Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2017

Notes:
Sanjay Mitra, the 1982 batch officer of West Bengal cadre, will be the new defence secretary of India for a fixed two-year tenure after G Mohan Kumar retires on May 24, 2017. This will be his first posting in the Defence Ministry. At present, Mitra is holding the charge of secretary in the ministry of road transport and highways.

Notes:
India’s first-ever National Basketball Association (NBA) academy has officially opened in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The NBA Academy India is the NBA’s 5th elite training centre globally, which will be fully funded by the NBA. The NBA academy will employ a holistic, 360-degree approach to player development with focuses on education, leadership, character development and life skills. As part of the program, the students will compete against top competition throughout the year and will have an opportunity to be selected for travel teams that play in international tournaments and exhibition games. The initiative is part of NBA’s drive to expand recruitment globally.

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Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as its Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in South-East Asia Region to boost awareness and intensify action to arrest the epidemic. As WHO goodwill ambassador for hepatitis in the region, Bachchan will lend his voice and support to public awareness programmes that aim to scale up preventive measures and advocate for early diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis. This is the first formal association between WHO and Bachchan, who served as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Polio in India.

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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.

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The 43rd edition of G7 summit will be held at Taorminain Sicily, Italy. The attendees will include the leaders of the seven G7 member states as well as representatives of the European Union. The 43rd G7 summit will be the first summit for British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Anshu Jamsenpa, the Indian mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh, has scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to scale the Mount Everest for the fourth time. She will attempt a double ascent to the world’s highest peak to make it a total five successful climbs. If she is successful with her double ascent this time, Ms Jamsenpa will set a record five climbs of Mt Everest.

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Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, has been named among the 25 most influential business leaders from around the world in the Forbes Global Game Changers 2017 list. Ambani is the only Indian in the list that comprises business leaders from 8 different countries. The 2017 list was based on corporate growth, innovation and international presence.

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The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is observed every year on May 17 to mark the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention (ITC) and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The purpose of the day is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. The 2017 theme “Big Data for Big Impact” focuses on the power of Big Data for development and aims to explore how to turn imperfect, complex, often unstructured data into actionable information in a development context.

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The 52nd annual meeting of African Development Bank (AfDB) Group will be held at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gandhinagar , Gujarat from May 22 to 26, 2017 with theme “Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa”. It’s the first-ever AfDB meeting in India, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 23, 2017 . The 2017 AfDB meeting meeting will be a mega international event to be attended by more than 3000 delegates from 81 member countries from across the world including the Governors, Alternate Governors, Executive Directors, policy makers and businesses. It will provide a forum for representatives of government, business, civil society, think-tanks, academia and the media to debate key issues in Africa.

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As per recently released 2017 Brand Finance India 100 report, Tata Group is the most valuable brand in India with an estimated brand value of $13.1 billion. Airtel has acquired 2nd position followed by LIC, Infosys, SBI and Reliance Industries Ltd. The Brand Finance is a global brand valuation and strategy consultancy firm. It advises strongly branded organisations, or those with valuable intangible assets, on how to maximise their value through effective management of their brand and other intangible assets.