17 July 2017 Current Affairs
Roger Federer wins historic 8th Wimbledon Title
Roger Federer won a record eighth Wimbledon title and became the tournament’s oldest champion with a straight-sets victory over injury-hit Marin Cilic who dramatically broke down in tears midway through the final. Federer claimed his 19th Grand Slam title beating Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. The 36-year old Federer is also Wimbledon’s oldest men’s winner of the modern era, succeeding Arthur Ashe, who was almost 32 when he won in 1976. This was his 11th Wimbledon final and 29th title at the majors. With this victory, Federer also became the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win Wimbledon without dropping a set in the entire tournament.
Parajuli to be Nepal’ new SC Chief Justice of Nepal
Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli will be the new Chief Justice of Nepal. The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) unanimously endorsed Justice Parajuli’s name for the post of Chief Justice of Supreme Court. After endorsement by PHSC the President will now appoint him as the Chief Justice. He will head the judiciary till April 28, 2018. Parajuli, the senior-most Justice at the Supreme Court, has taken up the responsibility of acting Chief Justice since June 7, this year after the retirement of then Chief Justice Sushila Karki on June 6.
India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu wins Victorian Open squash title
India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu has won the second title in two weeks, beating top-seed Rex Hedrick of Australia in a 77-minute final of Victorian Open squash, a PSA Tour event, in Melbourne, Austraila. Third-seeded Sandhu, who had won the South Australian Open last week, stepped up to win the second game 11-3 using an attacking game to keep his rival at bay. The third game also followed a similar pattern as Sandhu romped home 11-4. The 28-year-old Indian carried the momentum into the fourth game and stayed ahead to win it 11-7. It was his fourth title of the year.
Manudev wins National Masters Snooker title
Karnataka’s Manudev has won the first National Masters snooker tournament title in Chennai. Alok Kumar, a former national men’s champion, had been in fine form coming into the summit clash but found Karnataka’s Manudev a tough proposition. Manudev capitalized on the chances he got and kept scoring heavily and won the game by four impressive frames.
Lewis Hamilton wins record fifth British Grand Prix
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix for the fifth time – matching the record of Jim Clark and Alain Prost to cut Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to just a single point. They allowed Valtteri Bottas to grab second from Kimi Raikkonen to secure a Mercedes one-two, as Vettel trailed home seventh. Hamilton was 1.6 seconds clear after the first lap before the race was neutralised by a safety car following a collision between the Toro Rosso drivers.
New Horizons Spacecraft unviels new maps of Pluto, Charon
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft unveiled a set of detailed and high-quality global maps of Pluto and its largest moon Charon on the occassion of the two year anniversary of the flyby. These new maps from the landmark exploration of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons mission will help unravel the mysteries associated with Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flight through the Pluto system on 14 July 2015. It provided the first close-up images of Pluto and its moons and collected other data for deeper understanding of these mysterious worlds on the solar system’s outer frontier.
Farooq Abdullah, PK Kunhalikutty take oath as Lok Sabha Members
National Conference patron and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Indian Union Muslim League’s PK Kunhalikutty took oath as the Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha. Abdullah took the oath in Kashmiri, while Kunhalikutty opted for English. Abdullah was elected to the lower house of Parliament after defeating his Peoples Democratic Party rival Nazir Ahmed Khan by over 10000 votes from the Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency. While, Kunhalikutty was elected after winning the Malappuram by-poll in Kerala. He defeated Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate and youth leader MB Faisal.
Scientists discover galaxy 1000 times brighter than Milky Way
A group of researchers discovered a very distant galaxy, which is about a thousand times brighter than the Milky Way. As per the researchers, it is the brightest of the submillimetre galaxies, a class of ultraluminous infrared galaxies. To measure this galaxy, the researchers used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garfia, La Palma) in Spain.
Erode-based Five P Venture inks pact with Central Silk Board
Erode-based Five P Venture India Private Ltd and Bengaluru-headquartered Central Silk Board (CSB) inked an agreement for development and commercialisation of handloom silk products. This MoU signed at the first-ever mega trade fair for the textile sector organised by the Ministry of Textiles at Gandhinagar. This step will also help revive the heritage skills of the handloom weavers in Chennimalai belt.
MobiKwik partners with Samsung Pay for One-Tap Payments
Digital payments company MobiKwik has partnered Samsung Pay, under which consumers will be able to make payments with a single tap using select Samsung handsets. Samsung Pay Mini is designed to cater to the unique requirements of Indian mid-segment consumers. The tie-up will enable one-tap payments at more than 1.4 million MobiKwik-powered merchants pan-India. Alternatively, users just need to do one swipe and a click to scan and pay immediately at these merchants, improving convenience for them. MobiKwik will also be available soon on Samsung Pay, which is the proprietary mobile payment platform for Samsung’s high-end phones.
Indonesia Renames its portion of the South China Sea
Indonesia has named waters in its exclusive economic zone that overlap with China’s expansive claim to the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea. The part of the renamed area falls in China’s “nine-dash line” waters extending hundreds of miles to the south and east of China’s island province Hainan. Several South-East Asian states dispute China’s territorial claims and are competing with China to exploit the South China Sea’s abundant hydrocarbon and fishing resources.