Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2017

Notes:
The India women’s national field hockey team has won the 2017 Women’s Hockey Asia Cup Tournament by defeating China in the final by 5-4 via a shootout at Kakamigahara in Japan on November 5, 2017. Savita was adjudged Goalkeeper-of-the-Tournament while Monica won the Woman-of-the-Match award. With this win, Indian team has qualified for the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup i.e. scheduled to be held in England. South Korea secured third place with a 1-0 win over Japan. India had to wait long for their second Women’s Asia Cup title with the last one coming way back in 2004, when they had beaten Japan in New Delhi for the trophy. The triumph of the Indian women’s team follows the Asia Cup victory of the men’s side in October 2107.

Notes:
The awards for the ‘Best Urban Transport Practices’ were announced by Central Government at UMI Conference in Hyderabad on November 6, 2017 . In it, Surat Municipal Corporation has been chosen for the ‘Best City Bus Services Award’ by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for succeeding in attracting 87% of the private vehicle and auto rickshaw users to use city buses. Mysuru’s Public Bicycle Sharing has won the ‘Best Non-Motorised Transport’ Award while Kochi (Kerala) has been chosen for the ‘Best Urban Transport Initiative’ Award for completing its Metro Rail Project in a quick time besides integrating the metro with other modes of transport.

Notes:
The annual ‘Bali Jatra’ festival was started in the city of Cuttack at Gadagadia Ghata of the Mahanadi river, Odisha on November 4, 2017. The week-long famous fair on an area of 30 acres on the river bank will continue till November 10. The fest is celebrated to mark the day when ancient traders of Odisha would set sail to distant lands of Bali, as well as Java, Sumatra, Borneo (all in Indonesia), and Sri Lanka for trade and cultural expansion.  It is celebrated every year from the day of Kartika Purnima according to the Oriya Calendar. In all, Bali Jatra bears testimony to the rich maritime legacy of ancient Odisha.

Notes:
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has been designated as the new Finance Secretary of India. Adhia is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. The post was vacant after former Finance and Expenditure Secretary Ashok Lavasa retired on October 31, 2017. As per the convention, the senior most Secretary in the Finance Ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary. Adhia’s appointment comes ahead of the 10 November GST Council meeting in Guwahati that is likely to see a revision in the tax rates for some common use items and easier GST returns filing norms for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Notes:
A theme based India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival has started at Kathmandu, Nepal on November 7, 2017. The 5-day festival is organised by South Asia Foundation (SAF) in association with Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS), Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi and BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India (GoI), is sponsoring the event. The basic objective of the festival is to promote bilateral relations through crafts and strengthen the relationship between artisans of India and Nepal. Around 50 artisans will showcase their crafts during the event. A Khadi- fashion show will also be organized at India House, Embassy of India in Kathmandu on Nov 10 as part of the festival.

Notes:
The Union Government has reconstituted Multi-Agency Group (MAG) to probe into cases of Paradise Papers, which is also probing the Panama Papers leak. The reconstituted MAG headed by the Sushil Chandra, the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will have representatives from ED, RBI and Financial Intelligence Unit. The Paradise Papers revealed that India ranks 19 out of the 180 countries represented in the data of offshore entities. In all, 714 Indian entities and individuals figure in the list. The Paradise Papers include nearly 7 million loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork over nearly 50 years from inside Appleby, a prestigious offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and other places. Indians who figure in Paradise Papers include Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife Manyata, Union minister Jayant Sinha and Rajya Sabha MP R K Sinha.

Notes:
H S Prannoy has won the men’s singles title at the 82nd Senior National Championship Senior National Badminton Championships in Nagpur, Maharashtra on November 8, 2017. He defeated higher ranked Kidambi Srikanth in the final by 21- 15, 16- 21, 21-7.

Notes:
The 19th edition of Organic World Congress (OWC- 2017) will be held at India Expo Centre in Greater Noida from Nov 9-11. The International Federation of Organic Farming Movements (IFOAM) and OAFI are organizing the event where 55 seeds group from 15 Indian states will showcase 4,000 varieties of seeds. It will see the participation of 1,400 representatives from 110 countries, and 2000 delegates from India. The Organic World Congress (OWC) is organized once every three years in a different country and this time it is being organised in India. The last edition of the OWC took place in Istanbul, Turkey in 2014.

Notes:
Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, has launched the She Pad scheme for school girls on November 8, 2017, which will be implemented in 300 government schools across 114 panchayats in Kerala. The scheme will facilitate free sanitary napkins, storage spaces for napkins and environment-friendly incinerators at all government & aided schools in the state. It is a first-of-its-kind scheme in India, which aims to raise awareness about the need for menstrual hygiene and break the taboo around the subject. The financial cost for the project, about Rs30 crore, is provided by local panchayats and Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation.

Notes:
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is organizing a National Conference with the State Governments and Service Providers to brainstorm and showcase various utilization models leveraging BharatNet infrastructure in New Delhi on November 13, 2017. The Conference will be attended by IT Ministers and IT Secretaries from States. In it, DoT will sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with states for the implementation of BharatNet Phase II. Under BharatNet Phase I, Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connectivity has reached in over 1, 00, 000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) across different States in the country. By Dec 2017, all 1, 00, 000 GPs will be operational on the BharatNet infrastructure. As of today, almost 90,000 installations have been completed and Services are expected to commence in 80,000 GPs shortly.