Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

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:
Bihar Cabinet-led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has approved a proposal to punish sons and daughters who abandon their elderly parents with a jail term. The proposal has provisions for punishments that could go up to imprisonment if children do not look after their parents properly in their old ages. The cases against the children will be registered under the non-bail able section in Bihar after receiving complaints from the elderly parents. The proposal of Bihar government can be a game changer if it formally makes it compulsory for children to look after parents. However, the practical problems regarding the implementation of such a rule are likely to be immense.

Notes:
Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, a global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights, will be honored with the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award by UNICEF’s American chapter at their Snowflake Ball on December 3 in New York. Priyanka is known for her contribution to social causes and for being a voice for children’s education. She has been a part of United Nation’s global “Girl Up” Campaign and is associated with several NGOs in India to raise awareness about ways to improve the education, health and safety of girl child in India. She promotes various causes such as environment, health and education, and women’s rights and is particularly vocal about gender equality and feminism. The award is named after actor-philanthropist Danny Kaye, who was UNICEF’s first Goodwill Ambassador.

Notes:
On June 13, the meeting of Council of Heads of States (CHS) of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has started in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first multi-lateral summit after his re-election as the Prime Minister. This is also the second CHS meeting after India became member of SCO. Presidents and Prime Ministers of 8 member countries will participate in this multilateral international forum which will also be attended by 4 head of states as observers. The leaders participating in the Summit are expected to focus their discussions on the global security situation, multilateral economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and also on topical issues of international and regional importance. The SCO is a China-led 8-member economic and security bloc. The CHS is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO.

Notes:
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been conferred the Kyrgyzstan’s highest national award titled “Manas Order of the First Degree” at the Ala Archa state residence in Bishkek. Xi, along with other leaders of the group including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is in Bishkek (the Kyrgyz capital) to attend the 19th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on June 14-15, 2019. The SCO is a China-led 8-member economic and security bloc. The founding members of the SCO are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted to the Beijing-based regional security grouping in 2017.

Notes:
The Hyderabad-based defence public sector undertaking, Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) has recently signed a contract worth Rs 1,187.82 crores for supply of heavy weight torpedoes – Varunastra – to the Indian Navy. The execution of the contract will be in the next 42 months. The weapon will be manufactured at BDL Visakhapatnam Unit under collaboration with DRDO. The Heavy Weight Torpedo (or the Varunastra) is a ship launched, electrically propelled underwater weapon equipped with one of the most advanced automatic and remote-controlled guidance systems. The weapon system uses its own intelligence in tracing the target. The BDL is the main producer of the country’s range of missiles and missile defence systems.

Notes:
Suman Rao from Rajasthan has won the Femina Miss India World 2019 beauty pageant during a star-studded ceremony at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium in Mumbai. While Shivani Jadhav from Chhattisgarh clinched Femina Miss Grand India 2019 title and Shreya Shanker from Bihar won Miss India United Continents 2019 title during the grand finale of the beauty pageant. Now, Suman will represent India at Miss World 2019 in Thailand. The show was hosted by Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar and actor-anchor Maniesh Paul along with Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar.

Notes:
Danish economist and environmentalist, Inger Andersen has recently taken charge as the new Executive Director (ED) of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for a four-year term. She succeeded Erik Solheim of Norway. Prior to her appointment at UNEP, Andersen was Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council. She has also served as the World Bank vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa and worked at the UN for 15 years on water and environment issues.

Notes:
HCL Technologies will soon roll out “TechBee” programme to hire and train students for IT jobs. The purpose of the HCL’s early career programme is to provide students an opportunity to start early & become financially independent and trendsetters. Under the initiative, the company will conduct an entrance test for those completed Plus 2 or Intermediate course and gives them a year’s training to make them employable. Students who have completed Intermediate in 2018 or 2019 with more than 60% marks are eligible for the programme. However, the students will have to a pay fee of Rs. 2 lakhs to join the programme. The firm would facilitate a bank loan, which can be repaid in EMIs after they are absorbed into the company. While working at HCL, students can enrol in higher education programmes offered by reputed universities such as BITS Pilani and SASTRA University. The students after completion of required training will be recruited with salary range of Rs two lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh depending on what work stream they are taken into.

Notes:
Dr. Virendra Kumar, the 7-time Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh, has been sworn-in as the pro-tem speaker of Lok Sabha. President Ram Nath Kovind administered oath to Dr Kumar at Rashtrapati Bhavan. As pro-tem speaker, Kumar will preside over the first sitting of the Lok Sabha and administer the oath to the newly elected MPs. He will also oversee the election of the 17th Lok Sabha speaker. The first session of the newly constituted Lok Sabha will be held from June 17 to July 26.