Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
India is one of the founder members of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and is the Chair of Kimberley Process for the year 2019 with Russian Federation as Vice Chair. The Inter-sessional meeting of Kimberley Process (KP) is being hosted by India from 17th to 21st June, 2019 in Mumbai. Besides meetings of different Working Groups and Committees of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), two special forums regarding Diamond Terminology and Artisanal Mining – Small Steps to Larger Outcomes, will be held during the Intersessional. Around 300 delegates from the Government of India (GoI) and other participating countries, industry and civil society will be attending the 5-day Meeting. At present, KPCS has 55 members representing 82 countries including EU with 28 members.

Notes:
Ahmedabad-based Adani group has recently got final approval for controversy-hit Carmichael coal mine project in Australia, after Queensland State authorities approved its groundwater management plan. The final approval for the Adani group’s long-delayed billion-dollar mega coal mine project came only weeks after a surprise election win of Australia’s pro-coal ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The approval potentially paves the way for half a dozen new thermal coal mines to come on line in Australia by opening up Queensland’s remote Galilee basin with rail infrastructure to the coast 320 km away at Abbot Point. Earlier, the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group got the first approval from the Queensland state government to protect the endangered black-throated finch bird population as part of its crucial environmental plan at the site of its mine project. It is set to become the largest coal mine in Australia, with approval to produce up to 60 million tonnes of coal annually, and 2.3 billion tonnes over the life of the mine.

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.

Notes:
Four Indian movies have been selected to be screened at the prestigious 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFAN-2019). Out of them, three of them happen to be Bollywood movies namely Gully Boy, Andhadhun and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi while the fourth is a Tamil movie, Super Deluxe starring Vijay Sethupati and Samantha Akkineni. The festival will take place from June 27 to July 7 in South Korea. The South Korean film festival is known for screening some of the best movies in the world.

Notes:
According to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2019, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India increased by 6% to $42 billion in 2018 with strong inflows in manufacturing, communication, financial services and cross-border merger and acquisition activities making it the sub-region’s largest recipient. As per report, India has been ranked 10th amongst the top recipients of FDI in 2018. The report added that India has historically accounted for 70 to 80% of inflows to the sub-region. Further, the growth in cross-border Merger & Acquisitions for India to 33 billion dollars in 2018 was primarily due to transactions worth 16 billion dollars in retail trade, which includes e-commerce, and telecommunication.

Notes:
Peter Gilchrist from Singapore has won the 2019 Pacific International Billiards Championship at the Yarraville Club. In the final, he defeated India’s Sourav Kothari.

Notes:
Zuzana Caputova, a liberal environmental activist and a political newcomer, has been sworn-in as the first female President of Slovakia in Bratislava on 15th June 2019. She is also the youngest president in the history of Slovakia, at the of age 45. She first became known by prevailing in a decade-long struggle against the situating of a toxic landfill in her hometown of Pezinok. For this, Caputova was awarded the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize. Caputova succeeded Slovak President Andrej Kiska.

Notes:
The Feni Bridge, which is also known as Maitree Setu, is developing as a corridor for trade and commerce between India’s North-East and Bangladesh over river Feni and will connect Tripura with Chittagong port of Bangladesh. It will provide direct road connectivity between South Tripura and Chittagong allowing India to use Chittagong as a “port of call” and promoting trade, tourism and people-to-people ties. The bridge will facilitate carrying of heavy machines and goods to and from the northeastern states and the rest of India via Bangladesh through Chattogram. The bridge is being constructed by the National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd of Ministry of Road and Transport highways, govt. of India at a cost of over Rs 82 crores. The project is scheduled to be completed by April 2020.

Notes:
The World Food India (WFI- 2019) event will be held in New Delhi from November 1-4 as part of the government’s effort to boost investment into this growing sector. The event aims to promote food processing sector and to position India as food processing destination of the World. The tagline of the event will be “Forging Partnerships for Growth”. This will be the 2nd edition of World Food India (WFI), with first one held in 2017 that saw the participation of 61 countries and signing of MoUs worth $14 billion.

Notes:
Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed has been appointed as the new Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the powerful spy agency of Pakistan. He succeeded Lt Gen Asim Munir. Hameed has previously served as the head of the Counter Intelligence wing of the ISI. The ISI was formed in 1948 as an independent unit to strengthen the country’s intelligence network. The ISI was formerly a part of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which handled intelligence-sharing between different branches of the military, as well as external intelligence gathering. Its headquarters were initially located in Rawalpindi, but were later moved to Islamabad. In 1950, the ISI was officially given the task of safeguarding Pakistani interests and national security, inside and outside the country.