Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2017

Notes:
The book “The Travelling Belly: Eating Through India’s By-Lanes” has been authored by food blogger Kalyan Karmakar. The author highlights the typical snacks of different regions, often gives an insight into the preferred taste palette of the locals and the popular cuisines in the particular area.

Notes:
The Commonwealth Day is observed every year on the second Monday in March month, which provides an opportunity for individuals, communities and organizations to promote the values of peace, democracy and equality that the Commonwealth stands for. The 2017 Commonwealth Day is celebrated on March 13 with the theme “A Peace-building Commonwealth”.

Notes:
The 22nd edition of Asian Athletics Championship will be held in India at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha from July 2017. With this, Bhubaneswar will become the 3rd city in India to host the athletics championship after New Delhi in 1989 and Pune in 2013. Nearly 800 athletes from 45 countries are expected to take part in the tournament.

Notes:
The Punjab football team has won the 71st Santosh Trophy football tournament by defeating Railways in the final by 2-1 goals in Goa. It was the 9th Santosh Trophy for Punjab.

Notes:
The 2017 International Conference on the “Vision Zero” and its relevance to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) has started in New Delhi from March 15 and will continue till March 17. The conference will provide a forum for promoting safety and health at work by exchanging knowledge, practices and experience. During the conference, an exhibition on “OSH – INOSH EXPO 2017” will also be organize to show-case new trends in Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), Occupational Health Promotion (OGP), etc. The 3-day conference is organized by Directorate General Factory Advice and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), Government of India, Ministry of Labour and Employment and German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), Germany in association with International Social Security Association (ISSA).

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched a Rs 10-crore Idea2POC (Idea to Proof of Concept) fund for women entrepreneurs. Under the fund, the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology can sanction upto Rs 50 lakhs for any woman innovator looking for funds for proof of concept validation, certification, and for other purposes such as to cover costs in manufacturing pilot devices. The new fund for women entrepreneurs was set up by the IT, BT and S&T Department, under the MultiSector Startup Policy of Karnataka. Apart from this, Karnataka already has three other Idea2POC funds, one for all technology sectors (Rs 10 crore), one focused on agriculture (Rs 2.5 crore) and another focused on tourism (Rs 2.5 crore).

Notes:
Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, has recently launched a new scheme “Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES)” in New Delhi for developing export linked infrastructure in states with a view to promote outbound shipments. The purpose of the TIES is to bridge the infrastructure gap and provide forward and backward linkages to units engaged in trade activities. The scheme will be implemented from April 1, 2017 and will have budgetary allocation of Rs 600 crore for three years with annual outlay of Rs 200 crore. The scheme would provide assistance for setting up and up-gradation of infrastructure projects with overwhelming export linkages like the Border Haats, Land customs stations, quality testing and certification labs, cold chains, trade promotion centres and export warehousing and packaging.

Notes:
Vienna has topped the list in the Mercer’s 19th Quality of Living survey 2017. Zurich is in second place, followed by Munich, Auckland, Vancouver, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Geneva. The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79). Among Indian cities, Mumbai is ranked the highest at 141, followed by Kolkata (149) and Pune (151), while Bangalore was rated the lowest (177) by the report. The survey included a city infrastructure ranking that assesses each city’s supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services, and public transportation as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports. The survey highlights that Indian cities that have been part of the survey haven’t made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year.

Notes:
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting has started in Baden-Baden, Germany from March 17, 2017. The 2-day meeting is an opportunity to discuss developments in the global economy with my international counterparts and decide on actions we can undertake to respond to the major challenges we all face.

Notes:
The National University of Singapore (NUS) has topped the full list of the top 300 institutions in the Times Higher Education (THE)’s Asia University ranking 2017. From India, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore ranked at 27th while IIT Bombay secured 42nd rank. The most-represented nation in the rankings is Japan, with 69 institutions followed by China with 54 institutions. For the first time, India has become the 3rd most-represented nation with 33 universities in the ranking.