Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2017

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is observing ‘Vasectomy Fortnight’ from November 21 to raise awareness about male sterilisation and to promote the participation of men in family planning. Under this awareness campaign, all states and union territories will observe Vasectomy Fortnight till December 4, 2017 by providing quality of male sterilization services at public health facilities. The theme for this campaign is “Zimmedar Purush ki yehi hai Pehchan, Parivar Niyojan mein jo de Yogdaan”. The Vasectomy fortnight will be observed up to block level with a focus on family planning service delivery along with information, education, communication, and advocacy.

Notes:
Shubhangi Swaroop, a native of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, has become the first-ever female pilot to be inducted into the Indian Navy and will soon be fly Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft. Besides Swaroop, Astha Segal from New Delhi, Puducherry’s Roopa A and Sakthi Maya S from Kerala also created history by becoming the country’s first women officers at the Naval Armament Inspection (NAI) branch of the Navy. They are among the 328 midshipmen and cadets who had passed out of the Ezhimala Naval Academy in Kerala on November 22, 2017. All the four will be undergoing subsequent professional training in their respective chosen branches before being employed on duty. The NAI branch looks after the inspection and assessment of the arms and weapons of the country’s naval force.

Notes:
The first- ever North East Development Summit (NEDS) 2017 was inaugurated by President of India Ram Nath Kovind in Imphal, Manipur, which was held on November 21-22, 2017. The NEDS 2017 was jointly organized by Manipur State Government in collaboration with Union Commerce Ministry and India Foundation. The main purpose of this summit was to showcase the economic potential and to attract investments in food processing, bamboo industry, real estate and other businesses within the state. During the course of this Summit, approx 20 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed between various Departments of Manipur State Government and National and International Companies/Investors. Approx 175 delegates including various foreign delegates attended the event.

Notes:
David Cassidy (67), the teen and pre-teen idol who starred in the 1970s sitcom ‘The Partridge Family’, and sold millions of records as the musical group’s lead singer, has passed away in Florida, United States on November 21, 2017.

Notes:
The 15th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short and Animation Film will be organised from January 28 to February 3, 2018 at the Films Division premises in Mumbai. The biennial event is the oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia. It will be organized by the Films Division, Information and Broadcasting ministry. MIFF 2018 will screen films from Jammu and Kashmir and the North East under special packages. Apart from films in various competition categories, best documentary, short and animation films produced in India and abroad will be also screened under special packages, including Jury retrospectives and best of festivals. Special packages like Turkish and Russian animation films and French short films will also be a part of the festival.

Notes:
The 2017 International Multilateral Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) has started in Bangladesh from November 26 to 28, 2017. The exercise will be inaugurated by Prime Minister of Bangladesh on November 27, 2017 in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh. From India, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will participate in the exercise to consolidate the bilateral naval relations between India and Bangladesh and to explore new avenues for naval cooperation. The exercise is taking place under the aegis of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) — an initiative of the Indian Navy that was launched in 2008 to bring together littoral states in the region. Indian Naval Ships Ranvir, Sahyadri, Gharial and Sukanya along with one Maritime Patrol Aircraft P-8I will take part in the exercise.

Notes:
Rajkummar Rao has won the best actor award for his movie “Newton” at the most prestigious 11th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA-2017). Beside this, the best screenplay award was also goes Amit V Masurkar and Mayank Tewari for “Newton”. Newton is India’s official entry for the foreign language film category at the Academy Awards 2018. The movie is produced by Drishyam Films and directed by Masurkar. It revolves around a young government clerk who is sent on election duty to a Maoist-controlled town and how the ideological struggle puts him in an awkward situation.

Notes:
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, an Indian table tennis player from Tamil Nadu, has clinched the men’s singles gold medal at the 2017 ITTF Challenge Spanish Open in Almeria, Spain. Sathiyan beat Japan’s Kazuhiro Yoshimura 11-7 3-11 11-6 6-11 13-11 11-7 in the men singles final on November 26, 2017. He is currently being supported by the Go Sports Foundation through the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme.

Notes:
Private sector lender Axis Bank has recently launched instant international payment services using Ripple’s enterprise blockchain technology solution for retail and corporate customers. The bank has launched a service for its retail customers in India to receive payments from RAKBANK in UAE and for its corporate customers in India to receive payments from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. Ripple makes international remittances faster and transparent for customers while ensuring security and improving efficiencies. The transactions reach their destination account in minutes, with the certainty of settlement, and with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment.

Notes:
Shaktikanta Das, the former Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), has been appointed as India’s G20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018 for the Development Track of the G20 summit. There are two tracks in G-20 — Finance Track and Development Track. Finance Track is managed by the secretary (economic affairs) as India’s Deputy to G-20 and the Development Track is coordinated by the Sherpa. A Sherpa is a personal representative of the leader of a member country at an international Summit meeting such as the G8, G20 or the Nuclear Security Summit and are responsible for thrashing out the details before the meeting of the leaders. There is only one Sherpa per Summit for each member country; he/she is assisted by several sous Sherpas. Prior to Das, former NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, held the responsibility of the G20 Sherpa.