Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
China has appointed veteran diplomat Sun Weidong as its new envoy to India. He is an expert in South Asian affairs and worked closely with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his tenure in Beijing as the Indian ambassador from 2009 to 2013. Sun, who also served as the ambassador to Pakistan, is currently the Director General of the Policy and Planning Department of the Foreign Ministry. He will succeed Luo Zhaohui, who has been appointed as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Notes:
Dr. I V Subba Rao, a 1979 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, will continue as secretary to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on a contract basis in the rank and pay of a secretary of the Government of India (GoI). His tenure will be co-terminus with the tenure of the vice president.

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Rajanath Singh ‘Surya’ (82), the veteran journalist and former Rajya Sabha Member, has passed away in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on June 13, 2019. He had worked in various newspapers and he was a well-known columnist.

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Bestselling author and one of India’s leading contemporary writers, Amitav Ghosh has been conferred the 54th Jnanpith award for the year 2018 for his outstanding contribution towards literature. The writer was felicitated for his outstanding contribution by former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi at a function in New Delhi on 13th June 2019. Mr Ghosh is the first Indian author in English language to be honoured with the Jnanpith award. The works of Amitav Ghosh portray a vast range of subjects. His famous books include The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), The Hungry Tide (2004), Sea of Poppies (2008), The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016). Instituted in 1961, the Jnanpith award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English with no posthumous conferral. The recipients of Jnanpith award are given a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati.

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:
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 South American Football Confederation (SAFC) has invited Australia and Qatar as guests at 2020 Copa America. Both the nations will join 10 South American nations in the 2020 tournament, which for the first time will be held jointly in two countries — Colombia and Argentina. Qatar, which is the current champion of 2019 AFC Asian Cup and also host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, is making its debut at the 2019 edition of Copa America.

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Bengaluru-based NGO Akshaya Patra has been awarded the 2019 BBC World Service Global Champion Award for its school meal project programme at the BBC Food and Farming Awards in Bristol, United Kingdom. The award recognizes a person or project that is changing the way the world produces, processes, consumes or thinks about food for the better. NGO Akshay Patra is a non-profit organisation running one of the world’s largest school meals project in India.

Notes:
On June 15, the 10th edition of Regional GRIHA Summit 2019 was held in Nagpur, Maharashtra with theme ‘Transformation strategies for built environment’. This theme is adapted to focus on the impact of incorporating sustainability initiatives into functioning public buildings. The one day summit served as a platform for knowledge sharing among different domains of the green building industry and facilitates networking opportunities among individuals representing government, academia, civil society organizations, architecture, engineering, and construction management sector. GRIHA is an independent, non-profit society jointly set up by the Ministry of New and renewable energy and the energy and resources institute.