Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
The 2017 BRICS Film Festival will be held in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province from June 23 to 27. During the festival, 30 films from BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will be screened, including an anthology by five directors from the aforementioned countries, “Where has the time gone”. The feature film consisting of five 18-minute shorts on the same theme is a joint work by Walter Salles from Brazil, Aleksey Fedorchenko from Russia, Madhur Bhandarkar from India, Jahmil X. T. Qubeka from South Africa, and Jia Zhangke from China. The first BRICS Film Festival was held in New Delhi, India in September 2016.

Notes:
Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP leader and Assam Badminton Association President, has been appointed the new interim President of Badminton Association of India (BAI). The post of president was left vacant after the sudden demise of former president Akhilesh Das Gupta.

Notes:
According to data from Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, China is the world’s largest importer of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), where as India toppled Japan to acquire second position. It is because of Indian government’s drive to provide free cooking connections to women from extremely poor households resulted in 32.5 million new LPG connections being added in FY17. The government’s efforts have pushed up India’s active LPG user count to about 200 million. It aims to increase the households using LPG to 80% of total households in India by FY19 from 72.8% as on April 1, 2017. On the other hand, Japan is cutting back on LPG as cooking fuel and is moving to cheaper alternatives such as natural gas. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), hazardous cooking fuels like wood and cow dung cause air pollution on burning and are responsible for 1.3 million pre-mature deaths a year.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) for implement the Centre’s rural internet connectivity programme “Bharatnet”. For this purpose, a sum of Rs. 50 lakh has been allocated as the state’s share captial. The scheme will be helpful in providing Internet connectivity to every household in Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan has become the first Indian actor to deliver a speech at the internationally acclaimed TED Talks. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. He attended ‘Ted 2017 – The Future You’ conference at Vancouver, Canada on April 27, 2017 and spoke on various issues beginning from his startdom to the changes world has experienced with the introduction of internet. Shah Rukh Khan has also partnered with TED to host the hindi version of the famous talk show. TED talks is famous for its motivational and inspirational speeches around the world.

Notes:
Shobana Kamineni, executive vice chairperson of the Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, has been appointed as first Woman President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). She succeeded Dr Naushad Forbes and will hold the position for the year 2017-18. Apart from her, Rakesh Bharti Mittal takes charge as President Designate and Uday Kotak has become the new CII Vice President. CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, playing a proactive role in India’s development process.

Notes:
Justice (retd) Leila Seth (86), an eminent jurist and the first woman chief justice of Himachal Pradesh high court, has recently passed away at her residence in Noida. Justice Seth was the first woman to have topped the London Bar exam and was the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court. She was also one of the three members of the Justice Verma Committee which was constituted in 2012 to recommend amendments to the Criminal Law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women, post the gruesome December 16 gangrape in Delhi. She was also part of the Law Commission of India till 2000, and was responsible for the amendments to the Hindu Succession Act which gave equal rights to daughters in joint family property. Justice Seth was the mother of eminent author Vikram Seth.

Notes:
The Mudumalai National Park (MNP) is located about 150 kilometres north-west of Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu. The protected area is home to several endangered and vulnerable species including Indian elephant, Bengal tiger, gaur and Indian leopard. There are at least 266 species of birds in the sanctuary, including critically endangered Indian white-rumped vulture and long-billed vulture.

Notes:
Vinay Mohan Kwatra, A 1988-batch Foreign Service officer, has been appointed as the next ambassador to France. Kwatra will succeed Mohan Kumar, who is retiring. Apart from having experience of dealing with the UN organisations such as International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO), Kwatra has served in Indian diplomatic missions in China and the US. Currently, he is a joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). He has also held the position of joint secretary in-charge of the counter-terrorism division in the MEA.

Notes:
Sanjay Gubbi of Karnataka and Dr. Purnima Barman of Assam have won the prestigious 2017 Whitley Award, popularly known as Green Oscars, for their efforts in wildlife conservation. Ms. Barman has won the award for creating an all-female network to save the Greater Adjutant stork, known in India as Hargila, and its wetland habitat in Assam, while Mr. Gubbi has been awarded for his work to protect tiger corridors in Karnataka. Each of the winners will receive 35,000 pounds prize money in project funding over one year. The Whitley Fund for Nature is a UK-based charity that works to highlight grassroots leaders in nature conservation across the developing world.