Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Bandaru Dattatraya, the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, will lead the Indian delegation to the 2017 G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meet, which is scheduled to be held at Bad Neuenahr in Germany on May 18-19, 2017. Dattatraya will outline India’s recent initiatives for the welfare of its workers including those related to employment promotion, social security, Maternity benefit and child labour. The G20 meet will discuss various topics on labour, migrants and youth employment. A G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration is likely to be adopted at the end of the meeting, which will be presented to the Summit scheduled on 7th-8th July at Hamburg, Germany.

Notes:
Anshu Jamsenpa, the Indian mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh, has scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to scale the Mount Everest for the fourth time. She will attempt a double ascent to the world’s highest peak to make it a total five successful climbs. If she is successful with her double ascent this time, Ms Jamsenpa will set a record five climbs of Mt Everest.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved the allocation of 2.5% of Central Road Fund (CRF) for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs) by amending in the Central Road Fund Act (CRFA), 2000 will provide about Rs. 2000 crore per year to boost inland water transport. In addition to giving a boost to the economy, the policy is expected to provide employment in the Inland Waterways Transport sector as well. It is estimated that 1.8 lakh persons would be provided employment in the Inland Waterways Transport sector in the next 5 years. Jobs are expected to be created for operation, management of fairway, terminals, barges, training aids to navigation. Currently, there are five existing NWs and 106 new NWs. The Central Road Fund (CRF) is a duty on excise and customs levied on petrol and high-speed diesel.

Notes:
The Union Government has recently launched online verification portal ‘e-Sanad’ to make the document verification process easier for students who are planning to study aboard. The portal is an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in association with two other ministries — will initially be hosting school leaving certificates with the help of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In subsequent phases, the portal will also host documents from central universities.

Notes:
The first-ever women television channel “Zan TV (or Women’s TV)” has started in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 30, 2017 with a staff of all female presenters and producers. The purpose of the women TV channel is to highlight the rights of Afghan women, improve their status and ensure their equity with men in the conservative society. It is being seen as a groundbreaking step for women’s rights, in a male dominated country which is struggling for peace. Media entrepreneur Hamid Samar is the founder of Zan TV.

Notes:
The bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award under the newly introduced “Internationally Acclaimed Actress” category for being an international icon. The award ceremony will be held on June 1, 2017 in Mumbai. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema and it was instituted in 1969.

Notes:
The researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a new technology to manufacture cheaper, quicker and pollution-free bio-fuel. The ‘soil-to-soil’ manufacturing technology developed at the P K Sinha Centre for bio-energy at IIT-KGP is in the process of being patented. The technique will ensure relatively quicker production of bio-fuel and the process is completely green. The green leafy part of corn and sugarcane plants, the waste part of paddy straw, bamboo, banana plant, pineapple and cotton plants, kans grass (kassh phool), castor plant and even non-edible weeds that grow in dry and waste land and a mix of all has been used by IIT-KGP to produce bio fuel. The project is funded by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Notes:
Tapan Ray, the 1982 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer and currently the corporate affairs secretary, has taken additional charge as the new Economic Affairs Secretary. He succeeded Shaktikanta Das, who retired on May 31, 2017 after serving the government for 37 years in various capacities.

Notes:
India has been ranked 37th out of 103 nations in the 2017 global Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI), according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative. The OPHI is an economic research centre at the Oxford University, led by Professor Sabina Alkire. The 2017 global MPI has covered 76% of the world’s population, living in 103 countries. The index measures the nature and intensity of poverty, based on the profile of overlapping deprivations each poor person experiences. It aggregates these into meaningful indexes that can be used to inform targeting and resource allocation and to design policies that tackle the interlinked dimensions of poverty together.

Notes:
Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth from India has won the Men’s Singles Crown in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament by defeating Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in a tough three-game final on June 4, 2017 in Bangkok. This is the first Grand Prix Gold title for Sai Praneeth.