December 22, 2017 - Current Affairs Quiz (Not Published) - Current Affairs MCQ

Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has launched Students and MEA Engagement Programme (SAMEEP), which aims to take Indian foreign policy and its global engagements to students in small towns and cities across India. MEA has asked all its officers, under-secretary and above to visit university/college/school attended by them whenever they are on leave or are visiting their hometown. On these visits, officers would interact with students and make them aware about the functions of MEA. The students will get information about how India engages with other countries of the world, what are key features of its foreign policy and how diplomacy is actually conducted. The objective behind this programme is not only to familiarise students about India’s foreign policy and functions of MEA but also to inspire them for considering diplomacy as a career option.

In a bid to curb and trace black money stashed abroad, India Government has signed an agreement with Switzerland to allow automatic sharing of tax- related information. This agreement was signed on December 21, 2017 and will be effective from January 1, 2018. It was signed by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman, Sushil Chandra and Swiss Ambassador to India Andreas Baum. Under this agreement, from 2018, India and Switzerland would start collecting data in line with global standards and will exchange it from 2019 onwards.

Lok Sabha passed Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to amend regulations pertaining to compensation payable for acquisition of immovable property by the Centre for defence and security purposes. The bill was moved by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri. This is the 12th amendment to the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act and contains a provision to allow Central Government to re-issue the notice of acquisition, so as to ensure that the property’s owner gets an opportunity to be heard. Those individuals whose land is acquired by the centre will be able to get justice through this amendment.

Central Government has formed a committee to examine complaints filed against Chairman and Managing Directors (CMDs), chief executives, directors of public sector enterprises, public sector banks, insurance companies and financial institutions. This committee will be chaired by the Secretary (Coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat. Secretaries of Department of Public Enterprises and Department of Financial Services and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) secretary will be the members of this committee.This committee will also examine complaints against workmen directors, chartered accountant directors (excluding government nominee directors, shareholder directors, RBI nominee directors) and officers’ directors of public sector banks. After initial examination, if the complaint is found to be valid, the committee would recommend further investigation/course of action. Complaints which do not hold any substance will be closed by the committee.

The 7th India International Coffee Festival (IICF) will be hosted by Bengaluru from 16 to 19 January, 2018, at Hotel Lalit Ashok. The India International Coffee Festival (IICF) is organised by India Coffee Trust and Coffee Board of India. This festival will promote coffee tourism in Karnataka. Around 500 international delegates would participate in this festival. The festival will include seven skill building workshops in roasting, brewing and post-harvest technologies. It will conduct an expo, in which latest coffee-related technologies will be exhibited by more than 60 companies. Also, a startup pavilion and golf championship will be arranged as part of this festival.

India has announced a grant of $25 million as development assistance for Rakhine State of Myanmar. India’s External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar mentioned the amount will be spent over a period of five years. This development assistance would be utilized to restore normalcy in the Rakhine state. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims recently fled from Rakhine state after facing violence targeted on them.

India has announced that, it would set up a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) at Al Azhar University, Egypt. India’s Ambassador to Egypt, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, said that, the equipment and course material for CEIT have reached Egypt. Also, the premises are under construction. The CEIT would provide high-tech education and skills to the youngsters of Egypt. Sanjay Bhattacharya visited the Al-Azhar Observatory recently.

According to a latest report released by JLL India (a real estate services firm), Delhi is the 7th most expensive premium office location in the world. Mumbai (16th rank) is another Indian city to feature in this list. Interestingly, rent of premium office location in Delhi is much higher than San Francisco and Dubai. As per the report, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok are the top three most affordable premium office locations in the world. The report has outlined that many of world’s most expensive premium office spaces are located in Asia-Pacific region. Average annual rent in this region is $111 per square foot which is almost 30 percent more than the America’s ($85 per square foot per year).

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) released the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) and Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) respectively. Second comprehensive Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) for India too has been conducted during 2017. FSAP is a joint program undertaken by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to comprehensively assess and conduct in-depth analysis of a country’s financial sector. WB is only involved in conducting FSAP of developing countries and region. FSAP has been conducted since September 2010 in 29 countries (including India) at interval of every five years. Last FSAP for India was conducted in 2011-12.

In a bid to boost inflows of foreign funds in India, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)has raised the investment limit for foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in central government securities to over Rs 191000 crore. This new limit will come into effect from January 1, 2018. Current investment limit for FPIs in central government securities is Rs 189700 crore. Besides, for sovereign wealth funds, multilateral financial agencies, foreign insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks, which are categorised as long-term FPIs, the investment limit in central government bonds has been raised to Rs 65100 crore from the existing Rs 60300 crore. Investment limit in state development loans (SDL) has also been raised to Rs 31500 crore and Rs 13600 crore for FPIs and long-term FPIs respectively.

