Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2017

Notes:
The Parambikulam Tiger Reserve (PTR) is a protected area located in Chittur taluk in Palakkad district of Kerala and covers an area of 391 square kilometers. It is alos home to lion-tailed macaques, Nilgiri tahr, elephants, Bengal tigers, Indian leopards, Nilgiri marten small Travancore flying squirrel, etc. According to recently conducted tiger census at the regional level in 2016, there are 33 tigers in Periyar reserve and 25 in Parambikulam reserve respectively, which is informed by the Forest Minister K Raju in the state assembly on August 18, 2017. It must be noted that as per a tiger census conducted at the national level in 2010, considered as authoritative figure, there were 38 tigers in Parambikulam spread over 643 sq feet area and 34 in Periyar that covers an area of 925 sq feet.

Notes:
In September 2018, Senior IPS officer Arun Kumar was appointed as Director General of Railway Protection Force (RPF). Kumar, a 1985 batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is serving as Special Director General of Border Security Force.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Union Ministry of Health has inked a pact with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) to collaborate on vaccine research and development. With this partnership, India will commit an annual contribution of $5,00,000 to IVI and joins Sweden and South Korea as financially contributing signatories to IVI. In addition, ICMR will be focussed on research and development of vaccines combatting various infectious diseases. As per official statement, the IVI has 35 signatory countries and India officially became a signatory in 2012. The IVI is an international nonprofit organization i.e. devoted to developing and introducing new and improved vaccine to protect the people, especially children, against deadly infectious diseases. The headquarters of IVI is located in Seoul, South Korea. The ICMR is the apex body in the country for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.

Notes:
Bulgarian weightlifter Velichko Cholakov (35), an Olympic and world medalist, has passed away in Smolyan, Bularia on August 20, 2017. He took +105 kg bronze at the Athens 2004 Olympics and silver in the same division in the 2003 world championships. He was part of the Bulgarian team pulled from the Beijing 2008 Games after failed dope tests. Cholakov was one of 11 members of the contingent to test positive for a banned anabolic steroid. In recent years Cholakov dedicated his time to training young weightlifters in Smolyan.

Notes:
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has launched digital police portal under Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project (CCTNS) on August 21, 2017. The portal is a smart policing initiative to provide services to citizens and aid efficient police investigation. It is a platform for citizens to file online crime related complaints and also request for antecedent verification. The portal will also provide access to authorized persons to use National Database of crime records for the purpose of investigation. In addition, central investigating and research agencies have also been provided logins to the portal to access crime statistics. Till date, the CCTNS national database has around seven crore records of old and new criminal cases.

Notes:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in New Delhi to jointly conduct capacity building exercises in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications regulation. The agreement would help both regulators to work closely in enhancing mutual cooperation and bilateral relations in telecom and broadcasting regulation. The agreement will facilitate exchange of information and regulatory best practices in the fields of broadcasting and telecommunications, including new and emerging areas.

Notes:
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has declared right to privacy a fundamental right under the constitution on August 24, 2017. A nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution. The ruling on the highly contentious issue was to deal with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes. Others members of the bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, R F Nariman, A M Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, S K Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer also shared the same view. The nine judges unanimously overruled the two earlier judgements of the apex court that right to privacy is not protected under the Constitution.

Notes:
Microsoft has launched its ‘Project Brainwave’ deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of ultra-low latency, the system processes requests as fast as it receives them. The ‘Project Brainwave’ uses the massive Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) infrastructure that Microsoft has been deploying over the past few years. The real-time AI is becoming increasingly important as cloud infrastructures process live data streams, whether they be search queries, videos, sensor streams, or interactions with users.

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The 2017 International Military Music Festival “Spasskaya Tower” has started in Moscow, Russia on August 24 and will continue till September 3, 2017. The Indian Navy Band “Tri- Services” is participating in the fest. It is the parade of the best military music bands of Russia and other countries that takes place every year at Red Square in Moscow. This Music Festival is a mega event, where military musicians represent the variety of national, artistic and military traditions of the world. Every year about 1500 musicians, military men and other artists from around 40 countries perform at the “Spasskaya Tower”. The Festival is duly considered one of the largest international events in Russia and attracts tremendous response of the general public.

Notes:
Rajiv Bansal, the 1988 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India for three months. Bansal, who is additional secretary and financial adviser at the petroleum ministry, will replace Ashwani Lohani — who has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board. It must be noted that Bansal is taking over as Air India CMD at a time when the government is working on the modalities for the disinvestment of the loss-making national carrier. He had served at the civil aviation ministry between 2006 and 2008.