Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2017

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Muhammed Anas Yahiya from Kerala has qualified for the 2017 World Championships by beating his own national record with a time of 45.32 seconds in the men’s 400m race at the third leg of the Indian Grand Prix Athletics Meet meet at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. The entry standard for the World Championships stands at 45.50 seconds, which is scheduled to be held in London in August 2017.

Notes:
According to the latest Lancet report titled ‘Global Burden of Disease (GBD)’, India has been ranked 154th among 195 countries in the 2017 Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQI). The results have revealed that India, in spite of socio-economic growth in the given time-period, has not managed to achieve its goals in health care department. It performed worse than expected in tuberculosis, diabetes, rheumatic heart diseases and chronic kidney disease. According to the report, the countries were analysed for a period of 25 years between 1990 and 2015. The list is topped by Switzerland, followed by Sweden and Norway. The index is based on death rates for 32 diseases that can be avoided or effectively treated with proper medical care, also tracked progress in each nation compared to the benchmark year of 1990.

Notes:
Grand Master R.R. Laxman of Integral Coach Factory finished has won the 2017 All India Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess Tournament at the Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra, Kolkata on May 18, 2017. He got 9.5 points by defeating Mitrabha Guha who bagged 8.5 points.

Notes:
The world’s first operational robot police officer “Robocop” was officially inducted into the Dubai police force at the 4th Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on May 21, 2017. The robot is around 5-foot tall and weighs a 100kg. It can not only identify hand gestures from a distance of up to 1.5 metres, but can also detect people’s emotions and facial expressions. The newly-recruit Robocop will be used for patrolling the city’s malls and tourist attractions. The people will be able to use it to report crimes, pay fines and get information by tapping a touchscreen on its chest. Apart from being able to chat with people, the robocop can also shake your hand and offer a millitary salute. At present it can communicate only in Arabic and English, but there are plans to add Russian, Chinese, French and Spanish to its repertoire.

Notes:
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu has been elected as the new member of Badminton World Federation (BWF) Athletes’ Commission after topped the ballot with 129 votes. With this, she became the second Indian after her compatriot Saina Nehwal to be inducted in the Commission. Apart from the Indian shuttler, Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland, Lithuania’s Akvile and Germany’s Marc Zwiebler were elected for a four-year term.

Notes:
The two-day annual Yelagiri Summer Festival has started at Yelagiri hills in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu on May 27, 2017. The festival would be marked by cultural programmes by students as well as professional artists. A concert by Tamil film music director Deva would also be held in the fest. The Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration K.C. Veeramani has inaugurated the festival in the presence of District Collector S.A. Raman.

Notes:
The 2017 World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) has started at Dusseldorf, Germany on May 29 with the Qualification matches. The main draw will start from May 20. Top-ranked Indian in the world, Achanta Sharath Kamal will lead the 8-member Indian squad. The team also includes Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, reigning national champion Madhurika Patkar, Manika Batra and Mouma Das. It will be the 54th edition of the competition, and hosted by Germany for the seventh time.

Notes:
Ananya Kamboj, an 8th standard student from Chandigarh, has been selected to represent India as a young journalist at the Football for Friendship (F4F) social programme in St. Petersburg, Russia in July 2017. The F4F programme, supported by Gazprom and FIFA, focuses on the development of children’s football, fostering tolerance and respect for different cultures and nationalities among children from different countries. India joins the programme for the first time and will participate alongside 60 other countries.

Notes:
The Manipur government has recently declared Dailong village of Tamenglong district as a Biodiversity Heritage Site of the state under Section 37(1) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The village covers an area of 11.35 sq km & has population of 1634 of which 819 are males while 815 are females as per Population Census 2011.