Brand Trust Report, India Study 2017 has ranked Patanjali as India’s most trusted Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brand. Patanjali has also been named the most attractive brand. The study was conducted on 11,000 brands in 16 cities of India. Patanjali Ayurved Limited was started in 2006. Its founders are Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna.

Indian information technology firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been awarded a USD 2.25-billion outsourcing contract from UK-based Nielsen Holdings PLC. Nielsen is a multinational information & measurement company which provides market research trends and insights about what people watch, listen and buy. This contract is the renewal of TCS’ existing contract with Nielsen. TCS and Nielsen had entered into a 10-year agreement in 2008 for USD 1.2 billion. This collaboration was expanded to USD 2.5 billion in 2013. Under this contract, Nielsen will purchase services relating to IT, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), client service knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), management sciences, analytics and financial planning from TCS.

Actor Salman Khan has been ranked number one on the sixth Forbes India Celebrity 100 List. Salman Khan was followed by Shah Rukh Khan and Virat Kohli in the 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. Actor Priyanka Chopra is the only female celebrity to make the top 10 list. The 2017 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List takes into account entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The period considered was October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. Salman Khan has topped this list for the second consecutive year. He has earned Rs. 232.83 crore in total for the period considered.

The 2017 NASSCOM-DSCI excellence award has been awarded to the cyber section of Kolkata Police. The cyber section of Kolkata Police was awarded the NASSCOM-DSCI excellence award at an All India Security Seminar held recently in Gurgaon. Cyber units from various state police forces all over India participated in the All India Security Seminar.

Prabhat Kumar Sinha was appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Northern Coalfields Limited. Prabhat Kumar Sinha has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Northern Coalfields Limited till 31 December, 2021, the date of his superannuation. The order of his appointment was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). At present, Prabhat Kumar Sinha is the Director (Technical) of the South Eastern Coalfields Limited.

Subbarayudu has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Peru. M. Subbarayudu is an Indian Foreign Service Officer (IFS) of 1994 batch. He is presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Peru. He would soon take charge as Ambassador to the Republic of Peru.

Lieutenant General B S Sahrawat has taken charge as Director General of National Cadet Corps (NCC). Lieutenant General B S Sahrawat is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He has a Masters degree in Management Studies from Osmania University, Hyderabad and M Phil from Madras University. He has completed his PhD in ‘Human Capital Management in Army’. He also bags a Sena Medal.

Housing Development Financial Corporation (HDFC) has sold its realty brokerage business ‘HDFC Realty’ and its digital real estate business ‘HDFC Red’ (owned by HDFC Developers) to online advertisements platform Quikr. Combined value of both these businesses of HDFC is being estimated to be about Rs 357 crore. In return, HDFC will get 3.5% stake in Quikr. Including this acquisition, Quikr’s valuation has soared to $1.6 billion. In past couple of years, Quikr has been on an acquisition spree in the real estate business. In 2015, it bought real estate platform Common Floor for about $120 million.

Indian women cricketers Ekta Bisht, Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur have been selected to the ICC Women’s team of the year. Ekta Bisht, left-arm spinner, has been selected to both the ICC women’s One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 teams of the year. Mithali Raj, batter, has been selected to the ICC women’s T20 team. Harmanpreet Kaur has been selected to the ICC women’s ODI team. England’s Heather Knight has been appointed as captain of the 50-over team. Stafanie Taylor of West Indies has been appointed as captain of the 20-over team.

India’s Raghu Prasad and Javed Shaikh were selected in the panel of umpires for 2018 Hockey World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar, from November 28 to December 16, 2018. The International Hockey Federation (FIH)has announced that 25 officials from 19 countries from all 5 continents will officiate the 2018 Hockey World Cup. Francisco Vazquez of Spain, Martin Madden of Scotland and Simon Taylor of New Zealand have been appointed as Golden Whistle umpires of 2018 Hockey World Cup. Philip Schellekens of Netherlands and Minka Woolley of Australia have been appointed as umpire managers.

Bengali singer Jatileswar Mukhopadhyay died due to long term illness, in Kolkata. Jatileswar Mukhopadhyay was 82 years old. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. He died due to multiple organ failure. He was awarded the Sangeet Samman award in 2012. He had a great place in Bengali music in the 70s-80s. Some of his popular works are E kon sakal, Tomar Sange Dekha Na Hole, Aamar Swapan Kinte Paare and Bondhuya Amar Chokhe Jal Enechhe.

On 22nd December 2017, National Mathematics Day was celebrated all over India. National Mathematics Day is celebrated in memory of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s birth anniversary on 22 December. In 2012, Dr Manmohan Singh, Ex-Prime Minister of India, declared 22 December as National Mathematics Day. Also, 2012 was celebrated as the National Mathematics Year. On this day, various educational events are conducted in schools and colleges all over India.