GK & Current Affairs Quiz: March 31, 2017

Notes:
The Kanha Tiger Reserve has become the India’s first tiger reserve to officially introduce a mascot “Bhoorsingh the Barasingha”. The Barasingha or swamp deer is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh. It is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh. The park has a significant population of Bengal tiger, Indian leopards, the sloth bear, barasingha and Indian wild dog. The lush sal and bamboo forests, grassy meadows and ravines of Kanha provided inspiration to Rudyard Kipling for his famous novel Jungle Book.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu cricket team has won the 2017 Deodhar Trophy trophy after beating India B by 42 runs in the final in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. With this win, Tamil Nadu has become the first state side team to win the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Irani Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.

Notes:
The 3rd G-20 Framework Working Group (FWG) meeting was held in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh from March 28-29, 2017. The focus of the meeting was to deliberate on the inclusive growth agenda of the G20 and formulation of a framework for country specific inclusive growth policies. The meeting was co-hosted by the Union Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Notes:
The 2nd annual meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) has started in New Delhi on March 31, 2017 with a focus on building a sustainable future. The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is also the NDB Governor for India will deliver the address. Other speakers include NDB President K V Kamath, Minister of Finance of China among others. In the 3-day meeting, 5 MOUs are likely to be signed by NDB one each with European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Eurasian Development Bank and International Investment Bank. Apart from this, the two seminars will be held on Financing Sustainable Development and Urban Planning and Sustainable Infrastructure Development.

Notes:
The biggest river festival of India “Namami Brahmaputra” has started in 21 districts of Assam on March 31, 2017. President Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated the 5-day festival on the banks of the river, which is considered country’s only male river. Various cultural programmes, traditional sports, Brahmaputra Aarti, exhibition, film shows, seminars and competitions will be the part of the festival. Spiritual leader Dalai Lama and several Union ministers will also attend the festival. This festival is likely to give a boost to the investment and tourism prospect in the state. Prime Minister of Bhutan, Governor of Assam and Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will also attend the inaugural ceremony.

Notes:
Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker, will lead Indian Parliamentary delegation in the 136th Assembly Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 2017 at Dhaka, Bangladesh from April 1 to 5, 2017. The IPU Assembly is the principal statutory body that expresses the views of the IPU on political issues. It brings together parliamentarians to study international problems and make recommendations for action. The next 137th IPU Assembly will be held at St. Petersburg in Russian Federation from October 14 to 18, 2017.

Notes:
El Salvador, Central America’s smallest nation, has become the world’s first country to ban metals mining nationwide following a long-running dispute with a Canadian-Australian company over an environmentally questioned gold project. For this, El Salvador passed a law that prohibits all metal mining in an attempt to protect the environment and natural resources.

Notes:
Indian Army has recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) to identify the critical technological areas that can be enhanced in the armed forces. The purpose of the MoU is to facilitate prestigious institutions such as the IITs to achieve a better understanding of the critical technology requirements of the Indian Army through seamless interaction between the IITM faculty and the Army officers. As per the MoU, the Indian Army will sponsor four officers for doctoral programmes besides a five-day Technology Development Programme for 15 officers on a biannual basis.

Notes:
Indian Navy has recently launched Integrated Automatic Aviation Meteorological System (IAAMS) at Rajali Air Station in Tamil Nadu. The aim of IAAMS is to modernize the meteorological infrastructure of the nine Naval Air Stations (NAS). IAAMS undertakes automatic and continuous recording of relevant weather parameters that are vital for accurate weather forecasting. It has a special alarm feature that alerts the duty staff during abnormal change of weather parameters that may affect safe flying operations. The system can also provide automatic dissemination of routine weather reports as per standards followed by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to other air stations and Air Traffic Controller (ATC) towers without human intervention.

Notes:
India forward SV Sunil has been named the Asian Player of the Year 2016 in the senior men’s category by the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF). SV Sunil played a vital role in team India’s successful outing at 2016 FIH Champions Trophy in London where he led the forwardline and was instrumental in the team’s historic Silver medal winning performance. Apart from him, Harmanpreet Singh has been named the ‘Promising Player of the Year 2016’ in the junior men’s category.