December 13, 2017 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

The Rajasthan Cabinet has decided to accord those detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India Rules (DIR) during Emergency period 1975-77 outside the state, the status of ‘fighters for democracy’. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said, the detainees, most of them Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders, will now be entitled to pension and other allowances after getting the status of ‘Loktantra Rakshak Sainani’. So far, only persons detained under MISA and DIR and kept in Rajasthan jails were given monthly pension of Rs 12,000 and a monthly allowance of Rs 1,200. The pension scheme’s name had been changed to Rajasthan Loktantra Senani Samman Nidhi.

Three-day media workshop on ‘Climate Change Reporting’ began in Kohima. The workshop is jointly organised by the Indian Himalayas Climate Adaptation Programme (IHCAP) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Department of science and Technology (DST) in collaboration with Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, State Climate Change Cell, NASTEC and Centre for Media Studies (CMS). Annu Anand, head of advocacy at CMS announced the launch of a media fellowship programme under which four fellowships will be awarded to journalists to write about climate adaptation in the Indian Himalayan Region.

Rajasthan has become the first state in India to offer free e-mail address in Hindi to its residents. The facility —name@rajasthan.bharat (in Devanagari script) has been introduced by Rajasthan government. The first e-mail ID that was created was that of the Rajasthan chief minister, Vasundhara@rajasthan.bharat (in Devnagari). All the government personnel in Rajasthan will soon have an email id in Hindi too. The Hindi email ID is offered to all the Internet users. The project has been implemented by Rajasthan IT department with partnership in form of in-sourcing with private IT companies. Apart from people who use Hindi keyboard, the email also works for those who use English keyboard.

The Tripura Government has introduced Child Care Leave (CCL) for women employees with minor children for 730 days in their entire service life. Employees enjoying the CCL for children’s sickness or examinations would be paid leave salary equal to the pay drawn immediately before proceeding on the CCL. The Supreme Court passed an order in 2014 that a woman employee of the central government could get uninterrupted leave for two years for child care, which would include needs like examination and sickness

Union Home Ministry has released Rs 174 crore to six states – Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Manipur, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh – under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP). All these six states have an international border. Funds released under BADP will be used for development of infrastructure in forward areas of these states. BADP is fully funded by Central Government. Under this programme, development work is carried out in all villages which are located within the 0-10 km of the international border. 17 states of India have an international border. Development work permitted under BAPD include construction of helipads in areas which are not accessible by road, skill development training to local farmers, work related to swatchhta aabhiyan, promotion of sports, rural tourism and border tourism.

In a bid to boost bilateral strategic and defence ties, India and Australia held their inaugural 2+2 Foreign Secretaries and Defence Secretaries Dialogue on December 12, 2107 in New Delhi. In context of international relations, a mechanism between two countries, wherein their respective defence and foreign affairs ministries, jointly hold discussions is referred to as 2+2 dialogue. In the 2+2 Dialogue with Australia, India was represented by foreign secretary S Jaishankar and defence secretary Sanjay Mitra, while secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson and Secretary of Department of Defence, Greg Moriarty participated from the Australian side.Discussions at the dialogue focused on strategic and defence issues of mutual interest.

Central Government has decided to set up special courts to deal exclusively with criminal cases against 1581 Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Earlier, Supreme Court had directed Central Government to set up special courts for taking up cases against tainted lawmakers who have managed to hold their positions on account of inordinate delay in prosecution. The 12 special courts will dispose all such cases within a year. Out of the 12 special courts, 2 special courts will handle cases against 228 MPs. Other 10 courts will be set up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh where numbers of MLAs facing criminal charges are more than 65. Central Government has earmarked Rs 7.80 crore for operations of these special courts

India will host the 3rd annual meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Mumbai from 25th – 26th June, 2018. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (multilateral institutions division) in the Union Ministry of Finance and Danny Alexander, AIIB’s Vice- President and Corporate Secretary. Theme of this meeting will be ‘Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration’. This meeting will be an opportunity for India to project itself as potential infrastructure investment destination.

The Delhi government has proposed to bear the cost of treatment of victims of motor accidents, fire incidents and acid attacks that take place on the city’s roads at private hospitals under a new scheme.The scheme was approved at a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 12th December 2017. It will now be sent to Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal for his approval. Irrespective of domicile of the victims, free medical treatment will be provided to them victims of three types of accidents – motor accidents, acid attacks and fire incidents on Delhi’s roads. The Delhi government would bear the treatment cost of such people in both government and private hospitals. There is no upper cap on the expenses to be borne by the Delhi government.

Football legend Diego Maradona unveiled a statue of himself at a grand Indian reception in Kolkata. Diego Maradona, former Argentine World Cup hero was honoured with a massive 12ft, bronze replica in Kolkata. He unveiled the statue of his likeness holding the 1986 World Cup trophy and it would be erected at a park named after him. He handed out cheques worth Rs 10,000 each to 11 cancer patients and flagged off an air-conditioned ambulance. He will take on cricket icon Sourav Ganguly in an exhibition match titled ‘Diego vs Dada’ in Barasat.

India has ranked 100th among 149 nations on Legatum Prosperity Index – 2017. This marks an improvement of 4 spots as compared to 104th rank in previous year.In the individual pillar of prosperity rankings of 2017, India performed best on Governance and Economic Quality, while it scored lowest on the Natural Environment pillar. Among other indicators, Economic Quality pillar also takes into consideration the proportion of the population with bank accounts. In India, proportion of the population with bank accounts increased to 53 percent in 2014 from 35 percent in 2011.This list is topped by Norway

Singapore launched its first large-scale electric car-sharing programme to provide commuters with more transport options and steer them away from the need to buy their own cars. Singapore’s electric car-sharing service will be run for a decade by BlueSG, a unit of France’s Bollore Group. It aims to roll out a fleet of 1,000 electric vehicles and 2,000 charging points by 2020. BlueSG said Singapore’s service will become the world’s second-biggest electric car-sharing programme after Paris. The statement did not state how much the project costs. Singapore’s government has provided some funding for the programme’s infrastructure. Users can subscribe to one of two membership plans and will be charged either S$0.33 per minute with an annual subscription or S$0.50 per minute.

