Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2019

Notes:
Ace Indian squash players Saurav Ghoshal and Joshna Chinappa won their respective Asian Individual Squash Championship titles in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 6. Saurav Ghoshal defeated Leo Au Chun Ming of Hong Kong 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 to win the men’s title. On the other hand, Joshna Chinappa retained her title as she beat top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6 in the women’s final event. Ghoshal who had become the first Indian male player to reach top ten of the world rankings is the finalist of the previous edition.

Notes:
Common Service Centre’s (CSC) e-Governance Services India Limited has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur to upscale ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’, which is an initiative of the Ministry of HRD. It aims to find solutions to accelerate sustainable growth in rural India. Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIT-Kanpur has brought together 15 leading higher education institutions from Uttar Pradesh. These institutions have agreed to work with CSC for the development of villages under the scheme. IIT Kanpur has adopted five villages — Hridayapur, Baikanthpur, Ishwariganj, Pratappur Hari and Saxupurva — situated on the outskirts of Kanpur for its overall development. The e-Governance Services India is a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Electronics & IT.

Notes:
Justice PR Ramachandra Menon has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court. Governor Anandiben Patel administered him the oath of office and secrecy at a function at Raj Bhawan. Earlier, Menon was a judge in the Kerala High Court. As per article 217 of constitution, the Chief Justice of a High Court is appointed by the President with the consultation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Governor of the State. The other judges are appointed by the will of President, Governor and the Chief Justice of High Court.

Notes:
G D ‘Robert’ Govender, an Indian-origin journalist in South Africa, has been honoured in the UK with 2019 V K Krishna Menon award for his outstanding contribution as a pioneer of decolonized journalism. During a career spanning nearly 60 years, Govender developed a reputation as a campaigning journalist and author and was also the first journalist to call for an international boycott of South Africa’s whites-only sports teams. He was awarded posthumously during an event by the UK-based V K Krishna Menon Foundation to mark the 123rd birth anniversary of Indian diplomat and politician V K Krishna Menon. The objectives of the foundation are to eradicate illiteracy and propagate knowledge among the masses of the world, promote oriental art and culture, eliminate poverty, encourage proliferation and promote Non-Aligned Movement in the world. V K Krishna Menon was a freedom fighter and independent India’s first high commissioner to the UK. Later on he also became defence minister of the country during Jawaharlal Nehru’s prime ministership.

Notes:
The Desert Storm 2019 is touted to be the longest Cross-Country Rally in India, which is started from Bikaner in Rajasthan on 8th May. The 4-day-long Rally will see over 100 teams competing in high temperatures, treacherous dune crossings and fast technical gravel straights and fast technical gravel straights which will pose an exciting challenge to the competitors. It comprises 600 km of extremely harsh Special Stages in addition to over 900 km of Transport Stages.

Notes:
Dr. NR Madhava Menon (84), the renowned academician and father of modern Indian Legal Education, passed away in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on May 8, 2019. He is credited for revolutionizing the field of legal education by establishing National Law Schools and by conceptualizing the 5-year integrated LLB programme. He was the founder Director of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore and the National Judicial Academy (NJA) Bhopal and the founder Vice Chancellor of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS). The nation honoured him with the Padma Sri in 2003 for his outstanding contributions to the legal field.

Notes:
The 6-day Brahmakalashothsava festival is celebrated in the ancient Chandkuru Sri Durga Parameshwari Temple annually in Polali, Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka. The presiding deity of the temple, which has a history of nearly 1,700 years, is Shri Rajarajeshwari. The highlight of this temple is its mud idols and this is probably the only idol of this size (about 9ft height) in Karnataka. Other than the presiding deity Rajarajeshwari – two other idols Bhadrakali on the left (may be bigger than the presiding deity in height) and Lord Subrahmanya and Ganesha are on the right hand side. It is in news recently because several Dalits and OBCs from Chandkuru and surrounding villages in Belthangady taluk boycotted festival in a centuries-old temple due to separate seating arrangement had been made for people of the upper caste.

Notes:
Hiralal Yadav (93), the Padma Shri awardee Bhojpuri folk singer, has passed away in Chowkaghat, Varanasi on May 12, 2019. The veteran musician was from the ‘Birha’ genre, which revolves around the separation of a lover from his beloved. Hence, he was famously known as ‘Birha Samrat’. Yadav was felicitated with 2019 Padma Shri award, the country’s fourth highest civilian award. In 2015, he was honoured with Yash Bharti award by the Uttar Pradesh government for his contribution in the field of music.

Notes:
The first edition of world’s first exclusive women’s cricket magazine ‘Criczone’ has been released in Jaipur, Rajasthan. In it, Indian team cricket vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has featured as the cover story. The purpose of the magazine is to empower young aspiring women cricketers to take the sport as a profession and able to make a sustainable living. Top international cricketers like Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smiriti Mandhana along with overseas players like Danielle Wyatt, Sophie Devine attended the event which is held on the sidelines of the inaugural women’s T20 challenge. Yash Lahoti is the publisher of the magazine.

Notes:
Islamic State (IS) has claimed for the first time that it has established a “province” in India, after a clash between militants and security forces in the Kashmir region killed a militant with alleged ties to the group. The new ‘province’ is called “Wilayah of Hind ” by the militant group. IS’s Amaq News Agency also claimed IS inflicted casualties on Indian Army soldiers in the town of Amshipora in the Shopian district of Kashmir. The statement of establishing the new province appears to be designed to bolster its standing after the group was driven from its self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in April 2019, where at one point it controlled thousands of miles of territory. IS has stepped up hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks, including taking responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombing in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people.