Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
India has extended a $100 million line of credit to Seychelles to allow it to build its defense capabilities and purchase weapons from India. The two nations also signed six Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), including in the area of infrastructure development in Seychelles, cyber security and white-shipping arrangement that would enable the two countries to exchange data regarding identity and movement of non-military commercial vessels. As promised by PM Modi during his visit there in 2015, India also gifted the 2nd Dornier aircraft to Seychelles ahead of its National Day on June 29, 2018. Both the nations agreed to work together on the Assumption Island project based on each other’s interests. It comes with a good note for India because the deal for an Indian military base in the Island was recently declared as ‘dead’ by Seychelles President Danny Faure.

Notes:
Anant Barua, who is at present executive director in the market regulator, has been appointed as a Whole-time Member (WTM) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The post of WTM fell vacant after S Raman retired. Barua has been appointed to the post for 3 years on the pay as admissible to additional secretary to the central government or a consolidated salary of Rs 4 lakh per month. Currently, the SEBI board consists of Ajay Tyagi (Chairman); G Mahalingam and Madhabi Puri Buch (both Whole-time members); besides Subhash Chandra Garg, Injeti Srinivas, NS Vishwanathan and Arun P Sathe as part-time members. Besides the Chairman, SEBI can have three Whole-time Members.

Notes:
The 2018 World Food Prize will be awarded to two men who have dedicated their careers to improving the availability of nutritious food for pregnant women and children in an effort to reduce the effects of malnutrition in developing countries. These are Dr. Lawrence Haddad and Dr. David Nabarro. Both will split the $250,000 award that goes with the prize. The laureates will be recognized at a ceremony in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines on Oct 18, 2018. Dr. Haddad is a British economist and food policy researcher, whereas Dr. Nabarro has worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) on health and hunger issues.

Notes:
According to data on language released by the Union government as part of Census 2011, Hindi is the most spoken language in India. As per data, the percentage of Indian population with Hindi as their mother tongue has risen to 43.63% from 41.03% in 2001. Bengali has taken the second spot, followed by Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Gujarati. Urdu is the 7th most spoken language in India, while Sanskrit was the least spoken of the country’s 22 scheduled languages. Out of unscheduled languages, the most spoken language was Bhili or Bhilodi, native to Rajasthan with 1.04 crore speakers and is followed by Gondi with 29 lakh speakers. According to Census authorities, mother tongue is defined as the language spoken in childhood by the person’s mother to the person or, where the mother has died in the person’s infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person’s household during childhood.

Notes:
The Raja Lakhamagouda dam is situated at Hidkal village in Hukkeri Taluk of Belagavi district in North Karnataka. It is build across the Ghataprabha River in the Krishna River basin. The dam with the height of 62.48 m and 10 Vertical Crest Gates, impounds a large reservoir with a gross surface area of 63.38 Sq Km, and storage capacity of 51.16 Tmcft. The dam is named after Raja Lakhamagouda Sardesai, philanthropist and Zamindar of Vantamuri.

Notes:
The NITI Aayog released the First Delta Ranking (incremental progress) of the Aspirational Districts Programme in New Delhi on June 29, 2018. The ranking measured the incremental progress made by districts between 31st of March and 31st of May, 2018. The Dahod district of Gujarat with 19.8 points ranked first in the Delta ranking, while West Sikkim district in Sikkim stood second with 18.9 points. The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure through 49 key performance indicators. The purpose of this ranking is to spur a sense of competition among the dynamic teams in the districts. The knowledge partners of NITI Aayog – Tata Trusts, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (ID Insights) – are expected to provide data on 13 survey indicators and have validated values for 29 data-points. The next ranking will take into account these inputs and will be released soon thereafter.

Notes:
The 12th National Statistics Day (NSD-2018) is celebrated on June 29 at the National level in India with theme “Quality Assurance in Official Statistics” to create public awareness about the importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation, and to acknowledge the contribution of Late Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) jointly celebrated 12th Statistics Day and the closing ceremony of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis on 29th June 2018 at Kolkata. On the occasion, Vice President of India released a commemorative coin of Rs 125 and circulation coin of Rs 5 denomination as a mark of respect to Prof. Mahalanobis. The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) at Kolkata, set up by Prof. Mahalanobis in 1931, and was declared an autonomous “Institute of National Importance” through an act of Parliament in 1959.

Notes:
Kanya Van Samruddhi Yojana is a new scheme of Maharashtra government in which farmers families where girl children are born, will be given saplings for plantation. The saplings will be of different varieties, including teakwood, mango, jackfruit, black plum and tamarind. The scheme will be applicable for maximum two girls. Income from these trees will safeguard future of gril child.

Notes:
The theme selected for the Statistics Day this year is ‘‘Quality Assurance in Official Statistics’ for focused discussions and efforts throughout the year, aimed at bringing about improvements in the selected area.

Notes:
India has moved up one place from 36 in 2016 to 35th spot in 2018 on JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) aided by improvement in market fundamentals, policy reforms, and liberalization of FDI. The report covers 100 markets and is based on 186 indicators divided into six areas –performance measurement, market fundamentals, governance of listed vehicles, regulatory & legal frameworks, transaction process and environmental sustainability.