Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
The Indian Navy hosted a maritime information sharing workshop under the aegis of the Information Fusion Centre — Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) at Gurugram, Haryana on June 12. Over 41 delegates from 29 countries of the IOR participated in the two-day event. The aim of the workshop was to explain participants about IFC-IOR and its information sharing mechanisms and promote sharing of best practices in this field. The event included issues such as maritime terrorism, piracy, human and drug trafficking, humanitarian assistance as well as disaster relief and the legal perspective of combating these challenges.

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:
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:
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:
For the first time in Bangladesh, iron ore mine has been discovered at Isabpur village in Dinajpur. According to the Geological Survey of Bangladesh, a 400-foot thick iron layer was found 1,750 feet beneath the surface stretched over an area of 6-10 square kilometre. The percentage of iron in the mine was 65 which indicate the high quality of the ore. In most other countries like Canada, China, Brazil Sweden and Australia the percentage is below 50. Other minerals such as gold, there were copper, nickel and chromium were also found at various levels of the mining. The discovery of the iron mine has opened up economic prospects for the country. The discovery of high-quality iron ore mine in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh is a significant achievement. Since the iron concentration in the magnetite ore is 65%, mining would be economically feasible.

Notes:
According to the Randstad Employer Brand Research (REBR) 2019, E-commerce giant Amazon India is the most attractive employer brand in India followed by Microsoft India and Sony India. Others in the top 10 most-attractive employer brands in India for 2019 include Mercedes-Benz at 4th position, IBM (5th), Larsen & Toubro (6th), Nestle (7th), Infosys (8th), Samsung (9th) and Dell (10th). As per report, Amazon has scored high on financial health, utilisation of latest technologies and a strong reputation. The survey further noted that a vast majority (55%) of Indians prefer to work for a large multi-national corporation, while a negligible 9% preferred start-ups. The preference for Multi-National Companies (MNCs) can be strongly attributed to job security, financial health and career progression opportunities, which these organisations offer to their employees. The survey also noted that the Indian workforce prefers to work for companies operating in sectors like IT, ITeS and telecom (67%), retail, FMCG and e-commerce (67%), followed by automotive (66%) and BFSI (65%).

Notes:
The World Sustainable Gastronomy Day (WSGS) is observed every year on 18th of June to focus the world’s attention on the role that sustainable gastronomy can play. It also reaffirms that all cultures and civilizations are contributors and crucial enablers of sustainable development.

Notes:
Shefali Juneja, a 1992 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre), has been appointed to the post of Representative of India in the council of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada for a period of 3 years. She will replace senior IAS officer Alok Shekhar.

Notes:
The World Sickle Cell Day (WSCD) is observed every year on 19th of June to raise public awareness about the sickle cell disease and its treatment methods. Sickle cell disease is an inherited form of anaemia in which red blood cells are not able to carry adequate oxygen throughout the body. Government has organised several campaigns for the proper treatment and cure of those suffering from the disease.

Notes:
Thanjavoor Ramamoorthy (90), the noted mridangam exponent and former top grade staff artist of All India Radio (AIR), has passed away in Trichy, Tamil Nadu on June 22, 2019. He had the unique distinction of having accompanied four generations of Carnatic stalwarts starting from violin genius Muringapuri Gopalakrishna Iyer, right up to renowned vocalist ML Vasanthakumari. He was the recipient of the Kalaimamani award of the Government of Tamil Nadu.