Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
In Pune, Social activist Makarand Tilloo has won the ‘Save Water Hero Award’ by the HridayMitra Foundation for his efforts to raise awareness about water conservation in the city. Tilloo is a Laughter Yoga trainer and motivational speaker by profession. He started a campaign to save water by replacing leaking taps with new ones. The HridayMitra Foundation is an organisation which aims to spread awareness about diseases as well as the surgeries required to remedy them. It also runs a free helpline, offering people financial guidance and other such services.

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 International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) is observed every year on 16th of June to recognize the contribution of over 200 million migrants to improve the lives of their 800 million family members back home, and to create a future of hope for their children. Through this observance, the United Nations aim at bringing greater awareness on the impact that these contributions have on millions of households, but also on communities, countries, and entire regions. The Day also calls upon governments, private sector entities, and the civil society to find ways that can maximize the impact of remittances through individual, and/or collective actions.

Notes:
NDA nominee Om Birla from Kota has been unanimously elected as the Speaker of 17th Lok Sabha. All major political parties including Congress, DMK, TMC, BJD, YSR Congress, JD(U) and Shiv Sena supported the motion moved by Prime Minister and Leader of the House, Narendra Modi to choose Mr. Birla as the Speaker. Later, Pro-tem speaker Dr. Virendra Kumar declared Mr. Birla as the Speaker. Prime minister along with other leaders of different political parties escorted Om Birla to the Speaker’s chair. An agriculturalist and social worker, Om Birla started his political journey as a student leader. Later, he elected as MLA for three consecutive terms for Rajasthan Assembly in 2003, 2008 and 2013. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 2014 and was again elected from Rajasthan’s Kota Lok Sabha seat in 2019.

Notes:
Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is co-hosting 12th international Capacity Building workshop in New Delhi to deepen knowledge on issues related to piracy and armed robbery on June 19-20, 2019. The 2-day workshop is being organized in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). The ReCAAP is the first regional Government-to-Government agreement to deal with piracy and armed robbery at sea in Asia. Presently, 20 countries are members of the ReCAAP. A total of 31 International delegates from 19 countries are participating in the workshop. In addition, officials from national stakeholders like major ports, state maritime boards, state marine police, Directorate General of Shipping and Indian National Ship-Owners Association are also participating in this workshop.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government has decided to launch the Chief Minister’s Employment Generation Programme for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which will create 10 lakh jobs in the next five years. The flagship programme of the Industries Department will have 30% reservation for women entrepreneurs. The scheme will be implemented on the lines of the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) with online applications and other procedures. This scheme is for promoting entrepreneurship and address unemployment issues. It will cover manufacturing, service and agro-based activities, including those in retail. The nodal bank for the programme will be Corporation Bank and beneficiaries will be financed by nationalised and private Sector banks like Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. To supplement this programme, 50 new industrial parks will be developed at taluka level by the government.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up an 8-member expert committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to suggest long-term solutions for the economic and financial sustainability of the MSMEs. This committee is set up under the leadership of former SEBI Chairman UK Sinha to review the current framework for the MSME Sector. The committee will examine the factors affecting the timely and adequate availability of finance to the MSME sector. It will review the existing MSME focused policies and their impact and will propose measures for leveraging technology in accelerating the growth of the sector apart from recommending the global best practices.

Notes:
India’s PU Chitra has won gold in women’s 1500m at Folksam Grand Prix 2019 held in Sollentuna, Sweden. Beside her, Asian Games gold medallist Jinson Johnson won the silver in the men’s 1500m clocking 3:39.69s as he finished behind Sweden’s Andreas Almgren (3:39.68s).

Notes:
The World Refugee Day (WRD) is observed every year on 20th of June to celebrate the stories and contributions of refugees. The 2019 theme is “#Step with Refugees – Take a Step on World Refugee Day”. According to the latest annual study released by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 70.8 million children, women and men were forcibly displaced at the end of last year. This is the highest number in the organization’s almost 70-year history. The study said wars, violence and persecution have driven record numbers of people from their homes worldwide. Almost two thirds of those uprooted from their homes are internally displaced people who have not left their homelands. About 80% of these refugees live in countries neighbouring their country of origin. On an average, one person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution and refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world.

Notes:
Karnataka and Maharashtra have jointly got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Namma Kolhapuri chappal. These leather chappals are hand-crafted and tanned using vegetable dyes. The art of making them is passed down one generation to another. The traditional chappal making will get a modern touch. LIDKAR has in-house fashion designers who will design the footwear. According to LIDKAR officials, there are 5,000 people from villages in Belagavi, Bagalkote and even Dharwad making Kolhapuri chappals at their houses. Their market is restricted to nearest towns. The GI tag approvals implies that the artisans producing Kolhapuris in these districts will now be able to make and market their product in domestic and international markets. This also means the artisans can tie up with leading e-commerce players for higher profits. More importantly, it also prohibit the usage of the term “Kolhapuris” for similar products made in other parts of the country.