Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2017

Notes:
Nakul Chopra, currently President of AAAI and Senior Advisor at Publicis Communications, has been elected as the new Chairman of Television ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. He will succeed Sudhanshu Vats, chief executive officer (CEO) at Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Chopra will be the 3rd chairman of the agency and has been on the board of BARC since September 2016. The BARC India is a joint industry body formed to design, commission, supervise and own country’s television audience measurement system.

Notes:
The 3rd edition of World Telugu Conference (WTC-2017) has formally inaugurated by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu in Hyderabad, Telangana on December 15. The aim of the 5-day Conference is to promote Telugu and its literature besides helping the present generation learn more about Telugu language and its rich culture and heritage. The Telangana Sahitya Akademi is the nodal agency for the conference and approx 50 thousand participants are expected to witness the literary-cultural event. President Ram Nath Kovind will be the chief guest at the valedictory function of the conference on December 19, 2017.

Notes:
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog has launched the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL)’s Community Day in New Delhi on 15th December 2017. The day marked the Community Drive Initiative in which 25 young Mentors engaged with more than 200 students who are not enrolled in the formal education system. Amitabh Kant, the CEO of NITI Aayog, has launched the initiative in which these mentors will visit four locations in New Delhi to conduct brief sessions with children from various NGOs, on how innovations can help resolve the problems in the communities. The Atal Tinkering Lab Community Drive Initiative is aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs by extending innovation to children in the community who do not have access to formal educational institutions. The purpose of this initiative is to provide these children with the same educational tools as the students in Atal Tinkering Labs to enable them to become problem solvers. The NGOs participating in these interactions include organizations working with disabled children, street and working children, and girls from the weaker sections of society.

Notes:
The 4th India-Australia-Japan Trilateral Dialogue was hosted by Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Foreign Secretary of India, with Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia Frances Adamson and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, in New Delhi on December 13, 2017. The three sides highlighted the growing convergence of their respective countries’ interests in the Indo-Pacific region and underscored their shared commitment to peace, democracy, economic growth and a rules-based order in the region. They underscored their support for ASEAN centrality in the political and security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region. They also renewed their resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed the need for enhanced cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally dedicate the Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP) in Mizoram to the nation on December 16, 2017. On this occasion, the Prime Minister will also launch ‘MyDoNER App’ and will distribute cheques to start-up entrepreneurs in Aizawl. The 60MW Tuirial HEPP has been constructed as a Central Sector Project and implemented by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), under the administrative control of the Union power ministry. The project has been built at a cost of Rs 1,302 crore. It is the biggest power project in Mizoram and will feed the entire energy to be generated to the state, which will help it achieve the Centre’s ambitious and flagship Mission ’24×7 Affordable Clean Power for All’. The State’s current demand of electricity is 87 MW and this is being met by the mini power projects and availability of its share of power from central sector projects.

Notes:
The United Nations (UN) International Migrants Day is observed every year on December 18 to recognize the efforts, contributions, and rights of workers and members of their families worldwide. The 2017 theme is “Safe Migration in a World on the Move”

Notes:
Sushil Kumar, the double Olympic medalist, has defeated New Zealand’s Akash Khullar via a pinfall in the final of the 74kg freestyle category to clinch a gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships at Johannesburg in South Africa on December 17, 2017. It was Sushil’s first medal in international wrestling since his gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It was double celebration for India as, Parveen Rana also won a bronze medal in the same category.

Notes:
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama “Mo” Farah, who is Britain’s most successful-ever distance runner, has won the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Farah, a four-time Olympic champion, has won his third successive world 10,000m gold medal in London in August 2017. He is the first athlete to win ten global outdoor long-distance titles on the track and the first Briton to win outdoor titles in four World Championships (both consecutively and outright). With this award, he became the first long-distance runner to win the Sports Personality award since Paula Radcliffe in 2002.

Notes:
Eminent Bengali poet Joy Goswami has been chosen for the 31st Moortidevi Award for the year 2017 for his poetry collection titled “Du Dondo Phowara Matro”. It is an autobiographical account of the poet’s life featuring his close ones including a pet cat. The work also echoes secret trysts, chance loves and more of the fantastical quotidian which makes up the poets consciousness. The award consists of a Saraswati Statue, a Citation Plaque and cash award of Rupees 4 lakh. It is first time that this award is given to Bengali poet.

Notes:
The Union government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). At present, e-NAM participants are doing payments through traditional ways via bank branches, debit cards and net banking. Now, ICICI Bank will enable BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments. The effort is to provide seamless experience for making online payment of trade and services undertaken on the e-NAM platform. At present, 470 mandis across 14 states are live and 90 commodities are being traded on e-NAM platform, which was launched in April 2016. The target is to connect 585 mandis with e-NAM by March 2018. The e-NAM model aims at revolutionising agri markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards ‘One Nation, One Market’.