Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2017

Notes:
Rajiv Kumar, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed as the new Secretary in the Department of Financial Services (DFS). He succeeded Anjuly Chib Duggal, who superannuated. At present, Kumar is Special Secretary and Establishment Officer in the Ministry of Personnel. The DFS looks after the functioning of banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and the national pension system. Rajiv Kumar has spearheaded several reforms in Indian bureaucracy including an online system for recording of the bureaucrats annual performance appraisal reports.

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:
Divya Deshmukh (11) has won gold in the girls’ Under-12 category at the World Cadets Chess Championship at Pocos de Caldas, Brazil. She scored a total of 9.5 points to give India its only medal in the championship this year. It is Divya’s second world title after her victory in the under-10 World Youth Chess Championship-2014 in Durban.

Notes:
Sultan Ahmed (64), the Trinamool Congress MP and former Union Central Minister passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on September 4, 2017. He was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Uluberia (Lok Sabha constituency) on a Trinamool Congress ticket in 2014. Previously, he was a two-time MLA from Entally. Ahmad also served as a Minister of State for Tourism in Manmohan Singh government.

Notes:
Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra has become the first Indian woman ambassador for Tourism Australia to encourage Indians to visit the country. She was presented the Friend of Australia (FOA) recognition by Australian Consul General Tony Huber for her contribution to promote Australia recently. Prior to Chopra, famous chef Sanjeev Kapoor and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle have been great advocates for Australia, encouraging Indians to visit Australia.

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.

Notes:
The researchers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Chemical Laboratory in Pune have developed an artificial leaf that absorbs sunlight to generate hydrogen fuel from water, an advance that may provide clean energy for powering eco-friendly cars in the future. The device consists of semiconductors stacked in a manner to simulate the natural leaf system. When visible light strikes the semiconductors, electrons move in one direction, producing electric current. The current almost instantaneously splits water into hydrogen – which researchers believe is one of the cleanest forms of fuel as its main byproduct is water.

Notes:
The Phawngpui Blue Mountain National Park (PBMNP) is located in the state of Mizoram and covers an area of 50 square kilometers. It is the natural home of a wonderful range of birdlife including the rare Blyth’s tragopan, falcon, sunbirds, dark-rumped swift, and Mrs. Hume’s pheasant, which is the Mizoram state bird, and also rare animals like the mountain goat, slow loris, tiger, leopard, leopard cat, serow, goral, Asiatic black bear, stump-tailed macaque and capped langur.

Notes:
The Union Government has recently told Supreme Court that an expert committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of former apex court judge Justice BN Srikrishna to identify key data protection issues in India and recommend methods to address them. The government told the apex court that after the committee’s report is submitted, there is a possibility that the law shall be passed regulating data protection. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, state that the committee will study various issues and make specific suggestions for consideration of the government on the principles to be considered for data protection. The apex court has fixed the matter for further hearing on November 20, 2017.

Notes:
Amritpal Singh, the captain of the Indian basketball team, has scripted history by becoming the first Indian-born player to be picked up by an Australian National Basketball League (NBL) team. He will be a part of the Kings side as they begin their pre-season tour where they will also take on popular NBA side Utah Jazz, which will be an incredible achievement for Indian basketball. With this, Amritpal has become the first Indian player to play for an Aussie team in the NBL.