Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
The French film on AIDS “120 Beats Per Minute”, directed by Robin Campillo, has won the prestigious Golden Peacock award for best film at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2017), while the film’s actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart won the Silver Peacock in the best actor male category in Panaji, Goa. Apart from this, Amitabh Bachchan was felicitated with the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award 2017 and the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

Notes:
The 7th edition of ‘Kathakar – International Storytellers Festival’ has inaugurated by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi on December 1, 2017. Kathakar is the only oral storytelling festival in India and is a part of Ghummakkad Narain- the Travelling Literature Festival which was started under the aegis of UNESCO in 2010. The Festival is an attempt not only to preserve the art form but also create new audiences for the same. This year festival will be hosted in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Mumbai.

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:
The Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary (AWS) is situated at Kamrup district in Guwahati, Assam and is spread over an area of 78.64 square kilometers. It consists of Amchang Reserve Forest, South Amchang Reserve Forest and Khanapara Reserve Forest. The sanctuary represents one of the rich and ecologically diverse habitat for the wide variety of animals and plant species. Hollockgibbon, Chinese pangolin, Flying squirrel, Assamese Macaque, Capped languor, Slow loris, Leopard, Elephant, Sambar, Barking Deer, Gaur etc., are the principal animals found in the wildlife sanctuary.

Notes:
Indian actor Parvathy Thiruvoth Kottuvatta has won the Best Actor Female Award at the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2017) for her role in Malayalam film “Take Off”. The movie, directed by Mahesh Narayan, is based on the ordeal of Indian nurses in the city of Tikrit, Iraq, in 2014. It also won the Special Jury Award which included a Silver Peacock, a certificate and cash prize of Rs 15 lakh. Beside this, Marathi film “Kshitiz A Horizon” (directed by Manouj Kadaamh) won the ICFT Unesco Gandhi Medal 2017. The Prestigious Silver Peacock Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director goes to Director Kiro Russo for the film “Dark Skull”. The theme of IFFI 2017 was “Celebrating the Future of Cinema” and Canada was the focus country.

Notes:
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is observed every year on December 3 to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The annual observance of the day was proclaimed in 1992 by a United Nations General Assembly resolution. The 2017 theme is “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient society for all”.

Notes:
Salil S Parekh has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Infosys, with effective from January 2, 2018. Parekh joins Infosys from Capgemini, where he was a member of the Group Executive Board. He has Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

Notes:
The International conference on climate change has inaugurated by Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari to draw attention towards the adverse effects of global warming in the Hindu Kush mountain range. The conference ‘Resilient Hindu Kush Himalaya: Developing Solutions towards a Sustainable Future for Asia’ is organized by Nepal’s Ministry for Environment in collaboration with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). The 4-day conference is attended by more than 300 experts from different countries of Asia including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Myanmar. V K Saraswat, member of India’s Neeti foundation is leading the Indian delegation in the conference. The Hindu Kush Himalaya, a mountain range that spans from Afghanistan to Myanmar sources 10 major river systems in Asia that provide water, ecosystem services and livelihoods to more than 210 million people. The region holds and distributes water for more than 1.3 billion people living in downstream river basins.

Notes:
The 6th International Tourism Mart 2017 has started in Guwahati, Assam on December 5. The three day program has been organized by Ministry of Tourism in association with all North Eastern states. Panel discussions, workshops, business to business meetings, cultural programs are being organized. Senior officials from Railway, Civil Aviation, DoNER, Road Transport ministry will share their views for the betterment of the tourism sector of North East including Assam.

Notes:
India’s largest floating solar power plant has become operational at the Banasura Sagar dam in Wayanad, Kerala on December 5, 2017. The solar power plant that floats on the surface of water has a capacity of 500 kilowatts (KW). It consists of 1,938 solar panels with a capacity of 260 watts, a 500 kilo volt ampere (KVA) transformer and 17 inverters. The unique feature of this plant is the anchoring mechanism used by the overwhelming technology to maintain the plant with the alteration of the water level. The total cost of the project is Rs. 9.25 crore.