Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2017

Notes:
Indian weightlifter Konsam Ormila Devi has bagged a gold medal at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Kathmandu, Nepal. According to the Indian Weightlifting Federation, the weightlifter from Manipur lifted 56kg in snatch and 70kg in clean & jerk for a total effort of 126kg in the 44kg weight category to finish on the top of the podium.

Notes:
The 2017 BRICS Youth Forum (BYF) has started in Beijing, China on July 25, 2017 to discuss the development of the youth in the countries of the grouping. The theme of 3-day forum is ‘Enhance BRICS Partnership, Promote Youth Development’. The forum gathered 50 youth representatives working as civil servants, scholars, entrepreneurs, artists and journalists from BRICS countries. The representatives will hold discussions on issues concerning youth policies and entrepreneurship, as well as the roles of BRICS youth in global governance, before formulating an action plan for the forum. The five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – first came up with the idea of establishing a dialogue mechanism for BRICS youth in 2014 during a meeting between BRICS leaders in South Africa.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the first meeting of the newly constituted Islands Development Agency (IDA) on July 24, 2017. After detailed consultations, ten islands namely Smith, Ross, Aves, Long and Little Andaman in Andaman & Nicobar and Minicoy, Bangaram, Suheli, Cherium and Tinnakara in Lakshadweep have been identified for holistic development in the first phase. The IDA was set up on June 1, 2017 following the Prime Minister’s review meeting for the development of islands.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam memorial at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on July 27, 2017. The event coincides with the second death anniversary of Dr Kalam. The memorial has been designed and established by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and has been built at a cost of about 20 crore rupees. The memorial will reflect India’s diversity and various cultures and will pay homage to Kalam’s life, displaying replicas of rockets and missiles that the late ace scientist worked on. On this occasion, Prime Minister Modi has flagged off the mobile science exhibition bus “Kalam Sandesh Vahini” which shall travel across various States of the country and reach Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 15, which marks the birth anniversary of the former President.

Notes:
Ajay Singh from India has won bronze medal in 77 kgs men’s junior category at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships at Kathmandu, Nepal. With this, India medals tally goes to three. Apart from him, S. Nirpupama Devi had won bronze in 69 kgs women youth category and Konsam Ormila Devi had won gold in 44kg weight category.

Notes:
Recently, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has started a full-fledged merchant banking operations to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) utilise capital markets for their funding requirements. The purpose of the initiative is to enhance the access of MSMEs to the capital markets, including the SME Trading Platform and Institutional Trading Platform. This move will prove beneficial to the SME exchange as well as investors seeking liquidity or exit from their investment. The bank has supported over 125 venture capital funds and thus can provide help for listing the investee companies on SME exchanges via its merchant banking operations. The headquarters of SIDBI is located at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
The Delhi Metro has become the world’s first completely ‘green’ Metro system for adhering to green building norms for its residential colonies. Delhi Metro has secured the platinum rating for adherence to green building norms for its 10 residential colonies from the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).

Notes:
Ravi Mittal, additional secretary in the Ministry of Finance, has been appointed as the part-time member of the board of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA). He succeeded N S Rao at IRDAI, who is a joint secretary level officer. Former finance secretary Sushma Nath is another part-time member on the IRDAI board. Besides, Maruthi Prasad Tangirala, a 1990-batch IP&TA&FS officer, has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) at IRDAI and his position will be equivalent to a joint secretary.  Tangirala has replaced Sriram Taranikanti, who is a 1992 -batch IAS officer.

Notes:
According to the recently released OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026 report, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef, followed by Australia and India. As per report, India exported 1.56 million tonnes of beef in 2016. It is expected to maintain its position as the third-largest exporter of the meat till 2026 by exporting 1.93 tonnes that year. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD database, India imported 363,000 tonnes of beef in 2016 and the amount was projected to stay the same over the decade. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the total world beef exports in 2016 was 10.95 million tonnes and was expected to increase to 12.43 million tonnes by 2026. The type of beef exported was not specified, but the exported meat appears to be mostly from buffaloes as the report has specified the animal for imports by Myanmar from India.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has recently developed India’s first unmanned tank “Muntra” that can remotely operate. The agency has developed the tank in three different variants to tackle any kind of situation – ‘Muntra S’ for surveillance missons, ‘Muntra M’ for mine detection and a third variant ‘Muntra N’ for reconnaissance in areas with nuclear and bio threats. The Muntra variants have surveillance radar, an integrated camera along with laser range finder which can be used to spy on ground target 15km away – may be a crawling men or heavy vehicles.