GK & Current Affairs Quiz: April 5, 2017

Notes:
Ecuadorean leftist Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garces has won the 2017 Ecuador Presidential election after securing 51.16% of votes in the election. He will be Ecuador’s 44th President and will take office on May 24, 2017. Prior to this, Moreno served the nation as Vice President from 2007 to 2013 under President Rafael Correa. The current President of Ecuador is Rafael Correa.

Notes:
The 2017 National conference on Communicating India has held in New Delhi on April 5, 2017. The three main themes for the conference are ‘Telling India’s story to the world’, ‘Communicating via Journalism’ and ‘Dialogue with Diaspora’. The one-day conference has been organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation in collaboration with the India Media Centre, University of Westminster, London, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication with the association of Prasar Bharati.

Notes:
Geeta Johri, a 1982-batch IPS officer, has been appointed Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat. With this, Johari has become the first woman IPS officer to be appointed for the top job in the state. Presently, she is posted as managing director in the Gujarat Police Housing Corporation, Gandhinagar. She has been controversial for her role in the investigation into the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauserbi and 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases. The decision comes in wake of sudden ouster of Johari’s predecessor P P Pandey who stepped down from the post following a petition in the Supreme Court. Pandey is an accused in Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

Notes:
The Union Government has recently constituted National Board of Electric Mobility (NBEM) to promote electric mobility and manufacturing of electric (& hybrid) vehicles and their components. The Board will be chaired by Girish Shankar, Secretary of the Department of Heavy Industry. The NBEM will examine, formulate and propose short- as well as long-term plans and contours of the mission programme on electric mobility, its objectives, quantifiable outcomes and roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders. It will propose and recommend policy guidelines and government interventions and possible strategies for promoting electric mobility and for encouraging manufacture of electric vehicles in the country.

Notes:
Aleksandar Vucic, the current Prime Minister of Serbia, has won the 2017 Serbian Presidential election by 55% of votes. He will take office on May 31, 2017. Vucic is also the leader and president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The current office holder is Tomislav Nikolic.

Notes:
Ajey Jhankar (57), the noted author and filmmaker, has recently passed away. He was well-known for his novels such as Sarkarnama and Drohpar. The hollywood movie ‘Singularity’ by filmmakar Roland Joffe was based on Jhankar’s novel ‘Drohparv’. He was the co-screenwriter for the film. Jhankar was known for his marketing venture ‘Market Missionaries.

Notes:
S.P. Bala Subramanyam, the renowned playback singer, actor and music director, has won the NTR National Film Award for 2012 and Hindi film actor Hema Malini will receive the same for 2013. The NTR National Award is an annual award to recognize people for their lifetime achievements and contributions to the Cinema of India. The award is an honorary Nandi Award in the honour of an Indian Film Actor, director, producer, and politician N.T. Rama Rao who also served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. It carries a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh and a citation.

Notes:
Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli has been honoured as the Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World for 2016. Apart from this, Kohli has already been declared Wisden India Almanack’s Cricketer of the Year for the second time in its 2017 edition. In 2016, Kohli amassed 1215 Test runs at an average of 75.93, 10 ODI appearances fetched him 739 runs at 92.37, while he scored 641 T20 International runs at 106.83. Apart from him, Ellyse Perry from Australia has been named for Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World for 2016. The Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World is an annual cricket award selected by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

Notes:
India has been ranked 3rd for the third year in a row in the recently published Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) report for year 2015. The report is compiled by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As per the report, 117 athletes from India were punished after testing positive for banned substances in 2015. The list is topped by Russia (176), followed by Italy (129), India (117), France (84) and Belgium (67). An ADRV is a doping offence committed by an athlete or athlete support person, which results in certain consequences or sanctions.

Notes:
Sai Kiran P (18) from Telangana (presently studying at Chennai) has won the second prize in the grade 12 category of the 2017 Nasa Ames Space Settlement Contest for proposing an elevator from Earth to the Moon. The annual global contest was conducted jointly by the NASA Ames Research Center, the National Space Society (NSS) and San Jose State University. The theme of the contest was to design a proposal for human settlements on the moon.