Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 14th G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan on 28th and 29th of June 2019. Former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu will be India’s sherpa at the summit. More than 20 countries will be participating in the G20 Summit. Informal meeting of the BRICS leaders and bilateral meetings with other leaders would also take place on the sidelines of the summit. The theme of the summit is “Human-centred future society”. India has participated in all the G20 Summits held so far. It will host the G20 summit in 2022 for the first time.

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.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has constituted a working group, headed by NSE Clearing Ltd., to review the current framework of margins in the futures and options segment. The group will look into the issue and submit its recommendations to the Secondary Market Advisory Committee. This assumes significance as lower cost of trading was primarily the reason why institutional investors preferred to trade in Nifty contracts on SGX at Singapore rather than on the highly liquid derivatives segment of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Incidentally, a recent study jointly conducted by Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) and consultancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) highlighted the fact that trading in derivatives in India costs much more when compared with most of the other leading markets due to a variety of margins that are imposed on the traders.

Notes:
Author Amish Tripathi has been appointed the new director of Nehru Centre in London, which is under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). He will replace diplomat Srinivas Gotru. Tripathi is the author of best-selling books such as the Secret of the Nagas and Sita – Warrior of Mithila. The Nehru Centre was founded in 1992 with Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its founder director. Playwright-actor Girish Karnad was among the prominent people to have helmed the centre.

Notes:
The second edition of the “Healthy States, Progressive India” report has been released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar. Kerala has topped among large states on overall health performance in NITI Aayog’s Health Index followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Though, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the worst performing states. However, in terms of incremental performance Haryana, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are the top three states who performed well in comparison to the last health index. The report ranks states and Union territories innovatively on their year-on-year incremental change in health outcomes, as well as, their overall performance with respect to each other. The report focuses on measuring and highlighting the overall performance and incremental improvement over a two-year period, 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the States and UTs. It takes a comprehensive look at health in terms of Health Outcomes, Governance and Processes and impact of policy interventions. The report has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and with technical assistance from the World Bank.

Notes:
Italy’s Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo have been chosen to host the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics during the 134th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Skating sports and ice hockey will be held in Milan, while most alpine skiing events will take place in the resort of Cortina. Other snow sports will be held in other venues in the Italian Alps, including Bormio and Livigno. The 2026 Winter Olympics will take place from 6 to 22 February and the 2026 Winter Paralympics will be held from 6 to 15 March.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a new “Complaint Management System (CMS)” website where anyone can complain against any of the entities regulated by RBI. Through this website, complaints can be lodged against RBI regulated entities with public interface such as commercial banks, urban co-operative banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), etc. All complaints lodged on the CMS would be directed to the appropriate office of the ombudsman/regional office of the RBI. The application also improves transparency by keeping the complainants informed through auto-generated acknowledgements and enabling them to track the status of their complaints and file appeals online against the decisions of the ombudsmen, where applicable.

Notes:
A well-known educationist, paediatrician & the author, Dr Gaurav Nigam has been conferred ‘Innovative Research Excellence Award 2019’ at Asian Leadership Summit (ALS) in Thimphu, Bhutan. Dr. Nigam is the founder of iCare – an organization working in the area of new-age child health care; and Intelligentsia, a research-based play school. Intelligentsia is all about scientific research and delivering early education through STEM approach. He has also authored a book titled ‘Devil Inside My Mind’.

Notes:
On June 26, the 32nd Congress of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) has kick-started in Hyderabad, Telangana. The Seed Congress is being held for the first time in South Asia. Over 600 delegates including seed experts, officials, policy makers and representatives of national and international companies from nearly 70 countries like the UK, South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, Canada, Austria are taking part in the Congress. The deliberations will be mainly focusing on various technologies for increasing quality seed production and seed export-import policies. Several pre and post-event workshops, conferences and exhibitions are also being held as part of the 8-day long Congress.

Notes:
India has signed a loan agreement worth $400 million with the World Bank (WB) to help treat and eliminate Tuberculosis from the country. In India, around five lakh people died every year due to Tuberculosis. According to Finance Ministry, the World Bank supported program will cover 9 States and it will support the government’s National Strategic Plan to end TB in India by 2025. The Program will provide financial incentives to private sector care providers for reporting cases of TB and ensuring that their patients complete the treatment regimen. It will also provide Direct Benefit Transfers to patients for acquiring the critical nutrition needed during treatment. The Program will also strengthen the detection, treatment and monitoring of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and will track progress in the detection of additional drug resistance.