Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - September, 2017

Notes:
The 9-day Bathukamma festival is a colourful and vibrant festival of Telangana that has started on September 20, 2017. This fest is celebrated by women with flowers that grow exclusively in each region. This festival is a symbol of Telangana’s cultural identity. On this occasion, the Telangana government has began free distribution of over one crore sarees for women below the poverty line.

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:
The 57th National Open Athletics Championships 2017 has started at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on September 25, 2017. Around 1200 athletes from various states and departments and public sector undertakings would be taking part in the four-day meet. Besides, state teams, numerous athletes will also participate on behalf of their institutions. Among the institutions to be represented include All India Police Sports Board, ONGC, LIC, apart from the Railways and Services. The host state, Tamil Nadu, would be represented by 41 men and 35 women athletes.

Notes:
The 7th ASEM Economic Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM EMM7) was held in Seoul, South Korea on September 21-22, 2017. The 2017 theme is ‘Innovative Partnership for Inclusive Prosperity’. The meeting was conducted under the Chairmanship of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea. In it, 51 member countries signed a joint statement on supporting the multilateral trade system.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downgraded India’s GDP growth forecast to 7% from 7.4% for financial year 2017-18 due to weakness in private consumption, manufacturing output and business investment. Further, in its latest Asian Development Outlook (ADO) outlook update, ADB has downgraded India’s growth projection for financial year 2018-19 to 7.4%, from the earlier forecast of 7.6% in July 2017. However, the multilateral lender stated that India continues its strong showing although demonetisation and implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime have dented consumer spending and business investment. These short-term disruptions are expected to dissipate allowing these initiatives to generate growth dividends over the medium term.

Notes:
The Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS) is located at a distance of about 32.0 km from Bikaner, Rajasthan. This is one of the proposed forests for the reintroduction of cheetahs in India. It is home to mammals such as wildfowl, deer, antelope, nilgai, chinkara, black buck, desert fox and wild boar.

Notes:
Prime minister Narendra Modi has recently constituted Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC) under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy. The 5-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) will address the issues of macroeconomic importance. The council will also analyse and advise the Prime Minister on any issue, economic or otherwise, referred by him. Besides Debroy, the council includes NITI Aayog’s principal adviser Ratan Watal as its member and economists Surjit Bhalla, Rathin Roy and Ashima Goyal as part-time members.

Notes:
Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco, the leader of People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), has been officially sworn-in as the new President of Angola on September 26, 2017. With this, he became the first new leader in the oil-rich southern African nation in almost four decades. He succeeded Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979. Lourenco will be Angola’s first head of state to be constitutionally limited to serving two five-year terms.

Notes:
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:
India has been ranked the 40th out of 137 countries at the 2017 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which is compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). According to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2017-2018, India’s performance improved in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) indicators, particularly Internet bandwidth per user, mobile phone and broadband subscriptions, and Internet access in schools. The list is topped by Switzerland, followed by United States, Singapore, Netherlands and Germany. The GCI is prepared on the basis of country-level data covering 12 categories or pillars of competitiveness viz. Institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, etc.