GK & Current Affairs Quiz: June 20, 2018

Notes:
The world’s first International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics was launched at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on June 20, 2018. It is a joint venture of the Regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives and also Gujarat Forensic Science University. This is a centre of excellence which will use forensics for humanitarian services. The purpose of this Centre is to provide service to the nation and to the entire world when the need arises. The launch of the Centre was followed by an International Symposium on Humanitarian Forensics. Over the next two days, international experts will participate in the symposium and discuss issues in the area of humanitarian forensics. Speakers from India, Ireland, Germany and Sri Lanka will speak at the symposium.

Notes:
Anukreethy Vas from Tamil Nadu has been crowned fbb Colors Femina Miss India World 2018 at a function held in Mumbai on June 19, 2018. Anukreethy, who beat 30 contestants to bag the honour, will now represent India at this year’s Miss World. While Haryana’s Meenakshi Chaudhary was announced the first runner-up, Shreya Rao Kamavarapu of Andhra Pradesh was adjudged the second runner-up in the beauty competition. The ceremony was hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar and Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana. The judges panel included 2017 Miss World Manushi Chhillar, cricketers Irfan Pathan and Lokesh Rahul and actors Malaika Arora, Bobby Deol and Kunal Kapoor.

Notes:
On June 19, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tightened norms for Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) by making quoting of the Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory even for transactions below $25,000. Under the LRS, all resident individuals, including minors, are allowed to freely remit up to 2,50,000 US dollar per financial year for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both. Earlier, a system for daily reporting of individual transactions under the LRS by banks was been put in place. This system enables the banks to view the remittances already sent by an individual during the financial year, thus improving monitoring and ensuring compliance with the LRS limits.

Notes:
The Parliament of Canada has passed a landmark law that legalizes the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. The Cannabis Act (or Bill C-45) passed its final hurdle on June 20 in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed and sold. Canadians will be able to buy and consume the drug legally as early as September 2018. The new law allows adults to possess up to 30 grams of dried cannabis in public, but the minimum legal age to buy and consume the drug has been set federally at 18. It makes Canada the first G7 country to legalise the drug’s recreational use and the second to have a nationwide, legal marijuana market, after Uruguay. The Group of Seven (G7) is a group consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Marijuana is a psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant intended for medical or recreational use.

Notes:
A R Rahman, the renowned music composer, has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of the Sikkim government. He will promote and project the state’s achievements nationally and globally. Sikkim, with its natural and pristine beauty, has over the last two decades emerged as a world famous eco-tourism destination, besides attaining a distinct identity as the first fully organic farming state of the country. Earlier, in 2018, the state government made Rahman its Brand Ambassador of tourism and business.

Notes:
The conference “National Consultation on Making Agriculture Sustainable and Profitable’ will be inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in Pune, Maharashtra on June 21, 2018. The 2-day conference is being organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in the context of the ongoing debate and efforts at various levels to double farmers’ incomes by 2022. Naidu, as Vice-President is chairman of the IIPA institute. Agriculture experts and agri-economists at the conference will deliberate upon creating an enabling policy framework, agricultural trade policy, transfer of technology from labs to land and agricultural credit and insurance. The conference on farm sector issues is the second in the Swarajya to Surajya’ series of national consultations initiated by the IIPA on the behest of vice president. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, economist Ashok Gulati, farm scientists, representatives of farmers unions, CII, FICCI and other stakeholders will also attend the event.

Notes:
Nerella Venu Madhav (85), the world-renowned Mimicry artist, has passed away in Hanmakonda in Telangana on June 19, 2018. He is often regarded as father of Indian Mimicry and is also hailed as the pioneer and maestro of mimicry in India. Born in Warangal in 1932, Venu Madhav began his passion – mimicry at the age of 15 in 1947. He was nominated as MLC by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1971. He rose to international fame after his enthralling performance at United Nations. He was conferred Kala Prapurna title by the Andhra University in 1978 and was awarded Padma Sri by the Central Government in 2001. He was instrumental in introduction of a course in mimicry in several institutions including the Telugu University.

Notes:
The Central Government has constituted a Chief Ministers Subgroup to coordinate policy approaches for Agriculture and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In it, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is the convener and Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim along with Member, NITI Aayog, Ramesh Chand are the members. The terms of reference of the sub-group include suggesting a wider choice of state specific interventions both for pre-sowing and post-harvest to further improve the thrust on incomes, water conservation and waste to wealth. The move comes in the backdrop of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022. It comes close on the heels of unanimous decision taken at the 4th meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog on June 17, 2018. The Sub-Group will submit its report within 3 months from its date of constitution.

Notes:
The Haryana Government has launched 7-Star Gram Panchayat Rainbow scheme to give star rankings to its panchayats on the basis of 7 social parameters. The panchayats will be judged on sex ratio, education, hygiene, environment preservation, governance and social participation. Under the scheme, approx 1,120 villages of Haryana has achieved star ranking since its launch in January 2018. The Ambala district topped the star ranking with 407 stars followed by Gurugram with 199 stars and Karnal with 75 stars. The selected villages will be honoured at an award ceremony to be held in Panchkula, Gurugram and Rohtak in July 2018. The villages would be rewarded Rs one lakh for achieving each parameter. The villages having equal or more girl population will be given Rs 50,000 as bonus with their reward money. Similarly, the villages which adopt Swachhta Mission will be given additional Rs 50,000 as reward.

Notes:
The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Prakash Javadekar launched the new digital initiative of HRD Ministry ‘National Digital Library of India (NDLI)’on the occasion of National Reading Day (NRD) in New Delhi on June 19, 2018. It is a project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) under the aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). The purpose of NDL is to make digital educational resources available to all citizens of the country to empower, inspire and encourage learning. The NDLI, which is developed by IIT Kharagpur, is the single window platform that collects and collates metadata from premier learning institutions in India and abroad, as well as other relevant sources. It is a digital repository containing textbooks, articles, videos, audio books, lectures, simulations, fiction and all other kinds of learning media.