Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2017

Notes:
Indian grandmaster Harika Dronavalli has won a bronze medal at the 2017 Women’s World Chess Championship in Tehran. This is Harika’s 3rd bronze medal at the World Championship level. The first two were in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2012 and Sochi in 2015. Harika has won the World Juniors in 2008, Commonwealth women’s title in 2010, Asian Championship in 2011 as well as World Online Blitz Championship in 2015. She received the Arjuna Award in 2008.

Notes:
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has won the annual Visitor’s Award for the ‘Best University 2017’. Apart from this, Dr. Deepak Pant from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh won the Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ while the Visitor’s Award for ‘Research’ has been jointly won by Dr. Shyam Sunder from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Prof. Niranjan Karak from Tezpur University. President Pranab Mukherjee will present the Visitor’s Awards at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 6, 2017 as part of the ‘Festival of Innovations’. The ‘Best University’ will receive a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ will
receive a Citation and cash award of Rs 1 lakh. The aim of these awards is to promote healthy competition amongst Central Universities and to motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in the pursuit of excellence.

Notes:
Dr. Thomas Earl Starzl (90), the renowned American surgeon and expert on organ transplants, has recently passed away Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He performed the world’s first human liver transplant and has often been referred to as “the father of modern transplantation”. Since then, thousands of lives have been saved by the procedure. Beside this, he was also the driving force behind the world’s first baboon-to-human liver transplants and research on anti-rejection drugs.

Notes:
The 11th edition of joint military exercise “SURYA KIRAN-XI” has started between India and Nepal in Pithoragarh area of Uttarakhand from March 7, 2017. This is a battalion level joint exercise between the two armies. The purpose of the two week long exercise is to train both the troops in the area of various counter insurgency operations over a prolonged period. It will also focus on other important aspects such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations and environmental conservation. Both the armies will mutually benefit from the varied experiences gained during the exercise. The exercise is part of a series of joint training with friendly foreign countries by the Indian armed forces.

Notes:
Sam Querrey, an American professional tennis player, has won the 2017 ATP Mexico Open hard court tennis tournament by defeating Rafael Nadal in the final by 6-3, 7-6 at Acapulco in Mexico.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah has recently launched a comprehensive web-based platform “’Pratibimba” to showcase the government’s performance and achievements to the citizens. The platform is developed as the Chief Minister’s dash board that will serve as a tool to improve efficiency in governance and allow citizens to track government’s progress. It is a reflection of the growth story and development of the state and the dash board will reflect the works of all the departments across flagship schemes, key programmes and projects undertaken in the state. The dash board is available both in English and Kannada.

Notes:
The book “Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth” has been authored by historian Audrey Truschke that retells the complex and contested life of the sixth Mughal emperor “Aurangzeb”. It is a fascinating biography of an emperor who continues to dominate the contemporary discourse on the Hindu-Muslim relationship and beyond. The book addresses Aurangzeb’s concern at the time of his death that he came as a stranger and would leave as a stranger. The novel is an example of how historical biographies of complex characters can be written.

Notes:
Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia has won the men’s singles at the 2017 All England Open badminton championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom by defeating Shi Yuqi of China in the final by 21-12, 21-10. It is his 5th singles title. Apart from this, the Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong won the Mixed Doubles title by defeating the Malaysian duo of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goah in the final by 18-21, 21-19, 21-16.

Notes:
The book “When Breath Becomes Air” has been authored by Indian-American author Dr. Paul Kalanithi. It is a memoir which chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from medical student to neurosurgeon, patient and father before his sad death from cancer while working on this book. Recently, it is in news because the book has been shortlisted for the 2017 Wellcome Book Prize. It is the first posthumously published title to be in contention for the Wellcome Book Prize.The award celebrates fiction and non-fiction works engaged with the topics of health and medicine. Apart from this, Indian-American author Siddhartha Mukherjee is also on the list of the annual prize for his study of genetics and mental health in his book “The Gene: An Intimate History”. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Wellcome Collection on April 2017.

Notes:
Vienna has topped the list in the Mercer’s 19th Quality of Living survey 2017. Zurich is in second place, followed by Munich, Auckland, Vancouver, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Geneva. The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79). Among Indian cities, Mumbai is ranked the highest at 141, followed by Kolkata (149) and Pune (151), while Bangalore was rated the lowest (177) by the report. The survey included a city infrastructure ranking that assesses each city’s supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services, and public transportation as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports. The survey highlights that Indian cities that have been part of the survey haven’t made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year.