The 54th meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) programming committee was held at the Kathmandu-based SAARC Secretariat, Nepal. The two-day meeting focused on budget issues of the SAARC Secretariat, SAARC five regional centres and four specialised bodies. Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Organisation Division Chief Mr. Mani Prasad Bhattarai headed the Nepali delegation. A total of 50 people took part in the event.

In a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook (ADO), Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for 2017-18 by 0.3 per cent to 6.7 per cent. Lingering effects of demonetistion, slower than expected growth in the first half and teething problems post Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll out have been cited as reasons for this downward revision of growth forecast. In addition to this, growth forecast for 2018-19 has also been lowered to 7.3 per cent from 7.4 per cent. However, on account of measures to ease compliance for new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and bank recapitalisation plan, ADB expects growth for remaining part of 2017-18 to be stronger as compared to previous quarters.

South Korea banned its financial institutions from dealing in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. This decision has been taken in wake of recent surge in Bitcoin price, which is hitting new lifetime highs almost on daily basis. Experts are considering this surge as a financial bubble. South Korea accounts for nearly 20 per cent of global Bitcoin transactions. Around one million South Koreans including small-time investors are estimated to own Bitcoins. This ban imposed on financial institutions from dealing in virtual currencies is an attempt by South Korean government to safeguard the interests common people who do not understand the risks associated with virtual currencies and are simply lured in to make quick bucks. Earlier in September 2016, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission ordered a ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Global mobile payments company, OBOPAY has procured a license for Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate a semi-closed loop wallet in India. On basis of this PPI license and its technology expertise, OBOPAY will now be able to solve various digital payment related problems for its partner clients. Management of OBOPAY is also exploring to enter into partnerships with companies in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) lending, health and insurance payments, government subsidy disbursement, distribution and supply chain payments and education. OBOPAY will also use the PPI license to boost the business in its Business to Business (B2B) operations by co-branding the prepaid instrument with a partner brand.

The World Bank will end its financial support for oil and gas exploration within the next two years in response to the growing threat posed by climate change, it will not finance upstream oil and gas after 2019. The announcement was made at the One Planet Summit, convened by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the World Bank president, Yim Yong Kim, and the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres. In exceptional circumstances, World Bank said it would consider lending for oil and gas projects in the very poorest countries but only where it helped the poor get access to energy and the project did not conflict with commitments to reduce greenhouse gases made in the 2015 Paris climate change accord.

Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for facilitating the supply of sand for highways construction work. This MoU aims to solve the problem of shortage of sand faced by concessionaires working on highways projects. As per the terms of MoU, sand procured through DCI’s planned dredging operations at locations in South East Asia, will be shipped, stored (at various ports in India) and marketed in India by business intermediaries. NHAI will play a role of a facilitator by displaying the availability of sand at various stockyards at the ports.

Ministry of Railways has introduced online bill tracking system, Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS) for vendors and contractors. The online IT platform was developed in house by CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems), New Delhi. It is called Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS). After registration the vendor/agencies can see their bill status with dates through various stages of processing of bills, the stage at which it is lying, the amount for which it is passed and other details. The bill tracking facility is available to the vendors/contractors of goods and services. The bill details are available on http://ireps.gov.in. All bills will be settled within 30 days of its receipt. To facilitate the vendor, a help facility has also been added.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to lift the ban on the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) provided former IPL Chief Lalit Modi stays away from its functioning. The RCA was suspended by the Indian cricket board in May 2014 when ex-Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Chief Lalit Modi was re-elected its president. Since its suspension in 2014, RCA’s cricket affairs are being looked after by the BCCI. The RCA filed a suit against its suspension by the BCCI, to which the board had asked the association to withdraw all pending cases and not to involve the cricket board in any case. The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) already dissolved the ad-hoc committee that was constituted to run the affairs in Rajasthan cricket, paving the way for the ban to go.

Rohit Sharma hit his third double hundred in ODI cricket and remained unbeaten at 208 runs in the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Mohali. Rohit Sharma is the only cricketer to have scored three double centuries in ODIs. Out of the three double centuries two of them have come against the same opponent Sri Lanka. With this, he is the first captain to score a double century and also the first batsman to hit a third double hundred in ODI cricket.

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed in its Special General Meeting (SGM) that India will host the One Day International World Cup in 2023 and the Champions Trophy in 2021. This is the first time India would be hosting an ODI World Cup completely. India has previously co-hosted ODI World Cup on three occasions (1987, 1996 and 2011). India has won the tournament twice (1983 and 2011). Another point brought up at the SGM was the number of days reversed for hosting home games in the 2019-23 cycle. While India has planned to host 81 more home games, they have reduced the number of playing days to 306.

Senior Congressman and ex-speaker of Delhi Assembly Chaudhary Prem Singh passed away, following a heart attack. Chaudhary Prem Singh was 85 years old. He breathed his last at Max Hospital, Saket, in South Delhi. He had suffered a heart attack while participating in a party event on Dr Ambedkars Mahaparinirvan Divas on December 6, 2017. He was president of the Delhi Congress thrice besides being speaker of Delhi Assembly.