Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
Pallavi Durua, who belongs to Odisha’s Koraput district, has been crowned as the India’s first “Tribal Queen” at the Adi Rani Kalinga Tribal Queen competition held at Utkal Mandap on June 26, 2018. Panchami Majhi of Titlagarh and Rashmirekha Hansdah of Mayurbhanj were declared as the first and second runners-up of the beauty pageant respectively. The trio will now feature in a short movie on tribal culture, to be produced by a Mumbai-based producer. Besides that, special awards were also given in seven different categories including tribal attire, photogenic face, best skin, best personality, the best presentation of ornaments, the best presentation of own culture and best in talent. The jury included a pool of guests from national and state-level, headed by Padma Shri Tulasi Munda, who is also the ambassador of the event. The prime objective of the event was to promote tribal art and culture.

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.

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The Gangrel Dam is built across the Mahanadi River in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. It is also known as the R.S. Sagar Dam and is the longest dam in Chhattisgarh. This dam supplies year round irrigation, allowing farmers to harvest two crops per year. The dam also supplies 10 MW of hydro-electric power capacity.

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 Maharashtra government has announced a new scheme called ‘Kanya Van Samruddhi Yojana’, wherein farmers families where girl children are born, will be given saplings for plantation. The purpose of the scheme is to empower women and promoting tree plantation. The farmer family blessed with a girl child between April 1 and March 31 can make an application with the Gram Panchayat after which they will get 10 saplings free of cost from the forest department. The saplings will be of different varieties, including teakwood, mango, jackfruit, black plum and tamarind. The scheme will be applicable for maximum two girls. The beneficiaries will also be helped under the horticulture scheme. It is expected that at least two lakh farmers families will benefit from the scheme every year.

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.

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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 United Nations’ (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is observed every year on June 26 to speak out against the crime of torture and to honor and support victims and survivors throughout the world. The day is an opportunity to call on all stakeholders including UN Member States, civil society and individuals everywhere to unite in support of the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have been victims of torture and those who are still tortured today.

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United Nations has designated June 27 as Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day through its resolution 71/279. The first such day was observed in 2017 while 2nd UN Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day has been celebrated on June 27, 2018.

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The first-ever International Day of Parliamentarism is celebrated across the world on 30th June 2018 to recognize the importance of parliaments and their responsibility of representing the people. The day is not only an occasion to stress the critical importance of parliaments in any democratic society but also to reinforce the call for a global parliament. It is also an opportunity for parliaments to take stock, identify challenges, and ways to address them effectively. This date was chosen by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in a resolution 72/278 adopted on May 22nd as it coincides with the day in 1889, on which the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) — the global umbrella organization of parliaments — was founded. The parliamentary systems fall into two categories: bicameral and unicameral. Out of 193 countries, 79 are bicameral and 114 are unicameral, making a total of 272 chambers of parliament with over 46,000 members of parliament. The oldest parliament is the Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, founded in 930.