August 2017 IAS EXPRESS RajasirIAS.com A monthly Current Affairs Booklet CONTENT Pg.No. Doklam Dare – Decoded – Monthly Focus Study Less ! Write Well ! Score More! Approach to Sociology Sociology – Model Question Paper with Answers 1. ECONOMY 1.1 Bitcoin trade may come under SEBI 1 1.2 India to join new global foreign exchange committee 2 1.3 Aaykar Setu 3 1.4 Programme 17 for 17 3 1.5 RBI considering setting up a Public Credit Registry 3 1.6 SEBI to move against non-compliant firms 4 1.7 Scheme for IPR Awareness – Creative India; Innovative India 5 1.8 Integration of oil & gas majors is best avoided 6 1.9 BharatNet deadline pushed to March 2019 7 1.10 First meeting of Integrated Monitoring and Advisory Council (IMAC) 8 1.11 Government mulls insurance cover for digital transaction frauds 8 1.12 5th Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) 9 1.13 MPC members to get Rs. 1.5 lakh per meet, must disclose assets 10 1.14 Govt considering new agency to keep check on chartered accountants 12 1.15 India performs miserably in war on inequality 13 1.16 Finance Minister releases National Trade Facilitation Action Plan 13 1.17 223 anti-dumping probes initiated by India since January 2012 15 1.18 FSSAI bans stapler pins in tea bags from January 2018 16 1.19 The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2017 introduced in Lok Sabha 17 1.20 Transfer unclaimed accruals to fund: IRDA 18 1.21 India‟s Alternate Governor on the Board of Governors of ADB 18 1.22 NMCE and ICEX to merge, creating India‟s third largest commodity exchange 20 2. NATIONAL 2.1 Ram Nath Kovind elected as the 14th President of India 21 2.2 Achievements and Initiatives of Ministry of Railways 22 2.3 IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) in Varanasi 23 2.4 Government empowers Army to procure weaponry for short intense wars 25 2.5 Ending India's nuclear dependency 25 2.6 Rajasthan - 1st State to fix minimum education qualification for cooperative 27 body poll 2.7 Ministries of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation 28 Merged 2.8 2017 Malabar Exercise 28 2.9 First Edition of WINGS 2017 29 2.10 Ahmedabad gets World Heritage City tag 29 2.11 Saint Teresa‟s blue-bordered sari an Intellectual Property now 30 2.12 First Maize Based Mega Food Park in Kapurthala, Punjab 30 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feel the Pulse of UPSC CrackingIAS.com 9884554654 IAS Express – a monthly current affairs booklet Sociology, Political Science, General Studies, Essay & CSAT August 2017 IAS EXPRESS RajasirIAS.com A monthly Current Affairs Booklet 2.13 Modi presents 10 point action agenda to counter terrorism at G20 summit 31 2.14 NSG organises first International Aviation Security seminar 32 2.15 Cabinet nod for IWAI bond issue 33 2.16 Indian Army signs MoU with DRDO 33 2.17 Government plans „I stand by my country‟ campaign 34 2.18 Rajnath Singh chairs meeting of Island Development Agency 34 2.19 Mekedatu: Karnataka replies to CWC 35 3. INDIA AND WORLD 3.1 Cabinet approves SASEC Road Connectivity Investment Program 37 3.2 Nod for Bangladesh JIN pact 37 3.3 India to host 8th Edition of Theatre Olympics 38 3.4 India to celebrate Falun Gong 38 3.5 Vietnam renews Indian Oil Deal 4. 3.6 India becomes Fourth Largest Foreign Investor into UK 40 3.7 India, Japan civil nuclear deal comes into force 41 3.8 India rejects OIC move on vigilantism 41 3.9 How Bhutan is important to India? 42 4. INTERNATIONAL 4.1 U.S. may tighten rules for foreign students 43 4.2 Sri Lanka bans bottom-trawling 44 4.3 New sites get UNESCO heritage tag 44 4.4 New drugs needed against hard-to-treat gonorrhoea: UN 45 4.5 122 countries adopt global treaty banning nuclear weapons 46 4.6 G-20 leaders adopt Hamburg Action Plan 47 4.7 22nd World Petroleum Congress 48 4.8 UNESCO puts Hebron on endangered heritage list, outraging Israel 48 4.9 USS Gerald R Ford 49 4.10 Sri Lanka clears revised deal for Hambantota port 49 4.11 Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts three Codex standards for spices 50 4.12 Pope Francis adds fourth path to sainthood 51 5. POLITICAL ISSUES, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE 5.1 Revisiting ban on sale of cattle for slaughter 53 5.2 Committee formed to study legalities