Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2017

Notes:
The joint military training exercise “Panda-Kangaroo 2017” was held between Chinese and Australian ground forces in Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, from September 10 to 20. The exercise is an important platform for enhancing the mutual understanding and trust and deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. This is the first joint training held in China by Chinese and Australian armies. The two ground forces have conducted such joint training in 2015 and 2016 in Australia.

Notes:
Dabur India has tied up with e-commerce major Amazon for an online ayurveda marketplace which will house all ayurvedic brands and products of the country. The company will also offer consumers an insight into various ayurvedic medicines for treating a variety of ailments. Products of other ayurvedic manufacturing companies like Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali and Himalaya would also feature on the marketplace.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana ‘Saubhagya’ to supply electricity to poor households to mark the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya on September 25, 2017. The scheme will cover all rural families after electrification of all villages by December 2017. The Union government stated that states will be required to complete the household electrification by March 31, 2019. The scheme will be funded by a 60% grant from the government, with the states contributing 10% and the remaining amount will be covered by loans. For special category states, the government will grant 85% of the outlay, with the states contributing just 5%.

Notes:
Indian wrestler Bajrang has won gold in the men’s freestyle 65kg by defeating Daichi Takatani of Japan iIn Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. With this, Indians added four medals including a gold on the 9th day of the games at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan on September 24, 2017. Two women wrestlers Sheetal Tomar and Navjot Kaur also grabbed a bronze each. Krishnan Sasikiran won the third bronze in men’s standard individual chess. Now, India stands at 12th place in the medals tally with 6 gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze.

Notes:
N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has declared the year of 2017-18 as e-Pragati year. The flagship e-pragati training programme is for AP government officials to familiarize and update new technologies and its usage. The six-week training is conducted by a team from Indian School of Business (IBS), Hyderabad to all the 32 departments of AP government. These departments will start using the latest technology from October for administration & e-governance, which will bring transparency and make everything visible online.

Notes:
Manoj Sinha, the Union Minister of Communication, will launch the first-ever India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2017, which is scheduled to be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 27th September till 29thSeptember 2017. It is being organised by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) with support of the ministries like the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Skill Development and Entrepreneurship amongst others and will see participation from senior government representatives from the centres as well as various states.

Notes:
The Ghatigaon Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS) is located near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and covers an area of 511 square kilometers. The sanctuary is also as the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary. It houses many varieties of flora such as Khair, Murjan, Palash, Seja, Dhawada, Royenja, Ghote, Beweg, Dhaman, Salai, Heans and Katli. The sanctuary is also a home to the blackbuck, chital, monkey, wolf, blue bull, wild boar, fox and hyena.

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The Maharashtra government has recently signed MoU with South Korea in Seoul for increased co-operation in infrastructure projects like development of smart cities, roads, airports and metros. The MoU is to help with implementation strategy, legal systems, policies, technologies and information in infrastructure development. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is on a three-day tour to South Korea and Singapore.

Notes:
The 3rd India International Science Festival (IISF-2017) will be held in Chennai, Tamil Nadu from October 13-16. The festival is being organised by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST).Top scientists from the government are expected to participate in the four-day festival at IIT-Chennai.The event will be jointly inaugurated by science and technology ministers of Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Portugal.

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The 14th India-EU Summit will be held in New Delhi from October 5-7, 2017. During the summit, both sides are expected to discuss a host of key issues including ways to remove hurdles for the long-pending free trade agreement. The president of the European Council (EC) Donald Franciszek Tusk, and the president of the European Commission (EC) Jean-Claude Juncker, will attend the summit. The European Union (EU) is India’s largest regional trading partner with bilateral trade in goods at USD 88 billion in 2016. The EU is also the largest destination for Indian exports and a key source of investment and technologies.