Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) has tied-up with Tirumala Milk Products to provide loans to dairy farmers who supply milk to the latter. As per the scheme for financing dairy units, SBI offers loans for construction of shed, and purchase of milch animals, milking machine, and chaff cutter. Apart from this, the bank also provides loans to dairy societies for modernisation and creation of infrastructure such as purchase of automatic milk collection system, purchase of transport vehicles and bulk chilling unit. The Tirumala Milk Products is a South- based company, which was acquired by France-based Groupe Lactalis in 2014.

Notes:
Indian agricultural microbiologist Dr. Shrihari Chandraghatgi, the President and CEO of EcoCycle Corporation, has been conferred with the 2017 Ministry of Environment Award in Japan for developing cutting edge technologies to address burning environmental problems. With this, Chandraghatgi has become the first foreigner to receive this award. The Ministry of Environment Award is the highest honour given in the environmental sector every year jointly by the Ministry of Environment, Japan, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan and The Nikkan Kogyo Shinbun (a media group).

Notes:
The Lahugala Kitulana National Park is one of the smallest national parks in Sri Lanka. Despite its land area, the park is an important habitat for Sri Lankan elephant and endemic birds of Sri Lanka. It is home to Endemic toque macaque, Sri Lanka leopard, Indian muntjac, Sri Lankan axis deer, Sri Lankan sambar deer, Indian pangolin, Indian hare, etc.

Notes:
The world’s first-ever data embassy will be established by the Estonian government in Luxembourg in 2018. For this, Prime Minister of Estonia Jüri Ratas and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel has signed an agreement on housing data and information systems, that will pave the way to open data embassy in Luxembourg. Its establishment is part of the Estonian general strategy of data management and fundamentally a double guarantee to their data and services. In addition, the data embassy will have the same rights as any other physical embassy of Estonia.

Notes:
Subhash C. Garg, a 1983 batch lAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed as the new the economic affairs secretary in the Union Finance Ministry. The post fell vacant after Shaktikanta Das retired on May 31, 2017. Currently, Tapan Ray, the corporate affairs secretary, has the additional charge of the economic affairs department. Prior to this appointment, Garg was Executive Director at World Bank for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka.

Notes:
The book titled ‘Hope in a challenged democracy; An Indian narrative’ has authored by Dr. Ashwini Kumar, the renowned lawyer, author and veteran parliamentarian. The principal themes of the book are firstly on the incestuous relationship between wealth and power’ and its impact on the credibility and moral authority of the government and secondly on an insufferable atmosphere of intolerance. The book was launched by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on April 10, 2017.

Notes:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has successfully launched the world’s smallest and lightest satellite “Kalamsat” built by Indian students into the space from its facility in Wallops Island on June 23, 2017. The satellite is named after the former President APJ Abdul Kalam and was designed and built by Tamil Nadu student Rifath Sharook along with six other teammates. The tiny satellite weighs around 64 grams and its structure is fully 3D-printed with reinforced carbon fiber polymer. It is equipped with a nano Geiger Muller counter which will measure radiation in space. The satellite has been designed in a way which will have a 240-minute mission in space and will operate for 12 minutes in a micro-gravity environment of space. With this launch, Rifath Sharook has become the first Indian student to have his experiment launched by NASA.

Notes:
The World Bank (WB) has approved a loan assistance of $44 million for the Assam State Public Finance Institutional Reforms (ASPIRe) Project. The ASPIRe project is based on three important components that act as pillars for institutional reforms – strengthening public finance institutional capacity, strengthening expenditure and revenue information systems and on project management, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination. The purpose of the project is to improve predictability and transparency in budget execution and efficiency in tax administration in Assam. The project is for 5 years and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2022.

Notes:
Indian film ‘Sultan’ has won the best action movie award at the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF). The movie is about Desi, Indian wrestling and its raw power. It was directed by Ali Aabbas Zafar. With this, Sultan has become the first ever Bollywood film to win the award in the Jackie Chan Action Movie week section, which focuses on a selection of the best in action, special effects, and performances by action stars from China and the Asia Pacific.

Notes:
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is observed every year on June 26 across the world to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse. The day also observes to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society. The 2017 theme is “Listen First – Listening to children and youth is the first step to help them grow healthy and safe “. This is an initiative to increase support for prevention of drug use that is based on science and is thus an effective investment in the well-being of children and youth, their families and their communities.