ANSWERS
1) Option A
Vidarbha have created history by winning the Ranji Trophy for the first time with a thumping nine-wicket win over Delhi at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
2) Option B
Shooter Shahzar Rizvi won the Men’s 10m Air Pistol Gold at the 61st National Shooting Championship (NSCC), at the Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi.
3) Option D
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu declared 2018 as Telugu promotion year. “We can preserve our culture and tradition through language only. We have to prevent the deterioration of Telugu language. I declare this year as Telugu language development year”, Naidu said.
4) Option B
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga – a former defence and foreign minister and intelligence chief – as the new prime minister
5) Option D
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar laid foundation stones for more than 100 projects worth Rs 700 crore in Nalanda district as part of his state-wide ‘Vikas Samiksha Yatra’. At Chamera village in Ekangarsarai block, the Kumar dedicated to the public 132 projects worth Rs 97.63 crore in addition to the 114, worth Rs 698.65 crore, for which foundation stones were laid.
6) Option C
Israel has filed notice to withdraw from the UNESCO alongside the United States. Israel has blasted UNESCO in recent years over the organisation’s criticism of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in 2011. Israel was the member of UNESCO since 1949. Both Israel and the US have filed its own withdrawal notice in October 2017.
7) Option A
The government announced the appointment of Vijay Keshav Gokhale, former ambassador in Beijing, as the new Foreign Secretary to replace S. Jaishankar who retires on January 28. He will take over from Jaishankar who was appointed Foreign Secretary on January 29, 2015, for two years and given a one-year extension in January last year.
8) Option C
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have introduced Value Added Tax (VAT) for the first time. The 5 per cent levy is being applied to the majority of goods and services. Petrol and diesel, food, clothes, utility bills and hotel rooms all now have VAT applied.
9) Option B
Arunachal Pradesh has been declared Open Defecation Free. It has become the second state in the North East after Sikkim to achieve the status with the declaration of Upper Subansiri, Siang, and Changlang districts as officially Open Defecation Free.
