Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
David Grossman has become the first Israeli author to win the 2017 Man Booker International prize for his novel “A Horse Walks Into a Bar”. The novel was translated by Jessica Cohen and is published in Britain by Jonathan Cape. The book is an ambitious high-wire act of a novel that shines a spotlight on the effects of grief, without any hint of sentimentality. Since 2016, the Man Booker International Prize awards both the winning author and translator £25,000. To be considered for the prize, books had to be translated into English and published in the UK between May 1, 2016 and April 30, 2017.

Notes:
H S Shivaprakash, the noted Kannada poet and playwright, has been conferred with the prestigious 2017 Kusumagraja Rashtriya Puraskar for his outstanding contribution in social and educational fields. The award is constituted by Nashik-based Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University’s (YCMOU) Kusumagraja Adhyasan (Chair). It carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and citation. Beside this, Latur-based Menka Dhumale has been honoured with the YCMOU’s 2016 ‘Baburao Bagul story writing award’ for her book “Korda Paus”.

Notes:
Sahapedia, an open online interactive heritage portal on Indian arts, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recently launched a fellowship programme, to inspire and provide an opportunity for young people to expand their knowledge and encourage documentation of India’s rich cultural heritage. The Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowships will be available to post-doctoral scholars, doctoral candidates, post-graduates, and graduates. The fellowships will be available in two variants — the Sahapedia Project Fellowship (SPF) and the Sahapedia Research Fellowship (SRF) — that gives the applicants the option of participating either at the level of primary documentation or in the content curation process.

Notes:
The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI), Pune has been selected as the first recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for outstanding contribution to promotion and development of Yoga. The institute has worked to spread Yoga, internationally, over a period of four decades. Apart from this RIMYI has also published many books on Yoga and these have been translated into multiple languages. There are thousands of Iyengar Yoga teachers popularising and propagating yoga across the world. The Award was recommended by an Evaluation Committee (Jury) constituted under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary and included Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, Secretary (AYUSH) and Dr. Veerendra Heggade as its members.

Notes:
The Punjab Government has recently announced free education for girls in Government Schools and colleges from Nursery to PhD for women empowerment. To promote English in schools, the state government will also launch a pilot project that will roll out from July 2017in all government schools. In addition, the free Wi-FI service will also roll-out for 13,000 primary schools and all 48 government colleges. Meanwhile, the reservation for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies has already been increased by the government from 33% to 50%.

Notes:
The renowned Ayurveda physician ‘Vaidya’ Rajesh Kotecha has been appointed as new special secretary in Ministry of Ayush for three years on a contract basis. Kotecha is the chief consultant of Chakrapani Ayurveda Clinic, Jaipur. The appointment is in line with the Centre’s efforts to bring in specialists from the private sector in the government.

Notes:
Recently, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has changed its name to World Taekwondo (WT) because of the “negative connotations” that came with its acronym WTF. The change was made before the start of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships. The 23rd edition of the World Taekwondo Championships has started in Muju, South Korea from June 24 to June 30, 2017. The headquarters of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) is located in Seoul, South Korea.

Notes:
India has been ranked 93rd out of 128 countries in the 2017 Social Progress Index (SPI). The list is topped by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The SPI is an aggregate index of social and environmental indicators that capture three dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. The 2017 SPI includes data from 128 countries on 50 indicators. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative, and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian Delegation at the 12th edition of G20 Summit, which is scheduled to be held at Hamburg in Germany on July 7-8, 2017. The theme of the summit this year is “Shaping an interconnected world”. The summit will be organized around three pillars- Stability, Sustainability and Responsibility. The topics such as free trade, environment, terrorism, sustainable development, development in Africa, digitalization, migrations, instability are expected to dominate the discussions during the summit.

Notes:
The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has signed an agreement with Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI) of Japan to manufacture stainless steel coaches and bogies for metro rail. The agreement covers establishing state-of-the-art design, engineering and manufacturing facilities at BHEL using Japanese technology. It will also entitle BHEL for all technology advances and upgrades. The KHI is also the manufacturer and supplier of Shinkansen High Speed Bullet Trains, proposed to be introduced in India on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.