Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
Saraswati Tripathy (89), the prominent Gandhian and freedom fighter, has passed away in Jajapur district of Odisha on November 30, 2017. She was the wife of late freedom fighter Brundaban Tripathy. She had met Mahatma Gandhi at Beraboi Ashram in Puri district and joined the freedom struggle. She was supervising the activities at Thakar Bapa Ashram at Balipadia village in Jajapur district till her last breath.

Notes:
Japan will host a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on December 15, which will be focused on finding peaceful ways to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests and de-nuclearise the Korean peninsula. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to brief the council. This year’s meeting has the backing of nine members – the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine and Uruguay.

Notes:
The 2017 Konark dance festival has started on December 1, 2017 in backdrop of the Sun temple in Konark, Odisha. It is one of the biggest dance festivals held in India. The 5-day dance festival opened near the world famous Sun Temple of Konark with Odissi recital by the dancers of Nupur Dance Academy of Bhubaneswar under the tutelage of Niranjan Rout and group. To attract more foreign tourists to the festival, Odisha Tourism included performances of two foreign dance groups from Malaysia, who will perform classical Indian dance during the festival. Coinciding with the dance festival, International Sand Art Festival has started at Chandrabhaga beach in Konark. Eight international sand sculptors and 62 national artists were being exhibited their works in the festival.

Notes:
South Korea and the United States launched their largest-ever joint aerial drill exercise “Vigilant Ace-2017” on December 4 and will run till Dec 8, 2017. Around 12,000 US service members, including from the Marines and Navy, are joining South Korean troops. The joint exercise is designed to enhance readiness and operational capability and to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula, the US military had said before the drills began. The exercise comes after a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced missile as part of a weapons programme that has raised global tensions.

Notes:
Anupriya Patel, MoS (Health & Family Welfare), has recently inaugurated the 22nd conference of Asian Harmonization Working Party (AHWP) at New Delhi. The 5-day conference is being conducted by Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) and National Drug Regulatory Authority (NDRA) of India in collaboration with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The key objective of the event is to develop and recommend approaches for the convergence and harmonization of medical device regulations in Asia and beyond and to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise amongst regulators and the industry. The AHWP is a voluntary non-profit organization of the 30 national regulators of member countries and industry members with a goal to promote regulatory harmonization on medical device regulations in Asia and other regions in accordance with the guidance issued by International Medical Device Regulators Forums (IMDRF). It works in collaboration with related international organizations such as IMDRF, WHO, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), etc.

Notes:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launched a crypto-currency “Petro” to advance issues of monetary sovereignty, make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade. Beside this, Petro will also circumvent US-led financial sanctions. The digital currency will be backed by Venezuelan reserves of gold, oil, gas and diamonds.

Notes:
The Jessore Sloth Bear Sanctuary is located in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat at the Gujarat-Rajasthan border and covers an area of about 180 square kilometres. It is home to grey jungle fowl, white-bellied minivet, Indian black ibis, etc. The sanctuary is principally for protection of the sloth bear.

Notes:
The Kumbh Mela has been inscribed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ at its 12th session in Jeju, South Korea on December 7, 2017. This inscription is the third in two years for India following the inscriptions of yoga and Nouroz. The inscription of elements on the list helps countries which are a part of UNESCO’s convention for safeguarding cultural heritage to mobilize international cooperation and assistance for ensuring that communities continue to practice and transmit such aspects of their heritage. According to UNESCO, Kumbh Mela (the festival of the sacred Pitcher) is the largest peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth, during which participants bathe or take a dip in a sacred river. The festival is held at Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik every four years by rotation and is attended by millions of people irrespective of caste, creed or gender.

Notes:
The 46th Congress of the International Hockey Federation (FIH-2018) will be held in New Delhi from October 30 to November 3. The biennial event will run for four days and will comprise meetings, social events, networking opportunities and presentations. The Congress, which will have representations from the National Associations, will also chart out the future roadmap of the game, including the ongoing Hockey Revolution, FIH’s 10-year strategy to drive hockey’s status as a global sport. Beside this, India will also host the men’s Hockey World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar from November 28 to December 16, 2018.

Notes:
Recently, Gurdeep Singh from India created three new senior national records in +105 Kilogram weight category in the just-concluded IWF World Weightlifting Championships at Anaheim in USA. Singh finished 13th overall with a total lift of 388kg (172 + 216) but created national records in snatch, clean and jerk, and the total lift. In snatch, he bettered his own earlier national record of 171kg by one kilogramme. In the total lift also, Gurdeep bettered the earlier national record of 384kg.