GK & Current Affairs Quiz: December 06, 2017

Notes:
India has won the first-ever South Asian Regional Badminton Team Championship. In the title clash played in Guwahati on 6th December 2017, India defeated Nepal, 3-0. The Indian team, which came into the Final without losing a single match, continued their good run with Aryaman Tandon drawing first blood in the boys’ singles competition. He defeated Dipesh Dhami 21-9, 21-15. Ashmita Chaliha continued the Indian juggernaut as she danced her way to a 21-9, 21-6 win over Rashila Maharjan in the Girls’ singles event. In Boys’ Doubles, the pair of Arintap Dasgupta and Krishna Prasad came back from a game behind to beat the duo of Dipesh Dhami and Nabin Shrestha 19-21, 21-14, 21-11 to seal the deal for India.

Notes:
Adithyan, the noted South Indian music director, has passed away in Hyderabad on December 6, 2017. The musician is known for his numbers in films such as the super hit gangster flick Amaran, besides Seevalaperi Pandi, in the early 90s. He has scored music for many Telugu and Malayalam movies, the sources added. Adithyan also hosted a culinary show in a popular Tamil TV channel.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh has become the first State to endorse the Central government’s draft bill that makes instant triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence. The draft law, which provides for three-year imprisonment and a fine to a man trying to divorce his wife by uttering “talaq” three times, got the State government’s approval at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on December 5, 2017.

Notes:
The Rajasthan government will soon introduce ‘Guru-Shishya’ programme in all districts, under which college students can raise discuss with their teachers the issues and problems related to their institutes. According to state Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari, the programme will be held in one nodal college in each district where students selected on merit and elected members of students union would participate. It will soon begin from Jaipur.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the key interest rate “repo rate” unchanged at 6% and reverse repo at 5.75% in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review for the year 2017-18 on December 6, 2017, as it feared that inflation may top the central bank’s medium-term target of 4%. It also maintained its neutral policy stance. Consequently, the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate remained at 6.25%. The central bank has raised inflation forecast to 4.3-4.7% in third and fourth quarters of current fiscal and kept the economic growth forecast “Gross Value Added (GVA)” unchanged at 6.7%.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh Assembly has unanimously passed a Bill awarding death to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 and below on December 4, 2017. With this, Madhya Pradesh has become the India’s first State where those convicted of such rapes will face the gallows. The Capital punishment would be awarded to convicts under Section 376 (A), which is related to rape, and Section 376 (D, A), pertaining to gang rape. The Bill will now be sent to the President for his assent after which it will become a law.

Notes:
The Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary (JWS) is located in Jambughoda Tehsil, in the South-Central part of Gujarat and covers an area of 542.08 square kilometres. It is a forest of teak, bamboo and other miscellaneous species. Flora here includes Sag, sadad, shisham, khair, mahuda, bamboos, timru, bor, dhav, bili and dudhalo. It is home to Indian leopard, hyena, wolf, jackal, four horned antelope, Blue bull, wild boar, etc.

Notes:
Mohamad Al Jounde (16) from Syria has been honoured with the International Children’s Peace Prize 2017 for his efforts to ensure the rights of Syrian refugee children. Al Jounde, a refugee of the Syrian civil war, set up a school together with his family in a Lebanese refugee camp that currently provides 200 children with education. The prize is an initiative of the KidsRights Foundation, an international children’s aid and advocacy organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is awarded annually to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children’s rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with HIV/AIDS.

Notes:
Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has launched the UNICEF-ICC’s adolescent campaign “Power of Sports to Shape the Future of Adolescents” in Colombo, Sri Lanka to promote a UNICEF sports initiative for youngsters in South Asia.

Notes:
Michael I (96), the former King of Romania, has passed away in Aubonne, Switzerland on December 5, 2017. He ruled Romania twice – first in the 1920s, when he was just five years old and then again from 1940 to 1947. He was one of the last people alive to have served as a head of state during World War Two. King Michael was known for ousting fascist ruler Antonescu and ending his country’s alliance with the Nazis in 1944, switching sides to the Allies. However, in 1947 he was forced to abdicate by the country’s communists, who ruled until the revolution of 1989. He went into exile until the 1990s when he returned to Romania after the fall of the country’s communist leader, Nicolae Ceaucescu. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2016, he retired from public life.