notes:
Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Jomde Kena (52) has passed away in Guwahati, Assam on September 4, 2017. Since 2014, Kena, who represented Likabali seat from Lower Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2004. He was re-elected to the House from the same constituency in 2009 and 2014.

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.