Current Affairs Quiz | 1 August 2017

The Gangotri National Park (GNP) is located in the upper catchment of Bhagirathi river in the Uttarkashi District of Uttrakhand and covers an area of about 2,390 square km. The park is home to the snow leopard, ibex, tahr, himalayan barbet, serow, pheasants, partridges, doves, pigeons, etc. It provides majestic beauty of coniferous forests and grandeur of glacial world combined with lush green meadows.

Jeanne Moreau (89), the legendary French film actress, has passed away at Paris in France on July 31, 2017. She was best known for her role in Francois Truffaut’s New Wave classic “Jules et Jim”.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the member of the Pakistan Muslim League (N)(PML-N), is the newly elected interim Prime Minister of Pakistan after defeating his rival Naveed Qamar of PPP by 221 votes on August 1, 2017. Abbasi was chosen by Nawaz Sharif as an interim Prime Minister for 45 days which would allow significant time for Shehbaz Sharif to contest elections from Nawaz’s vacated constituency, be elected to the National Assembly and become eligible to hold the office of Prime Ministership. Previously, Abbasi served as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources in the third Sharif ministry from 2013 to 2017. Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as the Prime Minister by the Supreme Court in July 2017 in connection with Panama Papers scam.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recently announced that the 2024 Summer Olympics will be hosted by Paris in France, which is scheduled to be held from August 8-18. Beside this, the IOC has also announced that the 2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to be hosted by Los Angeles (United States). Both the decisions will be ratified at the 131st IOC Conference in Lima, Peru on September 13, 2017. The IOC decision means that Los Angeles will become a three-time Olympic city, after hosting the 1932 and 1984 Games – and Paris, which held the Games in 1900 and 1924, will host a centenary celebration in 2024.

Ustad Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar (78), maestro and custodian of the venerable Dhrupad tradition of Hindustani classical music, has passed away in Pune, Maharashtra on July 30, 2017. He was known affectionately to his legions of disciples and admirers as ‘Saeed Bhai’. He was born in Alwar in Rajasthan in 1939 and was a part of the Dagar family of musicians. He represented the 19th generation of Dagar Tradition. Dhrupad – a Sanskrit portmanteau of Dhruva (immovable) and Pad (verse) has its roots since ancient times, mentioned as early as the 3rd Century B.C. in the Natyashastra.

Sam Shepard (73), the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, has passed away in Kentucky, United States on July 27, 2017. He was Oscar-nominated actor and celebrated author whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West. He wrote nearly 50 plays and won the Pulitzer for drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. His plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.

The researchers at the IIT Kharagpur have developed a low-cost dirt detector that alerts authorities when a place needs cleaning. The Smart Hygiene Monitor (SHM) records levels of ammonia, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter through sensors and sends online alerts to stakeholders when a certain threshold is crossed. It can be installed at any place where cleanliness needs to be monitored at regular intervals. At present, public facilities such as toilets, eateries, hospitals, parks, airports and railway stations are generally cleaned at fixed intervals, irrespective of how dirty they are.

Sebastian Vettel, a German racing driver currently driving in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, has won the 2017 Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix tournament at the Hungaroring in Mogyorod, Hungary.

The Punjab government has recently launched its flagship ‘Apni Gaddi Apna Rozgar’ scheme for jobless youth by flagging off over 100 uberMOTO bikes. Under the scheme, the state government will provide commercial two wheelers and four wheelers to unemployed youth at subsidised rates. The scheme will be a game-changer for the youth of Punjab and will play a catalysing role in encouraging micro-entrepreneurship opportunities throughout the state. The target of Uber is to create 10,000 entrepreneurial opportunities in Punjab in one year and a total of 45,000 in next five years.

India has been ranked 53rd among 60 countries in the 2017 Digital Evolution Index (DEI). The list is topped by Norway, followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Finland. The Fletcher School at Tufts University, in partnership with Mastercard, presented the Digital Evolution Index (DEI) 2017. The Index is a comprehensive research that tracks the progress of the digital economy across 60 countries, taking into account more than 100 different indicators across four key drivers: supply, consumer demand, institutional environment, and innovation. It reflects the state and rate of digital evolution on the one hand, while also identifying avenues for investment, innovation and policy priorities.