Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
The International Youth Day (IYD) is observed every year on August 12 to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth. The 2017 theme is “Youth Building Peace”, which recognizes the contributions of young people to preventing conflict, supporting inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.

Notes:
The Government of India will soon launch a new sub-scheme named “Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY)” as part of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). Initially, AGEY will be implemented in 250 Blocks in the country on pilot basis with each Block provided upto 6 vehicles to operate the transport services. The Self Help Groups (SHGs) under DAY-NRLM will operate road transport service in backward areas. This will help to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services to connect remote villages with key services and amenities (such as access to markets, education and health) for the overall economic development of backward rural areas. This will also provide an additional avenue of livelihood for SHGs.

Notes:
The Canara Bank has recently launched two digital products: ‘Bharat QR’, a platform for payment settlement at merchant locations, and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system for Net banking customers. The first service is a mobile application, which enables a merchant to accept payments as settlement for sale of goods or services. The second product (BBPS), an initiative of the RBI offers bill payment services to the bank’s net banking customers with network of agents.

Notes:
Vijay Nambisan (54), the well-known poet, writer and journalist of India writing in English, has passed away on August 10, 2017. He was the first-ever All India Poetry Champion in 1988 for his poem Madras Central. He co-authored a book of poems ‘Gemini’ with Dom Moraes and Jeet Thayil. Nambisan passionately championed the ethical use of language and made an appeal to readers, writers and enthusiasts of literature in his monumental book ‘Language as an Ethic’. His poetry served keen observations about politics — both internal and external — with gentle wit, often directed at himself.

Notes:
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, has recently launched Facebook’s ‘She Means Business’ programme in Bhubaneswar to train women entrepreneurs in the state. For this, Facebook has partnered the Odisha’s MSME department and Project Mission Shakti to train 25,000 women entrepreneurs and self-help group (SHG) members on digital marketing skills by the end of 2018. After imparting training, Facebook will make a database of entrepreneurs in the state and will monitor their growth, turnover and profit after one year.

Notes:
The Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU), which is India’s first-ever aviation university, will soon be inaugurated at Fursatganj in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The central university is planned as an autonomous body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation with an aim to facilitate and promote aviation studies, teaching, training and research. Air Vice Marshal (retired) Nalin Tandon has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor. 

Notes:
Santosh Sharma has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Hindustan Coper Limited (HCL). Currently, he is Director (Operations) in the HCL. According to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment to the post for a period of five years.

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has recently approved the proposal of Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) for the strategic disinvestment. The approval will help in speedy completion of strategic disinvestment transactions. The department will set up an alternative mechanism comprising of the Finance Minister, Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Minister of Administrative Department, to decide on the matters relating to terms and conditions of the sale from the stage of inviting of Express of Interests till inviting of financial bid. It will also empower the Core Group of Secretaries to take policy decisions with regard to procedural issues and to consider deviations as necessary from time to time for effective implementation of decisions of CCEA.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has signed Global Environment Facility (GEF) Grant Agreement with the World Bank (WB) for $24.64 million for Ecosystems Service Improvement Project (ESIP). The project is entirely be financed by the World Bank out of its GEF Trust Fund. The project’s duration is 05 years. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) will implement the Project in the States of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh through Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education under the National Mission for Green India. The purpose of the Project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Departments of Forestry and Community Organisations to enhance forest ecosystem services and improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities in Central Indian Highlands.

Notes:
The Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University (MITWPU), the first of its kind in India, has recently inaugurated by chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis in Pune. The purpose of the university is to visualize education through a holistic outlook of knowledge building to establish peace and harmony in the world. Beside this, a two-day ‘Global Summit Science and Spirituality for World Peace’ was also organised at Swami Vivekananda Mandap at MIT World Peace University to discuss issues of national and international importance and how a different outlook towards education could solve many of them.