Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2017

Notes:
Sunny Verghese, co-founder and Group CEO of Singapore-based Olam International, has been appointed as the new chairman of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Verghese is the first ever Asian CEO to be appointed as Chair in the organisation’s 25 years of history. His term will begin on January 1, 2018 for a duration of two years and will succeed Paul Polman, whose term ends on 31 December 2017. The WBCSD is a global network of more than 200 CEOs who are responsible for combined revenue of more than $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees.

Notes:
Indian-American Gitanjali Rao has won the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her prototype water lead contamination detector ‘Tethys’. The sensor-based device detects the quality of water and shares the results to a mobile application via bluetooth. The aim of the competition, open to citizens of the US who are enrolled from Class 5 to 8, is to identify a solution to an everyday problem that directly impacts either the contestant or the global population. The winner of the competition is awarded $25,000 along with the title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist 2017’.

Notes:
The National Police Commemoration Day (NPCD) is observed every year in India on October 21 to mark the memory of brave policemen who sacrificed their lives while discharging their duties. The day commemorates the sacrifices of ten policemen while defending our borders with China in 1959. Indian Police personnel were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. So far since Independence, 34,418 Police personnel have sacrificed their lives for safeguarding the integrity of the nation and providing security to people of this country. During the last one year, from September 2016 to August 2017, 383 Police personnel have laid down their lives.

Notes:
Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar has clinched the 2017 Macao Open golf tournament title to bag his 8th Asian Tour title. As a result, Bhullar etched his name on the Macao Open trophy for the second time having previously won the event in 2012. It was also Bhullar’s third wire-to-wire victory of his career following the Macao Open 2012 and the Indonesia Open 2013. With this, he equalled Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa’s record of most wins (8) by an Indian on the Asian Tour.

Notes:
Jayant Rikhye has been appointed as the new chief executive of India operations of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd (HSBC). He will take charge from 1 December and will succeed Stuart Milne. Currently, he is HSBC’s international head for Asia-Pacific, which is responsible for 11 markets in the region.

Notes:
As per report by Coeus Age Consulting, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the top state in terms of digital initiatives undertaken, with a maximum score of 100.1 on performance index, followed by Maharashtra at 99.9 and Andhra Pradesh at 99.8. The assessment by the knowledge domain service provider was done using a scoring framework made up of two key constructs, Policy and Infrastructure Readiness (PIR) Score and Mission Mode Projects’ Performance (MMP) Score for each state. Chhattisgarh (97.4) and Karnataka (95.3) occupied the fourth and fifth positions in the list, respectively, the company said in a release. The report is based on a comparative assessment of digital initiatives by 36 states and Union Territories. The assessment is based on 109 key performance indicators related to policy, infrastructure and mission mode projects.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon make Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) compulsory for companies having aggregate fund-based and non-fund based exposure over Rs 5 crore. Before this, RBI made LEI mandatory for transactions in interest rate, forex and credit derivative market. LEI is a unique 20 digit alphanumeric code that will be assigned to corporate borrowers. Banks will be required to capture this number in the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) database that captures details of loan above Rs 5 crore. LEI mechanism will help banks to effectively monitor debt exposure of corporate borrowers. It would also enable banks in preventing multiple loans to companies against the same collateral.

Notes:
The President of India Ram Nath Kovind has constituted a Commission under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine Sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the central list. The four-member Commission headed by Justice G. Rohini will submit its report to the President within 12 weeks. The commission has commenced functioning on 11th October 2017, from its office at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The sub categorization of the OBCs will ensure that the more backward among the OBC communities can also access the benefits of reservation for educational institutions and government jobs. On receipt of the report, the Central Government will consider ways and means for equitable distribution of the benefits of the reservation in Central Government jobs and admission in Central Government Institutions amongst all strata of the OBC.

Notes:
The 2017 Vigilance Awareness Week (VAW) will be observed by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) from 30th October to 4thNovember, 2017 with theme “My Vision-Corruption Free India”. The Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu will be the Chief Guest at the Inaugural Function to be held on 30th October 2017. The purpose of observing VAW is to educate the public at large about the corruption related practices and also educating them how to report about it.

Notes:
India’s passport has been ranked 75th out of 94 countries with a visa-free score of 51, according to the ‘Global Passport Power Rank 2017’ by global financial advisory firm Arton Capital. The list is topped by Singapore, followed by Germany, Sweden and South Korea. As per report, Singapore’s passport is the most powerful ranking with a visa-free score of 159. Afghanistan was on bottom most position (94th) with the score of 22, while Pakistan was at 93rd Position with Iraq with the score of 26. The index ranks national passports by the cross-border access they bring, assigning a “visa-free score” according to the number of countries a passport holder can visit visa-free or with visa on arrival.