Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
Former ISRO chief Dr. K Kasturirangan led Committee has recently submitted the draft National Educational Policy (NEP) to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in New Delhi. The policy draft recommends incorporation of Indian knowledge systems in the curriculum, constituting a National Education Commission and curbing arbitrary fees hikes by private schools. The expert panel also proposed massive transformation in Teacher Education by moving all teacher preparation and education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities or colleges. It added that the topics will include Indian contribution to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, psychology, yoga, architecture, medicine, as well as governance, polity, society, and conservation course on Indian knowledge systems. The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.

Notes:
On the occasion of 2019 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) on May 31, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has banned production, distribution, advertisement and sale of Electronic-cigarette in the state. The decision will be an important step to curb addiction among youths. According to the health department officials, both online or offline sale, storage, production, distribution and advertisement of e-cigarettes in the state has been banned.

Notes:
Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh has become the first woman fighter pilot to fly by day a Hawk advanced jet aircraft. She achieved the feat at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Bengal. Lt Mohana’s training involved flying both air-to-air combat and air-to-ground missions. She has undertaken many practice missions which involved firing of rockets, guns and dropping high calibre bombs and has also participated in various Air Force level flying exercises. She has a total of over 500 hours of incident-free flying, of which 380 hours are on the Hawk Mk 132 jet. She had, along with two other women pilots, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvadi, joined the fighter stream in June 2016. Earlier, in May 2019, Flight Lt. Bhawana Kanth became the first daytime woman fighter pilot to fly a MiG-21 Bison.

Notes:
Puerto Williams is the main settlement, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. Recently, Puerto Williams has become the world’s southernmost city after the Chilean authorities upgraded its status from hamlet to city. It took over the title from Ushuaia, the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. Puerto Williams is the port of entry and major hub for scientific activity linked to Antarctica and the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.

Notes:
Ruma Guha Thakurta (84), the veteran Bengali actress & singer, has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal. She was best known for her roles in Satyajit Ray-directed films such as Ganashatru (1989) and Abhijan (1962). She started her career as a dancer before moving to the then Bombay where she married singer Kishore Kumar in the early 1950s but they got divorced in 1958. Their son Amit Kumar is a singer and composer for Bollywood movies. She later married writer-director Arup Guha Thakurta and had two children – singers Sromona and Ayan. Ruma’s major film roles include “Palatak”, “Antony Firingee”, “80 Te Asio Na”, “Balika Badhu”, “Dadar Kirti”, “Bhalobasa Bhalobasa” and “Wheelchair”. “Jwar Bhata” will be remembered for being the debut of both Ruma and acting legend Dilip Kumar. Her other Hindi films were “Mashaal”, “Afsar”, “Raag Rang” and “Paar”. Ruma founded the Calcutta Youth Choir, a song and dance troupe, in 1958, which is known for its performance of folk and mass songs.

Notes:
The Government of India (GoI) has formed a new ‘Jal Shakti’ Ministry by merging the ministries of Water Resources and Drinking Water and Sanitation with Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at its helm. The ambit of the Ministry will encompass issues ranging from international and inter-states water disputes, the Namami Gange project, the flagship initiative to clean the Ganges, its tributaries and sub-tributaries and provide clean drinking water. Rattan Lal Kataria will be the Minister of State in the newly formed ministry. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shekhawat defeated Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, from Jodhpur by a margin of 2.74 lakh votes.

Notes:
Conservative businessman Nayib Bukele has been sworn-in as the new President of El Salvador. His presidency breaks three decades of bipartisanship between the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the outgoing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). Hence, Bukele is the first candidate to win the presidency since the end of the Salvadoran Civil War who did not represent either of the major two parties.

Notes:
Rajiv Mehrishi, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Indiam has been elected as external auditor of the World Health Organization (WHO) for four years from 2020 to 2023. He was elected at the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2019. This is the second major international audit assignment for the CAG this year following his selection for the post of External Auditor of Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome earlier this year in March 2019. Currently, Mehrishi is also on the Board of Auditors of the United Nations and Vice-Chair of the UN Panel of External Auditors.

Notes:
Sheela, the veteran Malayalam actress-director, has been chosen for the prestigious J C Daniel Award for her contributions to the film world. She is only the second woman to get it, after Aranmula Ponnamma in 2005. The award comprising a cash prize of Rs 5 Lakh, a citation and plaque will be given away at a function here on 27th July 2019. It is the Kerala’s highest award in Malayalam cinema. The award is named after J C Daniel, who made the first silent movie in Mollywood. Sheela is popularly called as Sheelamma by her admirers. She had debuted in the tinsel town through the MG Ramachandran-starrer Tamil movie “Paasam” during early 1960s. She was the first recipient of the ‘Best Actress’ award instituted by the Kerala government through the 1969 movie “Kallichellamma”. In 2005, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Malayalam film ‘Akale’. Sheela also holds the Guinness World Record for acting in the largest number of films opposite the same hero- late Prem Nazir- in nearly 130 films.

Notes:
In United States, Google’s India-born CEO Sundar Pichai and Nasdaq President Adena Friedman have been chosen for the prestigious Global Leadership Awards 2019 by business advocacy group USIBC in recognition of the two companies’ contribution as the leading technology-driven platforms. The award by Washington-based US-India Business Council (USIBC) would be conferred upon them during the 2019 India Ideas Summit. Given annually since 2007, the USIBC Global Leadership Awards recognise top corporate executives from the United States and India whose companies play a major role in catalysing growth in the US-India commercial corridor.