GK & Current Affairs Quiz: September 2-3, 2017

Notes:
Nirmala Sitharaman, the former minister of state for the commerce and industry ministry, has become the new Defence Minister of India on September 3, 2017 after latest Union cabinet reshuffle. She succeeded Arun Jaitley. With this, she has become the India’s first woman Defence Minister after Indira Gandhi. Currently, she is Member of Parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha representing the state of Karnataka. Now, Suresh Prabhu has become the new Union Minister of Commerce and Industry.

Notes:
The 9th edition of BRICS summit-2017 has started at Xiamen in the Fujian Province of east China on September 3, 2017 with theme “BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future”. For this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked on a two nation tour of China and Myanmar. On the first leg of his visit, Mr. Modi will attend the 2017 BRICS Summit. In the 3-day summit, at least four documents, BRICS Action Agenda on Economic and Trade Development, BRICS Action Agenda on the Innovation Cooperation, BRICS Customs Cooperation and an MoU between BRICS Business Council and New Development Bank are expected to be signed. On the second leg of the visit, Prime Minister Modi will pay a State visit to Myanmar from September 5th to 7th. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first bilateral State visit to Myanmar. During the visit, Prime Minister will hold discussions with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on matters of mutual interest and also call on President U Htin Kyaw. Apart from his engagements in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, Mr Modi will visit Yangon and Bagan.

Notes:
Divya Deshmukh (11) has won gold in the girls’ Under-12 category at the World Cadets Chess Championship at Pocos de Caldas, Brazil. She scored a total of 9.5 points to give India its only medal in the championship this year. It is Divya’s second world title after her victory in the under-10 World Youth Chess Championship-2014 in Durban.

Notes:
The Karnataka government has recently decided to provide free education for girls across the state from Class 1 up to graduation in all public and aided private schools and colleges, excluding professional institutions. The scheme will be able to avail free education without paying a penny from the next academic year. According to officials, the government would reimburse all fees except examination fees of girl students of Class 1 to graduation level, irrespective of their family’s annual income. The students will have to pay the fees first and the same would be reimbursed by the government. The entire tuition fee will be reimbursed, according to the minister. The purpose of the scheme is to help underprivileged and lower middle-class sections of the state. Currently, the girls are given free education in government schools and colleges up to undergraduate level in the state. Karnataka is not the only state in India to start this grand scheme. Telangana and Punjab have also launched similar schemes. Telangana has announced free education for girls from kindergarten to post-graduation, and Punjab has extended the scheme until PhD.

Notes:
The world’s highest sandcastle 54.72 feet (16.68 metres) tall has recently built in the German city of Duisburg. It was constructed in over 3 weeks and is supposed to stand until at least September 24, 2017. The representative of Guinness World Records (GWR) has certified the record. It takes the title from a 14.84-meter (48.69-foot) sandcastle built early this year in India. The new sandcastle is decorated with sand models of tourist attractions such as Athens’ Acropolis, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Notes:
J Y Pillay, an Indian-origin veteran civil servant, has been appointed as the acting president of Singapore. He succeeded Tony Tan Keng Yam, who completed a six-year term. He will act as the president until after polling day on Septemeber 23 – or after nomination day on September 13, if a candidate is elected unopposed. According to the report, this is the first time the office has fallen vacant since the elected presidency was introduced in 1991.

Notes:
Shirish Pai (88), the renowned Marathi poet and activist, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on September 2, 2017. She was credited with introducing ‘Haiku’ to the Marathi speaking world. Pai was the daughter of noted writer-journalist ‘Acharya’ Pralhad Keshav Atre. She started writing ‘Haiku’ in 1975. She studied Japanese ‘Haiku’, its origin and nature and published five Marathi ‘Haiku’ books. Ms. Pai also translated some Japanese ‘Haiku’ from English to Marathi. She also worked as a journalist in the Maratha newspaper and participated in the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ (United Maharashtra) movement.

Notes:
Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat, has been formally accorded the status of India’s first World Heritage City (WHC) by UNESCO. Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, has handed over the certificate declaring Ahmedabad as a ‘World Heritage City’ to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar on September 1, 2017. The 606-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River, presents a rich architectural heritage. It has 28 Archaeological Survey of India’s centrally protected monuments. The city was also the center for India’s non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. In July 2017, the UN agency had inscribed Ahmedabad as India’s first World Heritage City (WHC) at the 41st session of UNESCO’s world heritage committee at Krakow in Poland.

Notes:
Piyush Goyal has been appointed as the new Union Minister of Railways after latest Union cabinet reshuffle on September 3, 2017. He succeeded Suresh Prabhu, who has become the new Union Minister of Commerce and Industry. Prabhu resigned from the post after a series of train accidents in August 2017. Apart from Railways, Piyush Goyal retains the Ministry of coal. Along with Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi were promoted to the cabinet rank.

Notes:
The Pulie Badze Wildlife Sanctuary (PWS) is located at Kohima District of Nagaland and covers an area of 923 hectares.The sanctuary is a natural habitat for Blyth’s Tragopan (or Grey-bellied Tragopan).