Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2019

Notes:
On 21st June 2019, India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani clinched the 35th men’s Asian Snooker Championship in Doha to complete a career grand slam in cue sports. In the final, he defeated Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon 6-3 to become the only one to win the Asian and World championships in all formats. He is also the only one to do so in two sports, both Billiards and Snooker. He conquered the ACBS Asian Snooker events – 6-red (short format) and 15-red (long format) – along with the IBSF World Championships in both formats too. Pankaj will now take part in IBSF World Cup next week in Doha.

Notes:
In Gymnastics, India’s Pranati Nayak from West Bengal clinched a bronze in vault event at the 8th Senior Asian Artistic Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on June 22, 2019. In the final, she scored a total of 13.384 points to claim the bronze medal. China’s Yu Linmin and Japan’s Ayaka Sakaguchi won the gold and silver medal at the event.

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.

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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:
India’s chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has been bestowed an honorary doctorate by IIT Kanpur on the occasion of their 52nd convocation on June 28, 2019. He received the honour from former ISRO chairman and Chairman of the board of Governors of IIT Kanpur, Prof K Radhakrishnan. The past recipients of the honour are Former President Prof. APJ Abdul Kalam and former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Gopichand, as a player, won the 2001 All England Open Badminton Championship. He became the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to achieve this feat. Post retirement, the Hyderabad-based shuttler started his own badminton academy — Gopichand Badminton Academy — in 2008. Many top Indian players including the likes of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Srikanth Kidambi, Parupalli Kashyap etc. have been trained at Pullela Gopichand’s academy in Hyderabad.

Notes:
Vijaya Nirmala (75), the veteran actress and filmmaker , has passed away in Hyderabad on June 27, 2019. Born on 20th February 1946, Nirmala made her acting debut in 1950 as a child artiste in the Tamil movie ‘Machcha Rekhai’. She holds a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first woman to direct as many as 47 films in different languages. She was also feted with the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award in 2008 for her contributions to Telugu cinema. She featured in over 200 films in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.

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.

Notes:
On July 28, the Union government has launched the Go Tribal Campaign in New Delhi to promote the use of tribal handicrafts and natural products. TRIFED has organized this event to institutionalize collaborations and partnerships with different organizations to promote tribal products. During the event, Tribes India and Amazon Global Marketing (AGM) have launched TRIBES India products globally through Amazon platform. With this collaboration, tribal products will be available in the US and will help establish an export market with tribal products. The collection of Madua, Jowaer, Bazra, Red Rice, Honey, Lac products, Spices, Coffee, Tea and Handmade Soaps produced by Tribals in various parts of the country will also be showcased.

Notes:
Sarada Kumar Hota has been appointed as the new Managing Director of National Housing Bank (NHB) for a period of three years. Prior to this appointment, Hota was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Can Fin Homes. NHB, which is now 100% owned by the government, is the nodal agency for supervision, refinance and development of the housing finance segment.