GK & Current Affairs Quiz: July 8-9, 2017

Notes:
The Ahmedabad city has been declared as a World Heritage City (WHC) at the 41st session of UNESCO’s world heritage committee at Krakow in Poland. With this, the 606-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad, which was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah, has become India’s first World Heritage City. The city was also the center for India’s non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. The walled city has 26 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of ‘pols’ that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930. The Ahmedabad city has also stood for unity with its elegant carvings in its Hindu and Jain temples as well as standing as one of the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and Hindu Muslim art. Now, Ahmedabad will join the world heritage cities like Paris, Cairo and Edinburgh. Out of total 287 world heritage cities across the globe, there were only two cities in the Indian subcontinent- Bhaktpur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka. The UNESCO tag will add immense value to Ahmedabad city which will also boost tourism.

Notes:
A.R.Rahman, the Oscar winning Indian music composer, has been shortlisted for the 2017 World Soundtrack Awards – a public choice award for his music in the film “Viceroy’s House”. Gurinder Chadha, a British filmmaker of Sikh origin has directed Viceroy’s House. The film features Huma Qureshi, Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson and late actor Om Puri. It will release in India on August 18, 2018. For this award, all soundtrack and film music fans globally can cast their vote for what they find the finest soundtrack in the past one year. The soundtrack that gets the highest number of votes will be given the World Soundtrack Public Choice Award 2017.

Notes:
Guruswamy Jayraman, a 69-year-old Indian-origin Glenwood resident, has been honoured with the highest civilian award “Order of Australia” in Australia for community work, the highest civilian award in Australia. He works as a senior accountant with Woollahra Municipal Council for a living and has been devoting most of his spare time in community work for the last 25 years. He has represented various community organisations like Auburn Diversity Services, Hindu Council of Australia, Sri Om Adi Sakhi Ashram, Sewa International Australia, etc. Jayraman migrated from Delhi to Australia in 1991.

Notes:
The First edition of WINGS 2017 – “Sab Uden, Sab Juden”- Expanding Regional Connectivity was hosted in New Delhi on July 7, 2017 by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The event saw participation from 28 States and Union Territories and out of this 19 states and Union Territory made presentation emphasizing the incentives or special packages to the airlines other than the support offered by Government of India under RCS- UDAN. This event brought together the key stakeholders of the Aviation Sector such as States, Tourism Departments and Tour Operators as a Group representing airline consumers to facilitate interaction with various airlines, airport operators, cargo operators and other ecosystem players at a common forum.

Notes:
The global food fair “World Food India 2017” will be organised by the Union Food Processing ministry in New Delhi on November 3-5, 2017 to boost food sector. For the global food fair, the Union ministry of Food Processing has organised a roadshow in Chandigarh to provide a platform to Indian farmers and manufacturers to showcase their products and explore partnerships with foreign companies. More than 10 states and all leading giants from India and abroad in food processing, food technology, technology and equipment players, cold chains, food retailers will be present at World Food India.

Notes:
Saima Wazed Hossain, a globally renowned Bangladeshi champion for the cause of autism spectrum disorder, has been appointed as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Autism in South-East Asia Region for two-years. As a WHO Goodwill Ambassador, she will create awareness and generating action to address and elevate sufferings of people affected by autism in the region. Ms Saima is the daughter of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She is a member of World Health Organization’s 25-member Expert Advisory Panel on mental health. Globally, autism prevalence rates are estimated to be 160 cases in a population of 10 000. In low-and middle-income countries, children with autism do not get the medical attention and care they need. Their life is a struggle, marred by stigma and discrimination.

Notes:
The 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) International Conference will takes place in Istanbul, Turkey from July 10 – 12, 2017. Dharmendra Pradhan Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, will represent India in the conference. The tri-annual WPC Conference is widely recognized as the `Olympics` of the oil and gas industry. It attracts Ministers, CEOs of Oil and Gas MNCs, experts and academics from the hydrocarbon sectors and provides an ideal forum to showcase potential of India’s hydrocarbon sector, highlight the recent policy reforms to international investors and interact with policy makers, technologists, scientists, planners and management experts, entrepreneurs, service providers and vendors in order to attract foreign investments into India’s growing oil and gas sector.

Notes:
Harinder Pal Sandhu from India has won the South Australian Open squash title by defeating Rhys Dowling in the final by 11-8, 12-10, 11-4 at Adelaide, Australia. It is Sandhu’s eighth career title at the PSA level.

Notes:
Indian athletes, Mohammad Anas and Nirmala Sheoran have won the gold medal in the men’s and women’s 400 metres athletics event on the second day of the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. In the 1500 m race, it was Chitra PU and Ajay Kumar Saroj who bagged the other two gold medals for India. The other medal winners on the second day included Rajiv Arokia (silver), Jisna Mathew (bronze), Tejinder Pal Singh Toor (silver) and Dutee Chand (bronze).

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has launched an app – GST Rates Finder in New Delhi to verify the accurate tax rate on commodity and services under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Through this app, user can determine GST rate by entering the name of the commodity or service. The search result will list all the Goods and Services containing the name which was typed in the search box. A taxpayer can search for applicable CGST, SGST, UTGST rate and Compensation Cess on a supply. This mobile app can be downloaded on any smart phone and can work in offline mode, once downloaded. The application has been launched on Android platform, and will soon be available on iOS platform. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has also provided a GST rate finder on its portal – cbec-gst.gov.in to help taxpayers know applicable GST rate on their supplies