GK & Current Affairs Quiz: September 14, 2017

Notes:
India has started ‘Operation Insaniyat’ to provided assistance to Bangladesh in response to the humanitarian crisis being faced on account of the large influx of Rohingya refugees into that country from Myanmar. Under it, relief material consisting of items including rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, biscuits and mosquito nets will be provided to the affected people. The relief material will be delivered in multiple consignments, and the first tranche will be brought to Chittagong by an Indian Air Force plane on September 14, 2017. The Union External Affairs Ministry has stated that India has always responded readily and swiftly to any crisis in Bangladesh, in view of close ties of friendship between the people of India and Bangladesh. In this hour of need, India stands ready to provide any assistance required by Government of Bangladesh.

Notes:
The Indo-Sri Lanka Hindi conference was organized at Kelaniya University near Colombo with theme ‘Hindi E-learning : Identity and possibilities’ on eve of Hindi Divas celebrations on September 13, 2017. High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu was the chief guest on the occasion. The Kelaniya University is distinct as it has a full-fledged Hindi department which offers courses ranging from degree to doctorate and research. Hindi is quite popular among Sri Lankan youths and many of them are enrolled for special Hindi classes offered by Indian Cultural centre in Colombo.

Notes:
The Union Finance Ministry has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced in the implementation of GST. The GoM will be assisted by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). Apart from this, the government has also constituted a committee on exports convened by revenue secretary Dr Hasmukh Adhia to look into issues of export sector and to recommend suitable strategy for helping the export sector in the post-GST scenario to the GST Council.

Notes:
Thomas Bach, the President of International Olympic Committee (IOC), has officially announced that Paris will host 2024 and Los Angeles will host 2028 Summer Olympics. Both cities wanted to host the 2024 event, before Los Angeles agreed to wait an extra four years after the IOC made guarantees on funding. Los Angeles will also receive up to $2 billion from the IOC, which is up to $300 million more than it would have gotten for 2024.

Notes:
The 12th edition of the India-Japan annual summit-2017 has held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on September 14, 2017. This is the 4th annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In it, India and Japan have signed 15 agreements for enhancing bilateral cooperation in several key areas including investment promotion, civil aviation, and science and technology. The two leaders also reviewed the entire spectrum of bilteral cooperation.They also laid the foundation for the country’s first high-speed rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Notes:
The 5th edition of the ‘Coastal Shipping and Inland Water Transportation Business Summit 2017’ will be held at Hotel Crown Plaza in Kochi, Kerala on September 22. The summit will be an initiative to explore the immense potential of coastal shipping and waterways as well as an effort to build a shared commitment and decipher the role that each stakeholder will have to play in integrating the coastal and waterways transport infrastructure. On this occasion, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam will present the India Seatrade Award for Excellence in Coastal Shipping & Inland Water Transportation.

Notes:
Professor Sadanand Gupta, the former head of the Hindi department in the Gorakhpur University and renowned Hindi litterateur, has been appointed as the working president of the Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan. The post was vacant since the Yogi Adityanath government came to power in March 2017. The working president of the Sansthan Uday Pratap Singh had resigned after change of guard in the State. Prof Gupta has been honoured with Birla, Vyas, and Saraswati awards for his literary contributions. He is also associated with several RSS magazines. A native of state of Jharkhand, Prof Gupta has been residing in Gorakhpur since his retirement from Gorakhpur University in 2013.

Notes:
The National Hindi Day (NHD) is celebrated every year on September 14 across India to mark the language that roots back to Ancient India, in which the scriptures of the Land of Saints and Yogis, Mythological Epics and Glory of various Kingdoms and Dynasties were written. On this day, in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India. On 2017 NHD, the President of India Ram Nath Kovind presented Rajbhasha awards for the Year 2016-17 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. The Rajbhasha awards were instituted by the Department of Official Language to recognize the excellent contribution of Ministries, Departments and Nationalized Banks in the field of Hindi.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have signed a MoU for automatic and regular exchange of information to curb the menace of shell companies, money laundering and black money in the country. This will also prevent misuse of corporate structure by shell companies for various illegal purposes. The MoU will enable sharing of specific information such as PAN number data in respect of corporates, Income Tax returns of corporates, financial statements filed with the Registrar by corporates, audit reports and statements of financial transactions received from banks relating to corporates. The information shared will pertain to both Indian corporates as well as foreign corporates operating in India. In addition to regular exchange of data, CBDT and MCA will also exchange with each other any information available in their respective databases, for the purpose of carrying out scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

Notes:
The Phrumsengla National Park (PNP) is located in Bumthang, Lhuntse, Mongar and Zhemgang districts of Bhutan and covers an area of 905.05 square kilometers. The park is home to six species of threatened birds: the rufous-necked hornbill, rufous-throated wren-babbler, satyr tragopan, beautiful nuthatch, Ward’s trogon and Chestnut-breasted partridge as well as the near-threatened wedge billed wren babbler. It has scenic views, including forests ranging with elevations from alpine to sub-tropical.