Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Malala Yousafzai (19), the youngest—ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will become the United Nations (UN)’s youngest-ever Messenger of Peace to promote girls’ education around the world as part of her new role. She is honoured by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a ceremony at the U.N. headquarters in New York on April 10, 2017. Yousafzai is a Pakistani education activist, who came to prominence when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in 2012 as punishment for campaigning for girls to go to school which defied the militant Islamic group’s ban on female education.

Notes:
Bengaluru city police has launched “Pink Hoyslas” police patrol vehicles for women safety. Pink Hoysalas will be stationed at 51 hot spots’ that have been identified on the basis of the crime pattern in various city areas, especially those related to safety of women and children. The vehicles will also patrol during the night to extend a moral support for women of Bengaluru. Apart from this, an emergency panic alarm app “Suraksha” has also launched for women to send emergency alerts directly to the city police control room in case of threat. The Suraksha app is available from Android and iOS platforms.

Notes:
India has recently signed sport partnership agreement with Australia to increase cooperation in sports. The India-Australia Sports Partnership would facilitate exchange of athletes, coaches, technical officials, sports scientists between the two countries. It will advance India-Australia cooperation in four areas, athlete and coach training and development, sport science, sport governance and integrity and grassroots participation. Under the new partnership, Victoria University and the University of Canberra would work with India to assist in the establishment of a National Sports University (NSU) similar to the Australian Institute of Sport.

Notes:
Girish Chandra Saxena (90), the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), has recently passed away in New Delhi. Saxena was the 1950-batch IPS officer, who served in Uttar Pradesh as Chief of Police in various districts including Rampur, Aligarh, Bareilly and Allahabad. Later, he was deputated to the Government of India (GoI) in April 1969, served in Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for 16 years and headed it from 1983 to 1986. After his retirement from the RAW in 1986, Saxena served as an advisor to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi till January 1988. His main areas of specialization were international affairs, national security and intelligence matters.

Notes:
India’s oldest and largest Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Kharagpur will start “Vastu Shastra” classes for architecture students from the next academic session i.e. starting from August 2017. It will be introduced to undergraduate students as part of courses on basic design and history of architecture. At the post-graduate level, concepts of social principles, 9-circuit placements or the nabagraha mandal, sacred altars and design semiotics and semantics will be taught to students. The purpose of this initiative is to explore India’s ancient roots in Vastu Shastra. It is a part of the institute’s Science and Heritage Initiative (SandHI) which will oversee the curriculum design.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to help develop low-cost lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. According to the MoU, BHEL will set up a production plant, while ISRO will provide support for scale-up, joint effort in cost optimisation, research and development for alternate chemistry and buyback commitment, according to sources. BHEL will develop the battery for commercial applications. This is part of India’s plan to promote low-cost electric vehicles with the use of lithium-ion batteries.

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Madhya Pradesh will be awarded with the Union Government’s Krishi Karman Award for 2015-16 for wheat production. It is the fifth consecutive year that Madhya Pradesh will be conferred with the prestigious Krishi Karman Award. MP wheat production in 2015-16 stood at 184.10 lakh tonnes as against 171.03 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, a rise of 7.64%. The award instituted by the Union Agriculture Ministry carries a trophy, citation and cash prize of Rs. 2 crore. In addition, the cash reward of Rs. 2 lakh and a citation letter will be handed over to a woman and a male farmer as ‘best wheat producer’.

Notes:
The 4th edition of National Standards Conclave (NSC) will be held in New Delhi from May 1-2, 2017. The purpose of the conclave is to bring awareness and prepare Industries Central Government Ministries, State Governments, regulatory/standards setting and conformity assessment bodies on the growing importance of “Standards” in the changing scenario of global trade. The Department of Commerce, Government of India in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and other knowledge partners is organizing the Conclave.

Notes:
The 27th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group has started at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland from 1st to 12th of May. During the session, India’s National Report for the UPR-III will be reviewed on May 4, 2017. Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi is leading the Indian delegation. The National Report of India covers areas that were part of the recommendations accepted by India following the UPR-II in 2012. The report also covers areas that India wish to share with member countries as part of the peer review mechanism and in a spirit of cooperative engagement and collaboration that has marked the approach to the issue of human rights.

Notes:
The 2017 India Integrated Transport and Logistics Summit (IITLS) was organized by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in New Delhi from May 3. The purpose of the 3-day summit was to facilitate constructive dialogue between various stakeholders for the development of multimodal infrastructure in the country. In it, 34 investment MoUs amounting to about Rs 2 lakh crores were signed. These MoUs were in the areas of port connectivity, Integrated Check Posts (ICP), multi modal logistics parks, etc. The summit was attended by 3000 delegates from India and abroad, which included central and state government organizations, international organizations like World Bank, ADB delegates, global transport and supply chain experts and representatives of private companies.