December 10, 2017 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

the government extended the deadline for mandatory linking of PAN with Aadhaar by three months to March 31, 2018. This is the third extension given by the government to individuals to link the Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar. Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.

Central Government has sanctioned Rs. 75 crore for setting up a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Meghalaya. This bottling plant will have an annual capacity of 13000 metric tonnes. It is to be noted that Meghalaya is the only state in the North Eastern Region of India, in which there is no LPG bottling plant. On December 9, 2017, memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Meghalaya State Government. The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan and Meghalaya Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma in Shillong

As per data compiled by Bank of Thailand, India has the highest unemployment among Asian countries. Findings of Bank of Thailand are based on big data sources drawn from social media and online stores. In order to get insights of job market trends, Bank of Thailand is building its own employment index based on data from online jobs-search portals. It is also creating a property indicator which reflects supply and demand in the housing market. As per the data, India has the highest unemployment rate among Asian countries, at 8%.

Iraq Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi declared victory in a three-year war by Iraqi forces against Islamic State jihadist group. During 2014, Islamic State (IS) took over vast areas north and west of Baghdad. On December 9, 2017, Haider al-Abadi claimed that Iraqi forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border. Iraq’s counter offence against IS was launched with support of an air campaign by a US-led coalition. Iran, which has been Iraq’s close ally already declared victory against IS last month. Besides, Russia, which has been supporting Syria to expel IS, has also announced that their objective has now been accomplished.

The U.S. will issue travel advisories from January 2018 to its citizens based on a four- level classification system with clearly recommended actions. As per the new four-level travel advisory system, countries would be designated in various levels from one to four depending on the threat perception. The four level are described as follows:
1.Level one – exercise normal precautions
2.Level two – exercise increased caution
3.Level three – reconsider travel
4.Level four – do not travel
In some cases, various parts of a single country might have different levels of travel advisories. The content will be optimised for mobile users and readily sharable on social media

Bombay Stock Exchange’s subsidiary, India International Exchange (India INX) announced that it has received approval fromSecurities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the framework for listing of debt securities. On account of this approval, Indian and foreign issuers will be able to issue Eurobonds, masala bonds and foreign currency bonds from India INX located atInternational Financial Service Centre (IFSC), Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) city in Gujarat. With the approval for debt listing, India INX will also be the first India-based exchange to offer clearing and settlement of debt securities. India INX will offer clearing and settlement of debt securities through International Central Securities Depositories. Listing of debt securities will significantly boost India INX’s daily trading volumes

Haryana has topped preliminary rankings of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) for this year. Haryana has topped the list by scoring 69 per cent. Haryana is followed by Telangana with a score of 68.46 per cent. Union Commerce and Industry Ministry will release the final rankings in January-February 2018. These rankings reflect attractiveness of Indian States/Union Territories for conducting businesses and attracting investment for businesses. 2016 all-India State/Union Territory Ease of Doing Business Rankings were jointly topped by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Reliance Industries is India’s most valued company with a market value of 5.8 trillion, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, ITC and Hindustan Unilever. Maruti Suzuki’s market capitalisation stood at Rs.2.74 trillion, ahead of SBI’s market value of Rs.2.71 trillion.

23rd edition of the annual Star Screen Awards honouring excellence in Indian Film industry was held at Mumbai on December 3, 2017.
Star Screen Awards:
• Star Screen Awards were originally called the Screen Awards.
• Screen Awards, initiated by The Express Group were first awarded in 1995.
• Screen Awards are considered India’s first awards that are given by the film fraternity to the film fraternity through a jury.
• Current edition of Star Screen Awards also have awards in ‘popular’ category

Diddy, an American businessman, rapper, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur has been named the highest earning musician of 2017 by Forbes magazine. Forbes ranking were based on data of pre-tax earnings between June 1, 2016, to June 1, 2017. Diddy earned a whopping $130 million during this period. Interestingly, Diddy topped the list despite of not releasing much music during this period. His Bad Boy reunion tour turned out to be a huge revenue generating event. Besides, he also sold his shares of the Sean John clothing line for $70 million dollars. American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress, Beyonce ranked second with over $105 million in earnings.

Uma Shankar has been appointed as Executive Director (ED) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Prior to this elevation, Uma Shankar held the position of Chief General Manager (CGM) in charge of financial inclusion and development department at RBI. Uma Shankar has been appointed as Executive Director after Meena Hemchandra, the Executive Director in charge of RBI’s supervision department retired on November 30, 2017. Thus, Uma Shankar will most likely take charge of the supervision department. RBI has 11 Executive Directors and each of them supervises the 34 departments headed by Chief General Managers (CGMs).

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, launched the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first space programme aimed at sending four Emirati astronauts to the International Space Station within 5 years. The astronaut programme would make it one of only a handful of states in the Middle East to have sent a person into space. Aspiring Emirati astronauts who apply for the programme will go through a rigorous procedure and finalists will be given months of specialised training before the last four are selected. In the long-term, the UAE says it is planning to build a “Science City” to replicate life on Mars and aims to create the first human settlement on Mars by 2117.

Aryan Goveas and Arjun Kadhe won the doubles title in the $15,000 ITF (International Tennis Federation) Futures tennis tournament, in Cairo, Egypt. Aryan Goveas and Arjun Kadhe defeated Adrian Exposito of Spain and Diego Matos of Brazil 7-5, 6-3 and won the ITF Futures tennis tournament. Arjun Goveas had recently won the singles title in a similar tournament in Vietnam. It was the first title on the professional circuit for Aryan Kadhe.

India is to host its first-ever major boxing tournament for elite men and women, ‘India Open International Boxing Tournament’, January 28 to February 1, 2018 in New Delhi. For the first time in the history of boxing, India will field a team in the upcoming edition of World Series Boxing, AIBA’s professional league. The team will be fully supported and sponsored by BFI. Boxing Federation of India (BFI) President Ajay Singh revealed this last month.

Veteran journalist Sukharanjan Sengupta died due to old age-related health problems, in Kolkata. Sukharanjan Sengupta was 85 years old. He underwent a heart surgery recently, and was re-admitted to a city hospital following urine infection and went to coma. He is survived by wife, a daughter and a son. He had worked for Bengali dailies ‘Jugantar’ and ‘Ananda Bazar Patrika’ in his long career.

On 10th December 2017, World Human Rights Day was celebrated all over the world. World Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It was adopted by United Nations General Assembly, in 1948. This year, Human Rights Day started a year-long campaign to mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document in the world, available in more than 500 languages.