Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2017

Notes:
India has signed a loan deal of $76 million with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for a project to upgrade the environment management plan at Alang-Sosiya ship recycling yards. The total cost of the project will be $111 million, out of which $76 million will be provided as soft loan from JICA. Out of the remaining amount, $25 million as taxes and fees will be borne by Government of Gujarat and the balance $10 million will be shared by Ministry of Shipping and Government of Gujarat. The project will be executed by Gujarat Maritime Board and is likely to be completed by 2022. The project will help the Alang-Sosia ship-recycling yards to comply with international safety and environmental regulations. It will attract more business at the recycling facilities at Alang, thereby further consolidating India’s share in the global ship-recycling industry. The project will also help in safeguarding the marine and coastal environment.

Notes:
Arjan Singh (98), who led the Indian Air Force in the 1965 India-Pakistan War, has passed in New Delhi on September 16, 2017. Throughout the 1965 war, Singh showed exemplary leadership, and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan for his leadership during the war and subsequently the rank of the CAS was upgraded to that of Air Chief Marshal. Thus, Singh became the first Air Chief Marshal of the Indian Air Force. Till date, he is the only Air Force officer to have been promoted to the five-star rank. After his retirement in July 1969, he was appointed Indian ambassador to Switzerland.

Notes:
Rio Olympics Silver medallist P V Sindhu from India has won the 2017 women’s singles title at the Korea Open Super Series badminton tournament by defeating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in three sets 22-20, 11-21, 20-18 at Seoul in South Korea. With this, Sindhu has become the first Indian to win the Korea Super Series crown. It is also her third super series title of her career.

Notes:
Sterling K Brown has created history by becoming the first African-American to win the best actor drama Emmy awards in the past 19 years, for his performance as Randall on NBC’s “This Is Us”. The last to win the award was Andre Braugher in 1998 for his role in “Homicide: Life on the Street”. Moreover British Pakistan actor Riz Ahmed has become the first Muslim actor as well as the man of Asian descent to win an Outstanding lead actor in a limited series at Emmy award for the “systematic issue of inclusion.

Notes:
The Gorumara National Park (GNP) is located in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The park is located in the Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills, it is a medium-sized park with grasslands and forests. It is primarily known for its population of Indian rhinoceros. The park has been declared as the best among the protected areas in India by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the year 2009. It has recorded 50 species of mammals, 194 species of birds, 22 species of reptiles, 7 species of turtles, 27 species of fish, and other macro and micro fauna. The park is rich in large herbivores including Indian rhinoceros, gaur, Asian elephant, sloth bear, chital and sambar deer.

Notes:
The Union government has constituted a GST Committee on Exports headed by revenue secretary Dr Hasmukh Adhia to look into issues of export sector and to recommend suitable strategy for helping the export sector in the post-GST scenario to the GST Council. On September 19, the Adhia – headed panel is meeting in New Delhi to deliberate on the issues faced by the industry under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and holding discussion with representatives from 8 export promotion associations the difficulties faced by the exporters. Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia is also attending the meet. The panel is mandated to recommend to the GST Council a suitable strategy for helping the export sector in the post-GST set-up.

Notes:
The Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary (BWS) is located in the south west of Munger district of Bihar and covers an area of 681.99 square kilometres. The main animals found at BWS are tigers, panthers, wild boars, sloth bear, sambar deer, chitals, four-horned antelope and nilgais. Though, the sanctuary is more famous for its bird life rather than the land animals. It is home to more than 100 species of resident birds, which stay here all year around.

Notes:
N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, has launched ‘People First’ mobile application at the Collectors’ conference in Vijayawada. The app will empower citizens with real-time governance. It will keep the citizens updated with the latest schemes and services of the government and the users will also be able to use the app for registering their complaints. The registered complaints will be addressed as soon as possible and selected complaints will be directly monitored by the chief minister himself.

Notes:
The National conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2017 was organised by Agriculture Ministry at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on September 19, 2017. The 2-day conference was inaugurated by Radha Mohan Singh , the Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister. During the conference, group discussions were held on important topics including Soil Health Card Scheme, management of drought and harvest and doubling farmers’ income. Agriculture Secretary, Shobhan Patnaik laid emphasis on measures to bridge the yield gap among districts and States in a planned manner and steps to ensure payment of remunerative price to the farmers. In addition, Joint Secretaries and senior officials made presentations on the flagship schemes including seed quality control, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Soil Health Card and organic farming. Many States used the opportunity to offer valuable comments and observations on many aspects of the flagship programme of the Government.

Notes:
The Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary (DWS) is located 10 km from the city of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and covers an area of 195 square kilometers. It is home to elephants, barking deer, sloth bear porcupines and many other animals. Commonly seen birds in the sanctuary are the falcons, golden oriole, Indian tree pie, paradise fly catchers, grey hornbills, Indian peafowl, etc. The best time to visit is from October to June. The forest cover is denuded up to 90% because of selective pilferage by timber mafia over many years.