Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2017

Notes:
The Pana Sankranti, also known as Maha bisuba Sankranti, is the traditional New Year day festival of Buddhists and Hindus in Odisha. This year, it is celebrated on April 14, 2017.This day is named after the main chilled sweet mango-milk-yoghurt-coconut drink “Pana”, which shared as a tradition on this occasion. The festival is celebrated with visits to Shiva, Shakti, or Hanuman temples, as the day is considered to be the birthday of Hanuman.People takes baths in rivers or major pilgrimage centers. Communities participate in mela (fairs), watch street dance or acrobatic performances. A notable climax of the social celebrations is fire-walk, where volunteers sprint over a bed of burning coal while being cheered with music and songs. Pana Sankranti is similar to new year festivals observed by Hindus elsewhere such as Vaisakhi (north and central India), Bihu (Assam), Pohela Boishakh (Bengal), Vishu (Kerala) and Puthandu (Tamil Nadu).

Notes:
The first-ever joint military exercise ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2017’ will be held between Nepal and China from April 17, 2017 with a special focus on combating terror and disaster management. The 10-day-long military drill is being organised by the two countries as part of their preparedness against terrorism that has posed as a serious security threat globally. It is to be known that Sagarmatha is the Nepali name of Mt Everest that is bordering between Nepal and China.

Notes:
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has won the 2017 Time magazine’s readers’ poll of the 100 most influential people in the world. Duterte got 5% of the total “yes” votes in the poll, which closed on April 16, 2017. The official TIME 100 list, which is selected by TIME’s editors, will be announced on April 20, 2017.

Notes:
The World Hemophilia Day (WHD) is observed every year on April 17 to improve and sustain care for people with inherited bleeding disorders around the world. The 2017 World Hemophilia Day theme is “Hear Their Voices” to unite the community and show support for the millions of people affected by bleeding disorders. Hemophilia is an inherited bleeding disorder in which a person lacks or has low levels of certain proteins called “clotting factors” and as a result, the blood doesn’t clot properly. Clotting factor is a protein in blood that controls bleeding. If you have hemophilia, you may bleed for a longer time after an injury than you would if your blood clotted normally. Hemophilia is quite rare. About 1 in 10,000 people are born with it.

Notes:
The Rajasthan government has recently signed a reworked MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) for the Rs 43,129 crore Barmer refinery. The Barmer refinery will be the first in the country to produce BS-6 standard fuel. The state government will have 26% stake in the project while rest will be held by HPCL. The government has made 4800 acre land available at Pachpadra for the project. It is expected that the project will take four years to complete.

Notes:
India’s oldest and largest Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Kharagpur will start “Vastu Shastra” classes for architecture students from the next academic session i.e. starting from August 2017. It will be introduced to undergraduate students as part of courses on basic design and history of architecture. At the post-graduate level, concepts of social principles, 9-circuit placements or the nabagraha mandal, sacred altars and design semiotics and semantics will be taught to students. The purpose of this initiative is to explore India’s ancient roots in Vastu Shastra. It is a part of the institute’s Science and Heritage Initiative (SandHI) which will oversee the curriculum design.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Manipur , Nongthombam Biren Singh has recently launched two web applications to check corruption and to keep track of government activities. The newly launched web-sites are Anti-Corruption Cell and Digital Application for Review by Public And Nation (DARPAN), which will monitor all government funded projects and ensure transparency and accountability. The purpose of the website DARPAN is to inform the people of the State about various projects being taken up by the Government of Manipur and current status of the projects and check dissemination of fake or incorrect status report by using GPS location verification.

Notes:
The Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has launched a nationwide programme for capacity building of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayats and a training program for trainers of women panchayat leaders on April 17, 2017 at Ranchi, Jharkhand. The training program seeks to empower EWRs of panchayats by enhancing their capacity, capability and skill in governance and administration of villages. The purpose of the training programme is to build the confidence of the women representatives in dealing with the daily functioning of the panchayats and make them aware of the laws and rights of women under Constitution of India.

Notes:
The ICICI Bank Data Centre in Hyderabad has become the India’s first Platinum rated project to be rated under IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System. At present, more than 150 professionals from ICICI Bank are IGBC Accredited Professionals (APs) and they are fully equipped to manage the green building facilities of ICICI Bank. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) is a part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and its’ vision is to enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025. The IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System would facilitate in providing tremendous tangible and intangible benefits. Tangible benefits include: 20 to 25% reduction in Power Usage Effectiveness, 25 to 30% reduction in water consumption. Intangible benefits include enhanced air quality, excellent day-lighting, health & well-being of the staff operating such facility.

Notes:
The Punjab government will launch an innovative scheme “Book Banks” in all schools of the state so that needy students will get the books for their academic year free of cost. These book banks will request students to deposit their old books so that the needy students in the next batch can use them free of cost. The scheme will help the needy save money and it will also reduce costs and environmental damage associated with printing new books. Though, this unique initiative will be purely on voluntary basis and no student would be bound to give away their old books. NGOs that have been running similar schemes will help the government in the implementation process.