December 25, 2017 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

Union Rural Development Ministry, in partnership with State Governments, has completed the ranking of 50000 Gram Panchayats (selected under ‘Mission Antyodaya’) on three broad parameters of physical infrastructure, human development and economic activities. Union Rural Development Ministry’s ‘Mission Antyodaya’ aims to create 50000 poverty-free gram panchayats. The goal is to converge, all existing government initiatives and schemes in these 50000 gram panchayats so that every household within these panchayats is benefited which shall consequentially lead to elimination of poverty. Gram Panchayats have been selected by the State Governments on the basis of social capital. 50000 selected gram panchayats have been grouped together in 5000 clusters.

Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari has stated that India will link its major highway corridors to international trade points in order to facilitate trade with bordering countries. The linking of highway corridors to International trade points will be carried out for facilitating trade with Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. About 2000 kms of highways will be constructed under this project. This construction will be part of Central Government’s Bharatmala Project. Cost for construction of 2000 kms highways under this project is estimated to be Rs. 25000 crore. In addition to this project , Central Government is also working on plans to facilitate India’s international connectivity with countries in South Asia.

Indian Railways flagged off India’s first air-conditioned suburban local train for Mumbai commuters. The inaugural run of this train was carried out on December 25, 2017 between Borivali and Churchgate on the Western Railway (WR). Full-fledged operation will commence on January 1, 2018. It will have 6 round trips (12 one way trips) on daily basis. It will operate on weekday and weekends will be reserved for routine maintenance. Introductory fare for the AC train will be 1.2 times of a first class one-way regular ticket. Later the fare will be hiked and will cost 1.3 times. The full AC air-suspension coaches have been manufactured at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. All coaches of the entire rake can carry nearly 6000 commuters at a time. It can operate at speeds of up to 100 kmph.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Botanical Garden-Kalkaji section (of Magenta Line) of Delhi Metro. This 12.64-km route of Magenta Line will be Delhi Metro’s first line to get driverless trains. On this line, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will be using Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling technology which would facilitate the movement of trains at a higher frequency as compared to other lines. All stations of this line will have platform screen doors (PSDs) while the coaches running on this line will have electronic information display, power charging facility through USB ports and seats in different colour shades. Besides, the new trains will be energy-efficient and would consume 20 per cent less energy as compared to older trains.

Brand Bengaluru’s own logo was launched at the ‘Namma Bengaluru Habba festival, at Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru. The logo was unveiled by Karnataka Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge. The logo is red and black and written partially in English and Kannada. The rolling font of the logo was designed by Rushi Patel and M Venkateswara Rao. They are the founders of the design firm Nammur. This logo won the contest conducted by the Karnataka government and received a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. The tagline states: ‘Bengaluru – Be U’ (be you). This logo aims to promote the image of Bengaluru at a global level. Bengaluru has become the first city in India to gets its own identity badge.

Russian State Corporation for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) announced that it has signed an agreement to build the first nuclear power plant for electricity production in Sudan. An agreement in this regard was signed by Rosatom Overseas and Sudan’s Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity in Khartoum, Sudan. The nuclear power plant will be completed in one and a half years. This project is a part of Sudan’s plan to generate more than 5000 megawatts by 2020. Last month a nuclear energy cooperation agreement was signed between Sudan and Russia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister in past 20 years to attend the annual meeting of World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, Switzerland. The meeting is scheduled to be held in January 2018. HD Deve Gowda was the last Indian Prime Minister to attend this event in 1997. Around 30-40 heads of Government and 100 top heads of Indian companies including Mukesh Ambani, Chanda Kochhar and Uday Kotak are expected to attend this event. Chinese President Xi Jinping had delivered the main address at WEF’s annual meeting at Davos in January 2017.

As per information provided by Minister of State for Finance, Pratap Shukla in Lok Sabha, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are the top contributors among all states and Union Territories (UTs) in the first five months (1st July – 30th November, 2017) of the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for 24 per cent of the total cess collections of Rs 30224 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST). With Rs 18701 crore, Maharashtra also topped in State GST (SGST) collections. In terms of SGST collections, Maharashtra is followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs 8739 crore), Karnataka (Rs 7736 crore) and Gujarat (Rs 7375 crore). Total SGST collections stood at Rs. 87888 crore. Total Central GST (CGST) collections stood at Rs 59048 crore.

Insurers and reinsurers can now set up facilities at IFSC Special Economic Zones (SEZ), as per IRDAI’s (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) new guidelines on International Financial Service Centre Insurance Offices (IIO). The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Registration and Operations of International Financial Service Centre Insurance Offices) Guidelines, 2017 was issued on December 21, 2017. As per these guidelines, IIO means a branch office to transact direct insurance business or reinsurance business permitted by the regulator. These guidelines are for both Indian and foreign insurers and reinsurers, registered as IIO with IRDAI. They can do direct insurance business or reinsurance business transactions or both.

Central public sector enterprise, NHPC Ltd has proposed to set up 100-200 Mw capacity solar project in Odisha. With this proposal, NHPC has joined other public sector enterprises viz. NTPC, NLC (formerly Neyveli Lignite Ltd) and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) to express interest in participating in Odisha Government’s upcoming 1000 Mw solar park programme. Odisha has laid out a plan to develop a solar park with a production capacity of 1000 Mw, off which, Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has already approved to develop solar park of 400 Mw capacity. NHPC, which is currently executing a 72 Mw wind project in Kerala and 50 Mw solar project in Tamil Nadu has already commissioned a 50 Mw wind power project in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Sudarsan Pattnaik, international sand artist, created the world’s biggest sand Santa-face with the message “world peace” at Puri beach, Odisha. The sand Santa face is 25 feet tall and 50 feet wide. It is to be placed in the Limca Book of World Records. Sudarsan Pattnaik also created a sand sculpture of Jesus Christ in front of the Santa face. He used around 600 tonnes of sand. Sudarsan Pattnaik was supported by 40 students from the Sudarsan Sand Art Institute of Puri. The work was completed in 3 days (35 hours). This structure will be on display till January 1, 2018.

Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) was successfully test fired by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from Chandipur, in Odisha. Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) is a canister-based high-speed weapon system. It can destroy aerial targets, tanks, bunkers and short range missiles. QRSAM was fired from a canister mounted on a rotatable truck-based launch platform at the Launching Complex-I (LC-I) of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha. This is the third test of QRSAM. All three tests ended up successful. It is capable of destroying multiple targets in the range of 25 km in less than a minute.

Sushil Kumar became the most expensive wrestler of the PWL (Pro Wrestling League) in New Delhi. Delhi Sultans bought Sushil Kumar for Rs 55 lakh at the PWL auctions. He has become the most expensive player in the history of the PWL tournament. World Championship gold medallist Helen Maroulis of the United States got the highest bid among women players and was bought for Rs 44 lakh from Haryana Hammers.

On 25th December 2017, Bengali actor Partha Mukhopadhyay died due to cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Kolkata. Partha Mukhopadhyay was 70 years old. He had been suffering from kidney problems. He is survived by his wife. He had acted in films made by great directors like Tapan Sinha, Tarun Majumdar and Goutam Ghosh. His important movies are Balika Bodhu, Dhonyi Meye, Agnishwar, Amar Prithivi, Baag Bandi Khela.

On 25th December 2017, Good Governance Day was observed all over India. Good Governance Day is observed every year on 25 December to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This day was instituted in 2014. Also, December 25 was made a working day for government to observe the Good Governance Day. The aim of this day is to develop a transparent and responsible administration, ensure the welfare of people, make good and effective policies for good governance, corruption free administration to the people etc.