Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
The Thai parliament has recently elected ex military government chief Prayuth Chan-ocha as its new Prime Minister. He beat the popular billionaire leader of the anti-junta Future Forward Party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, with 500 votes to 244 after a 12-hour session that included 10 hours of fierce debate in Parliament on June 5. Prayuth will now head a coalition government led by the pro-military Palang Pracharat Party. Prayuth’s appointment becomes official when it is endorsed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has not had a royal run for frontline office since 1932.

Notes:
Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has recently launched the ‘Pink Sarathi’ vehicles to attend to the complaints of women passengers travelling in city buses. The vehicles are procured by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) under the ‘Nirbhaya’ scheme. The corporation had received Rs 56.07 crore from the Union government under the scheme and had taken up various measures for the safety of women passengers, including the launch of Pink Sarathi vehicles.

Notes:
Bancha in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh has become the first village in India to have zero wooden stoves and almost no use for LPG cylinders with all its 75 houses relying on solar-powered stoves to meet their cooking needs. The team of IIT Mumbai has designed a special solar stove & now no trees are being cut by the villagers for lighting their stoves. The project of installing solar power plates, batteries and stoves in all the 74 houses was started in September 2017 and got completed by December 2018. The success story of Bancha is an eye opener which shows the potential of renewable energy. Not only will it help the nation economically but will also prove to work wonders for the environment if implemented across India.

Notes:
R V Janakiraman (79), the former Puducherry Chief Minister and senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader, has passed away in Puducherry on 10th June 2019. He began his career as a taxi driver and later went on to become a fleet operator before foraying into politics. He was the Chief Minister between 1996 and 2000, heading the coalition government of DMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress. Mr. Janakiraman became the Chief Minister in 1996 and represented the Nellithope Assembly constituency for five consecutive times.

Notes:
Dr. Romila Thapar, the well-known historian and writer, has been elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest learned society in United States (US). Dr. Thapar, a Professor Emerita of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, was among 1,013 members elected to the society at its Annual Spring Meeting.

Notes:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced that harmful single-use plastics will be banned in the country from 2021 to reduce ocean waste. He declared it a global challenge to phase out the plastic bags, straws and cutlery clogging the world’s oceans. Currently less than 10% of plastic used in Canada gets recycled. The Canadian government said that one million birds and over 100,000 sea mammals worldwide are injured or die each year when they mistake plastic for food or become entangled. Single-use items represent some 70% of the plastic waste littering the marine environment. Canada’s move follows one by the European Union (EU), which late last year announced a similar ban. Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Italy, along with the European Union, subscribed at 2018 G7 summit in Quebec to a new charter against pollution in the world’s oceans. The non-binding Ocean Plastics Charter called on participating countries and the EU to commit to making all plastics reusable, recyclable or recovered by 2030.

Notes:
India’s first dinosaur museum and fossil park has recently inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at Raiyoli village near Balasinor town of Mahisagar district. The new museum will create a prehistoric-like era environment when dinosaurs might have roamed around freely in Raiyoli. As many as 50 sculptures of dinosaurs, including a life-size one of Rajasaurus Narmadensis that was found in Gujarat, have been erected at the museum. The museum would have 3D projection, 360 degrees virtual reality presentations, interactive kiosks, gaming consoles and other facilities. According to government officials, Raiyoli is globally known to be the third largest fossil site and the second largest dinosaur hatchery from where about 10,000 dinosaur eggs have been found.

Notes:
The researchers from Ohio State University in United States have created high-resolution maps of points around the globe where groundwater meets the oceans — the first such analysis of its kind that may help protect both drinking water and the seas. The study showed that nearly one-half of fresh submarine groundwater discharge flows into the ocean near the tropics. They also found that regions near active fault lines send greater volumes of groundwater into the ocean than regions that are tectonically stable. The findings may help coastal communities better protect and manage their drinking water. The research work is the first near-global and spatially distributed high-resolution map of fresh groundwater flow to the coast. It could give scientists better clues about where to monitor groundwater discharge.

Notes:
Thawar Chand Gehlot, the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, has been appointed the Leader of the House for the Rajya Sabha. He will replace senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley who opted out of the government citing health reasons. Gehlot is an experienced parliamentarian from and a Dalit face of the saffron party. He was a member of the Madhya Pradesh state assembly for several terms and has served in the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, Union Minister for Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal will take charge as the Deputy Leader for the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. The Rajya Sabha has been convened to meet for the Budget Session from 20 June, the day President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of Parliament. The session will continue till 26 July. In all, there will be 27 meetings of the upper house of the Parliament.

Notes:
A team of scientists from Delhi University (DU) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), in collaboration with researchers from Indonesia and the US, have discovered a new species of ‘paddy frog’ from Northeast India, primarily Assam. The frog belongs to the microhylid genus Micryletta. It is a group of narrow-mouthed frogs that is primarily and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. Currently, there are only four recognized species in this group. The newly discovered Micryletta frog from Northeast India was confirmed as a new species by detailed comparison of both DNA and morphology with all previously known members across Southeast and East Asia. The new species has been named ‘aishani’, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘aishani’ or aisani (meaning North – east), referring to the Northeast regions of India where this frog was discovered. The frog has reddish-brown coloration on the back, prominent dark streaks and ash-grey mottling on the lateral sides, shape of snout and no web on its feet.