for separate State flag 53 5.3 Centre eases pre-merger filing norms 54 5.4 Private members‟ Bill on mob violence 55 5.5 Bengaluru Declaration calls for SC/ST quota in judiciary 56 5.6 Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017 57 5.7 Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 introduced in Lok Sabha 58 5.8 Supreme Court to rethink on a few Lodha „reforms‟ 59 5.9 The Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Bill, 2016 61 5.10 GoM approves draft National Medical Commission bill 61 5.11 Amendments to Legal Metrology 63 5.12 Cabinet approves revision of guidelines of Sovereign Gold Bonds Scheme 63 5.13 Cabinet clears minimum wage code bill 64 5.14 Privacy is a fundamental but wholly qualified right: Centre 65 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feel the Pulse of UPSC CrackingIAS.com 9884554654 IAS Express – a monthly current affairs booklet Sociology, Political Science, General Studies, Essay & CSAT August 2017 IAS EXPRESS RajasirIAS.com A monthly Current Affairs Booklet 6. SOCIAL ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENT 6.1 CPWD reminded of challenges ahead as it turns 163 67 6.2 NGT imposes complete ban on nylon and synthetic manja 67 6.3 Govt to push e-education with 4 digital initiatives 68 6.4 Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals 69 6.5 Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana 70 6.6 Draft Guidelines for implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana 71 6.7 Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana 72 6.8 Evaluation of efficacy of Nai Roshni Scheme 72 7. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7.1 Electrified Droplets Create Mini Saturn Planets 74 7.2 “Moonshot” Technology 74 7.3 ASTROSAT, Chandra and Hubble jointly on Proxima Centauri 75 7.4 Novobiocin compound 76 7.5 Debug Fresno 76 7.6 Sexual Harassment electronic-Box (SHe-Box) 77 7.7 World‟s first wind farm 78 7.8 Aarambh app for Road maintenance 78 7.9 Human antibodies produced in lab for first time 78 7.10 First Two patrol vessels for Navy launched by private shipyard 79 7.11 Glow-in-the-dark shark discovered in the Pacific 80 7.12 policy on the Prevention and Control of haemoglobinopathies in India 80 7.13 QRSAM 82 7.14 Sharpest laser can help test Einstein‟s theory 82 7.15 IROAF wins Golden Peacock Award for Eco Innovation for the year 2017 83 8. ECOLOGY 8.1 Sensor network to map and predict pollution, effluents in Godavari 85 8.2 Earth facing sixth mass extinction: study 86 8.3 SC stays Uttarakhand HC order on Ganga, Yamuna living entity status 8.4 Moef Approves Projects for Climate Change Adaptation in 3 States 88 8.5 Castor oil can reduce soil pollution 89 8.6 NGT directs Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh to submit guidelines on forest fire 89 8.7 Nine more bird, biodiversity areas in Kerala 90 8.8 Sunderbans steadily losing its famed mangroves 92 © CrackingIAS.com 150th Version - August 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical or photocopying or recording or otherwise without prior permission in writing from us. We have made an attempt to furnish information taken from various sources to facilitate your preparation for Civil Services Exam. 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Near SP Book House --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feel the Pulse of UPSC CrackingIAS.com 9884554654 IAS Express – a monthly current affairs booklet Sociology, Political Science, General Studies, Essay & CSAT August 2017 IAS EXPRESS RajasirIAS.com A monthly Current Affairs Booklet Doklam Dare - Decoded With the Dragon breathing down land locked Sikkim's neck and unrest in the Hills of North Bengal, it is double trouble for India. Both the problems have cast a long shadow on the Chicken neck - a thin strip of land of immense strategic importance connecting the North Eastern states with the rest of India. On the Sikkim front it all started in June with China expanding a road in the territory known as the Dokolam plateau - a tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China bordering Sikkim near the Nathula pass (14400 ft) region. While India calls this 89 sq km pasture land- Dokola, Bhutan refers to it as Dokolam and China as Donglang.