Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Top seeded Indian team has won gold medal in the boys’ team event at the 18th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship-2017 by defeating Malaysia by 2-0 in the final in Hong Kong. It’s 2nd time that Indian boys team has won the championship. Earlier in 2011, they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in Colombo.

Notes:
Recently, the Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel has laid the foundation stone of the India’s first centre of excellence for differently-abled sportsmen at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The Center of Excellence is proposed with an estimate of over Rs 50 crore. It will have world class facilities where para athletes can train for various international competitions including Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. It will also act as a classification center for para athletes. The Center will also hold seminars, educational programmes and workshops throughout the year with the help of International Paralympic Committee. Approx 50 differently-abled sportspersons (boys & girls) between age group 8-12 will be imparted training in Athletics, Swimming and power lifting at the training centre. The entire project will be constructed by CPWD in coordination with various experts and consultants having full accessibility as per the norms of IPC.

Notes:
The apex aviation security agency, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has suspended the license of budget carrier IndiGo’s aviation security training facility for alleged lapses in the examination system conducted by it. The training academy is run by IndiGo’s parent company “InterGlobe Aviation”. Following the suspension of licence, IndiGo would have to outsource the training programme, which would result in additional cost for the carrier.

Notes:
The Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu has recently released the annual year book ‘India-2017’ and ‘Bharat-2017’ at a function in Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi on February 6, 2017. The book published by the Publications Division gives comprehensive information about the country and various States and Union Territories including functioning of the government and the economy. The book also gives a glimpse of flagship programmes of the government, important events of the year and the story of Indian States and Union Territories with their vital statistics. Beside this, the electronic version of the Year Book has also launched that provides latest technical features and has a variety of reader-friendly features like searchable content, referencing and is priced at 25% less than the print books.

Notes:
Anish Kapoor, the well-known Indian-origin British sculptor, has won the prestigious $1 million Genesis Prize 2017 by Israel for his commitment to Jewish values. Kapoor’s work include ‘Turning the World Upside Down’ at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, ‘Cloud Gate’ in Chicago’s Millennium Park and the ‘Orbit’ in London. The Genesis Prize is also regarded as Jewish Nobel Prize and is given annually to those who have attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields, and who inspire others through their engagement and dedication to the Jewish community and/or the State of Israel.

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The 13th edition of National Agriculture Science Congress (NASC)-2017 has started at the campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru (UAS-B) in Bengaluru, Karnataka from February 22, 2017. The 4-day congress is jointly organised by the UAS-B, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The theme of the Congress is ‘Climate-smart Agriculture’. The Congress will provide an intellectually stimulating platform for discussing key issues related to ‘Climate-smart Agriculture’ in all its facets, including socio-economic empowerment of marginal farmers through technology development and policy initiatives for sustainable farming, forestry and natural resource management in tune with global climate change.

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The Government of India (GoI) has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh for the development of Sylhet city. As per the MoU, the Indian government will provide financial aid for the construction of a five-storey Kinder Garten and High School Building, a six-storey cleaner colony building; and for some development work in Dhupa Dighirpar area at a total cost of around Taka 240 million.

Notes:
The Haryana government has launched an online system “Sex Ratio Monitoring Dashboard” for Panipat to monitor the sex-ratio in the district as part of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme. The dashboard had been developed in association with National Informatics Centre (NIC) as a pilot project. The online system will have the data of child sex-ratio collected from all villages by the Health and Women and Child Welfare Departments every month. It will also have the data on critical villages where more attention was required towards skewed child sex-ratio and steps needed to taken to set up the efforts accordingly.

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The Odisha government has recently signed MoU with Invest India to support startups in the state The MoU will also facilitate networking between Odisha start-ups and global start-up ecosystem. Invest India will also extend knowledge support for development in MSME sector with focus on food processing, agro-processing and spices. Apart from this, the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has officially launched the Start-up Odisha Helpline “18003457100” to offer hands-on assistance to youths aspiring to be entrepreneurs. The purpose of the helpline is to provide a platform to youths, incubators and other stakeholders in the start-up eco-system to get easy redressal of their queries related to policy, fund raising, company incorporation and idea validation.

Notes:
M P Veerendra Kumar, the noted Malayalam author and journalist, has recently bestowed with the 30th edition of Moortidevi award 2016 by Bharatiya Jnanpith organization for his Malayalam travelogue “Hymavathabhoovil”, which dwells upon ancient trails of Indian culture, myth, literature and people strewn in the plains, valleys and mountains of India. The book also highlights environmental concerns over “fragile mountain ecosystem” and calls for action over lack of water resources and waste disposal systems. The award consists of a Saraswati statue, a citation plaque and cash award of Rs four lakh and is given annually for books written in all Indian languages besides English pertaining to Indian philosophy. Kumar is Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi and a Rajya Sabha MP.