Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2017

Notes:
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has constituted a technical Committee in accordance with Regulation 14 of the IBBI (Information Utilities) Regulations, 2017. The committee will be headed by Dr. R. B. Barman, who is the chairman of National Statistical Commission (NSC). The committee shall give its recommendation for laying down Technical Standards for the performance of core services like the Application Programming Interface, standard terms of service, registration of users, unique identifier for each record and each user, etc.

Notes:
Venu Rajamony, the 1986 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He will also be India’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Hague and cover the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other international organisations based in the Netherlands. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. Rajamony is a journalist-turned-career diplomat, who is currently the Press Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government has recently imposed a ban on sale of ‘High in Fat, Salt and Sugar’ (HFSS) food at school canteens across the state. A Government Resolution (GR) listed 12 categories of foods which cover potato chips, noodles, carbonated soft drinks, pizza, burger, cakes, biscuits, buns, pastries, etc., which cannot be sold. It also gives a list of 20 items that can be sold, which include wheat roti, vegetable pulav, idli-vada, coconut water and jaljira. The resolution also calls for creating awareness among children about consuming nutritional food.

Notes:
Sohail Mahmood, one of Pakistan’s senior-most diplomats, will be the Pakistan’s new High Commissioner to India. The new envoy will face a daunting task of handling the ties with India amid strains in relationship over a range of issues including cross-border terror attacks in India and the sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for alleged spying. Mahmood will succeed Abdul Basit at the end of May 2017. Currently, he is the Ambassador of Pakistan to Turkey.

Notes:
Justice (Retd.) Mukul Mudgal, the Retired judge of Delhi High Court, has been elected as the new Chairman of FIFA Governance committee at the world football governing body’s 67th Congress in Manama. The position of the governance chief fell vacant after Miguel Maduro was fired for his role in blocking Russian World Cup official Vitaly Mutko from retaining his seat on ruling council. Justice Mudgal headed the IPL 2013 spot-fixing probe and also involved in overseeing the conduct of international cricket matches. Prior to this appointment, Justice Mudgal was the deputy chairman of the governance committee.

Notes:
VVS Laxman, the former India batsman, has been awarded the honorary life membership of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). With this, he joined fellow Indian icons Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly on the prestigious list of MCC Honorary Life Members. He played 134 Tests, 86 One-Day Internationals and 25 Twenty20 internationals for India. Currently, he is mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Notes:
Three Indian women wrestlers Sakshi Malik (60kg), Vinesh Phogat (55kg) and Divya Kakran (69kg) bagged silver medals in their respective categories in the 2017 Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi after losing out their final bouts. Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik lost her final bout against Japan’s Risako Kawai in 60kg category. Sakshi wrestled for the first time in women’s 60kg category after jumping up the weight division from 58kg. Vinesh Phogat lost the final in women’s 55kg category and Divya Kakran in 69 Kg to settle with silver medals.

Notes:
India’s first electric cab fleet will be launched in Nagpur on May 26, 2017 to promote the usage of electric and hybrid vehicles in India. The pilot project will be undertaken by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) will provide 200 most likely the e-Verito and the e20 Plus. For this purpose, the Government of India (GoI) had already passed the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (FAME) Vehicles scheme in 2015. Under the FAME India scheme, around 99,000 hybrid/electric vehicles (xEVs) are currently given direct support by way of incentives since the launch on April 1, 2015. The sole purpose of the scheme is to go completely electric by 2030.

Notes:
Edouard Philippe, a centre-right mayor, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of France by the President Emmanuel Macron. Philippe is not from the President’s new centrist party but from the centre-right Republicans. The choice is seen as an attempt to draw in key figures from both the right and left of French politics.

Notes:
Bajrang Punia has won gold medal for India by defeating South Korea’s Seunghui Lee 6-2 in the men’s 65kg freestyle category at the 2017 Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi. With this, he became the first Indian to win gold in the championship. Apart from him, Sarita Mann won silver in the women’s 58kg category and Sumit Kumar won silver medal in the men’s Freestyle 125 kg category. With this, India finished their Asian Wrestling Championship campaign on a resounding note. The Indian wrestlers overall bagged 10 medals comprising gold, five silver and four bronze.