Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2017

Notes:
The 3rd edition of Women of India Organic Festival has started at Dilli Haat in New Delhi on October 1, 2017. The purpose of the 15-day festival is to promote women entrepreneurs and farmers in the organic sector. Maneka Gandhi, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) has inaugurate the festival. The theme of the festival is – Good for Women, Good for India, Good for You.

Notes:
The Gautala Autramghat Sanctuary (GAS) is a protected area of Aurangabad District and Jalgaon District of Maharashtra and covers an area of 26,061.19 hectares. It houses a variety of wildlife including chinkara, nilgai, sloth bears, jungle cat, wanderoo, leopard cat, etc.

Notes:
The National Hard Court Tennis Championship has started in New Delhi on October 2, 2017. Among the men players, Tamil Nadu led Dhakshineswar Suresh, who last year won the Under-16 National championship, Aryan Goveas and Paramveer Singh Bajwa are participating in the tournament. Among the women players, Zeel Desai will head the field. Other players to watch out for would be Mihika Yadav, Sai Samhita, Snehadevi S Reddy and Mahak Jain. Tennis is the only sport in the country where the top players do not compete at the Nationals.

Notes:
In Libya, the Port of Benghazi has officially reopened for the first time in three years on September 30, 2017 after being forced to cease operations because of clashes in the cradle of the 2011 revolution. After long-time dictator Muammar Kadhafi was ousted and killed in the 2011 revolution, the country descended into political and military chaos. Commercial operations at the port had ended in 2014 when armed movements, including the Islamic State terror group, occupied the North African country’s second city. In a bid to boost business at the facility, port officials announced a temporary customs exemption for all imports through Benghazi. The port is situated in the eastern part of the country.

Notes:
The 8th Conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from October 4, 2017. The 3-day conference will be inaugurated by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. The Indian delegation will be lead by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who will deliver the lead speech on the topic Association of the SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians, a platform for the Parliamentarians of South Asia to work together to reach the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development. She is accompanied by a delegation of MPs and senior officials of Lok Sabha.

Notes:
For the first time, Nepal and India will conduct a joint tiger census in their national parks, forests and protected areas adjoining the two countries by using a globally-recognised method – camera tapping procedure from November 2017. By using this method, officials can avoid chances of repeated counting of the same tiger. The Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve, which are the habitats of tigers in Nepal, are adjacent to the Balmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar. Similarly, Nepal’s Bardiya National Park is close to India’s Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary while the Shuklaphanta National Park in Nepal adjoins India’s Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. The tiger is regarded as an endangered animal and is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Notes:
The Karnataka government has launched ‘Mathru Poorna’ scheme to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women in rural areas. Under the programme, pregnant and lactating women in rural areas will get one nutritious meal daily for 25 days in a month. This meal will meet 40-45% of the daily calorie, protein and calcium requirement per day of the pregnant and lactating mothers. Along with the meal, Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets will be administered and gestational weight monitoring will be ensured for pregnant women. The scheme will be implemented through anganwadis in the State. Each meal is estimated to cost around Rs. 20. The food will be provided for 15 months, from the start of pregnancy up to six months after delivery.

Notes:
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been jointly awarded to three US scientists – Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne and Barry C. Barish – for the detection of gravitational waves. The ripples were predicted by Albert Einstein and are a fundamental consequence of his General Theory of Relativity. The winners are members of the Ligo-Virgo observatories, which were responsible for the breakthrough. The winners join a prestigious list of 204 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901. The trio will share the prize sum of nine million kronor prize. Prof Weiss gets half of the prize money, while Barish and Thorne will share the other half. Gravitational waves describe the stretching and squeezing of space-time that occurs when massive objects accelerate.

Notes:
In Rajasthan, Dungarpur has become the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) tribe district of the state. With this, Dungarpur has also become the first ODF district of Udaipur division. The district administration has achieved the goal of building 2 lakh 85 thousand toilets in 291 panchayats. This is the result of the extraordinary efforts made in Dungarpur towards Swachch Bharat Abhiyan. Having more than 65 percent tribal population, objective of making the district ODF has been acquired before the time limit by the District Administration with continues awareness campaign and public participation. Dungarpur city has also been declared the cleanest city of the state for two consecutive years for the year 2016 and 2017.

Notes:
Ganga Prasad, the former member of Bihar Legislative Council (BLC), has been sworn-in as the new Governor of Meghalaya at Raj Bhavan in Shillong on October 5. Prasad has been a member of the legislative council in Bihar for 18 years. He was a businessman by profession, joined politics as a Jan Sangh member in 1967 and held various organisational posts in it as well as in the BJP.