Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
The Indian Navy Day (IND) is observed every year on 4th December every year to remember the courage and determination that Indian Navy had shown during the 1971 war. During the India-Pakistan war of 1971, the Indian Navy played a significant role in the bombing of the Karachi harbor and sank Pakistan Naval Ship PNS Ghazi. The Navy Day celebrations not only display the nation’s technological progress but also the maritime achievements of India. The Indian Navy plays a great role in securing the marine borders of the country as well as enhancing the international relations of the country through foreign port callings, joint exercises, humanitarian missions and calamity relief.

Notes:
India’s first Madame Tussauds wax museum has officially opened in New Delhi with 50 life-like figures spanning across history, sports, music, films, and politics, for the public at the iconic Regal building in central Delhi. The 50 life-like wax figures include multiple national and international celebrities such as Sachin Tendulkar, Mary Kom, Milkha Singh, Lionel Messi, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit Nene, as well as political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, PM Narendra Modi. This is the 23rd Madame Tussauds attraction globally. It will be open for all seven days with tickets priced at Rs 960 for adults and Rs 760 for children. The timing is 10am to 7.30pm.

Notes:
The Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh has been included in the National Capital Region (NCR). With this, the total number of districts in the NCR goes to 23. The decision to include Shamli in the NCR was taken at the 37th meeting of the National Capital Region Planning Board held in New Delhi on December 4, 2017. Besides Delhi, there are at present 22 districts- 13 of Haryana, 7 of Uttar Pradesh and two of Rajasthan in the NCR. Cities in the NCR get funds at attractive interest rates from NCRPB for infrastructure development. The meeting was chaired by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The meeting also decided that the forests should be identified as per the order of the Supreme Court and the ‘Aravallis’ are to be delineated in the entire NCR, as per the earlier decisions of the Board.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved debt financing and partial risk guarantee of $583 million to develop Reliance Power’s 750MW LNG based combined cycle power plant and LNG terminal project in Bangladesh. ADB’s financing package includes loans and partial risk guarantees for the power generation facility, as well as for the LNG terminal. The total project cost is approximately $1 billion.

Notes:
The Rajasthan government will soon introduce ‘Guru-Shishya’ programme in all districts, under which college students can raise discuss with their teachers the issues and problems related to their institutes. According to state Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari, the programme will be held in one nodal college in each district where students selected on merit and elected members of students union would participate. It will soon begin from Jaipur.

Notes:
The Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary (JWS) is located in Jambughoda Tehsil, in the South-Central part of Gujarat and covers an area of 542.08 square kilometres. It is a forest of teak, bamboo and other miscellaneous species. Flora here includes Sag, sadad, shisham, khair, mahuda, bamboos, timru, bor, dhav, bili and dudhalo. It is home to Indian leopard, hyena, wolf, jackal, four horned antelope, Blue bull, wild boar, etc.

Notes:
Mohamad Al Jounde (16) from Syria has been honoured with the International Children’s Peace Prize 2017 for his efforts to ensure the rights of Syrian refugee children. Al Jounde, a refugee of the Syrian civil war, set up a school together with his family in a Lebanese refugee camp that currently provides 200 children with education. The prize is an initiative of the KidsRights Foundation, an international children’s aid and advocacy organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is awarded annually to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children’s rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with HIV/AIDS.

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Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has launched the UNICEF-ICC’s adolescent campaign “Power of Sports to Shape the Future of Adolescents” in Colombo, Sri Lanka to promote a UNICEF sports initiative for youngsters in South Asia.

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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 Koderma Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) is located in Koderma district of Jharkhand and covers an area of 150.62 square kilometres. It is home to tiger, leopard, sloth bear, sambhar, cheetal, barking deer, nilgai, wild boar, giant squirrel, jackal, fox, hyaena, langur, porcupine etc. besides a variety of bird and reptile species. This wildlife sanctuary comprises hilly range of dry deciduous forests, traversed by plenty of rivulets. Besides shrubs and grasses, the important tree species here are Sal, Asan, Panjan, Kendu, Salai, Mahua, Piar, Sidha, Amla, Jamun, Bauhinia, Khair, Palas, Ber etc.