Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Internationally acclaimed author Neil Gaiman has been appointed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador to raise awareness about the plight of forcibly displaced people and to generate much needed funds. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book.

Notes:
The 13th edition of Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) summit was held in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 1, 2017. The purpose of the summit is to increase cooperation in areas such as trade, energy, tourism, economic growth and productivity. Ambassador Halil Ibrahim Akca from Turkey is the current Secretary General of ECO. The ECO was formed in 1985 by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. It now also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Notes:
Recently, the West Bengal government has granted official language status to endangered tribal language “Kurukh” of the Dravidian family. The language is spoken by Oraon and Kisan tribes. Apart from this, the state government has granted official status to Rajbanshi-Kamtapuri language spoken by the Koch Rajbanshi community.

Notes:
The 11th edition of North-East Business Summit (NEBS) has started in New Delhi on March 9, 2017. The two-day summit is an initiative to facilitate investment, highlight strengths of the North-East Region (NER) and business opportunities which North-East has to offer. The summit will also showcase the untapped business potential of North-East to investors worldwide.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah has recently launched a comprehensive web-based platform “’Pratibimba” to showcase the government’s performance and achievements to the citizens. The platform is developed as the Chief Minister’s dash board that will serve as a tool to improve efficiency in governance and allow citizens to track government’s progress. It is a reflection of the growth story and development of the state and the dash board will reflect the works of all the departments across flagship schemes, key programmes and projects undertaken in the state. The dash board is available both in English and Kannada.

Notes:
The Himachal Pradesh Government has recently launched the mobile app and website ‘Mera Hunar HP’ for job aspirants. It is a first-of- its-kind application in India. Mera Hunar is a web based platform where the skilled, semi-skilled persons can apply for various jobs as per their convenience viz: Plumber, Carpenter, mechanic, security guards, drivers, tourists guides, etc. The platform is available both in English and Hindi. This platform will directly connect the prospective employers with the job seekers as the application will contain the address and the phone numbers of those looking for jobs and other details as well.This will benefit those looking for daily jobs within their area.

Notes:
The National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has recently installed India’s largest floating solar Photo-Voltaic (PV) plant at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (RGCCPP) in Kerala’s Kayamkulam district. This 100 kWp (kilowatt peak) floating solar generation plant has been indigenously developed by NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA) in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai. The system was installed by Swelect Energy Systems Ltd, Chennai with support from NETRA & NTPC Kayamkulam station in a short span of 22 days. The solar PV plant has various benefits like conserving water through reduction of evaporation, increased generation due to cooling effect on the panels, reduced installation time etc and could be installed on saline water environment.

Notes:
Anshumali Shrivastava, an Indian-American Computer Scientist, has won the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s prestigious 2017 CAREER award for his research on redesigning current machine-learning processes. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science at William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, which is a private research university located in Houston, Texas.

Notes:
The Bihar government has recently launched an ambitious programme to provide free WiFi facilities in colleges and universities on the occasion of Bihar Diwas. The purpose of the program is to provide free Wi-Fi facility to help youths to move ahead in life and to become digital smart. The foundation day of Bihar which is also known as Bihar Diwas (or Bihar Sthapana Diwas) is celebrated every year on March 22. It was on this day when the British carved out the state from Bengal Presidency in 1912.

Notes:
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford, has been bestowed with the 2016 ACM A.M. Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web (WWW), the first web browser, and the fundamental protocols and algorithms allowing the Web to scale. The ACM Turing Award is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” which is presented by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The annual award carries a $1 million prize, with financial support provided by Google Inc.