Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
Sanjana Ramesh has won the ‘Most Valuable Player’ (MVP) award at the Basketball Without Borders Asia 2018, which featured 66 campers from 16 countries from the Asia-Pacific region. Her compatriot Vaishnavi Yadav won the ‘Girls Grit Award’ in the camp. The camp got underway with the girls championship game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx. Coached on the sidelines by Ruth Riley and Sakshi Sheoran, the Lynx defeated the Liberty 20-13.

Notes:
On June 6, the screening of the biopic ‘Making of the Mahatma’ in Pietermaritzburg marked the opening of a three-day series of events to commemorate the historic incident 125 years ago when Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from a train because the compartment he was in was reserved for whites only. On the night of June 7, 1893, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young lawyer then, was thrown off the train’s first class compartment at Pietermaritzburg station in South Africa for refusing to give up his seat. The incident led him to develop his Satyagraha principles of peaceful resistance and mobilise people in South Africa and in India against the discriminatory rules of the British. The film, a co-production between India and South Africa, was made in 1996, soon after Nelson Mandela ascended to the position of South Africa’s first democratically-elected President. The film was directed by Shyam Benegal based on the book ‘Apprenticeship of a Mahatma’ by late freedom activist Prof Fatima Meer.

Notes:
On June 5, the Supreme Court has allowed the Union government to implement the reservation in promotion policy for SC/ST employees in accordance with the law but did not stay a Delhi High Court judgment that had quashed an August 1997 office memorandum issued by the Centre providing for reservation in promotions for Dalit and tribal employees. The vacation bench comprising Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan allowed such reservation but added without elaboration that it should be “in accordance with law”. As per Article 16 (4A) of the Constitution, the state would have to make out a case for providing reservation in promotion to SC/ST based on quantifiable data. The provision also says that the data should be based on factors like backwardness, inadequacy of representation and overall efficiency.

Notes:
The Kune Falls is a scenic waterfall situated near Kune village in Pune district of Maharashtra. It is a three tiered waterfalls with a total height of 200m; the highest drop being 100m. The falls attracts tourists in large numbers during the rainy season when the waterfall is in its peak form and flows down with a huge gush. It is the 14th highest waterfall in India.

Notes:
The Union Government has constituted a group of eminent persons to study the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Policy of India. The group will be headed by Industrialist Baba Kalyani. The group will evaluate the SEZ policy, suggest measures to cater to the needs of exporters in the present economic scenario and make the SEZ policy WTO compatible. The Group has to submit its recommendation in 3 months. The SEZ Policy was implemented from 1st April, 2000. Subsequently, the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 was passed by Parliament in May, 2005 which received Presidential assent on the 23rd June, 2005 and the Special Economic Zone Act was enacted. The SEZ Act, 2005, supported by SEZ Rules, came into effect on 10th February, 2006.

Notes:
Veteran film actor Anupam Kher will be given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement honour at the 19th edition of International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards ceremony in Bangkok on June 24, 2018. He will be honoured for his contribution in the field of cinema. Kher has worked in over 500 films spanning across languages along with projects both in India and abroad for over three decades.

Notes:
One June 7, India began their campaign at the 2018 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Gifu, Japan with a strong start by clinching four medals- – a gold, a silver and two bronze. Ashish Jakhar created a new National U-20 record to clinch the gold medal with a hammer throw of 76.86 in his second attempt while Damneet bagged the silver with a best throw of 74.08. This shattered the previous mark of 75.04 meters that he himself had set at the Junior Federation Cup in April 2018. Beside them, Triple jumper Priyadarshini Suresh and long distance runner Poonam Sonune bagged bronze medals in women’s events.

Notes:
Sudheesh Guruvayoor, an Indian farmer from Kerala, has set a Guinness World Record by distributing the largest number of curry tree saplings in Sharjah on 5th June 2018. He distributed 4,914 saplings of the organic curry tree and broke the record set by the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara in Dubai who had distributed 2,083 saplings of three varieties of trees to students of Delhi Private School in March 2018. The saplings from his own farm in Sharjah were distributed to the students of two campuses of the Sharjah Indian High School. He achieved the new feat as part of the World Environment Day (WED-2018) celebrations in the country. With five Limca Book of Records and other awards in his kitty, Guruvayoor stated that he had been growing curry tree saplings at his farm for almost three months for this dream project. Curry leaves are used for the aroma and flavour in the cuisine of various states in India, especially in the south.

Notes:
The Punjab government has launched a “Business First Portal” to give a big push towards the ease of doing business in the state. It was unveiled by Industry Minister Sunder Sham Arora in Jalandhar on June 7, 2018. The online portal will facilitate the industrialists for Regulatory Clearances and Fiscal Approvals, real-time tracking of applications at common platform.

Notes:
The Union finance ministry has set up a committee to examine the possibility of setting up an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) or an Asset Management Company (AMC) to fast track resolution of stressed assets. Punjab National Bank’s non executive chairman Sunil Mehta will head the panel. The Committee will consider whether such an arrangement will be good for the banking system. If it is considered advisable, the Committee will also consider the modalities by which such an ARC / AMC should be set up. It will submit its report in two weeks.