GK & Current Affairs Quiz: June 18-19, 2017

Notes:
Sachin Tendulkar’s mother-in-law and social activist, Annabel Mehta has been conferred with the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of her 40 years of service to underprivileged communities in Mumbai and the NGO “Apnalaya”. The award will be presented to her at Buckingham Palace in London later this year. The Order of the British Empire (which has several ranks) was created in 1917 by King George V to recognise individuals, who have contributed valued service to their communities. MBE is a rank of the order and stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Notes:
John G. Avildsen (81), the Oscar-winning director of Rocky and The Karate Kid, has passed away in California, United States. Other films he directed include Joe, Save the Tiger, Fore Play, The Formula, Neighbors, For Keeps, Lean on Me, The Power of One, etc.

Notes:
Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has become the first Indian men’s singles player to win the Indonesia Open Super Series men’s singles tournament by defeating Kazumasa Sakai of Japan in the final at Jakarta by 21-11, 21-19. With this win, Srikanth clinched his third Super Series title after he had notched up victories at the 2014 China Open and the 2015 India Open.

Notes:
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has launched digital enrollment process “APY@eNPS” for Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to expand the outreach of the scheme. The APY is the government’s flagship social security scheme which may be availed by every citizen of India who is in the age group of 18-40 years. The scheme provides a minimum guaranteed pension to everyone enrolled. Currently, the scheme boasts of over 54 lakh subscribers and has generated a return of 13.91%.

Notes:
The International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is observed every year on June 19 to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence, to honour the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world and to pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives to and lost their lives in standing up for the eradication of these crimes. The 2017 theme is “Preventing Sexual Violence Crimes through Justice and Deterrence”.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) has tied-up with Tirumala Milk Products to provide loans to dairy farmers who supply milk to the latter. As per the scheme for financing dairy units, SBI offers loans for construction of shed, and purchase of milch animals, milking machine, and chaff cutter. Apart from this, the bank also provides loans to dairy societies for modernisation and creation of infrastructure such as purchase of automatic milk collection system, purchase of transport vehicles and bulk chilling unit. The Tirumala Milk Products is a South- based company, which was acquired by France-based Groupe Lactalis in 2014.

Notes:
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has recently approved the membership of Argentina, the Republic of Madagascar and the Kingdom of Tonga at its 2nd annual meeting of Board of Governors in Jeju, South Korea, June 16, 2017. The three prospective members will officially join the AIIB once they complete the required domestic processes and deposit the first installment of capital with the bank. The 2017 AIIB annual meeting was held under the theme of “Sustainable Infrastructure,” seeking strategic directions of the international infrastructure bank and making major decisions on the bank’s management.

Notes:
Sahapedia, an open online interactive heritage portal on Indian arts, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recently launched a fellowship programme, to inspire and provide an opportunity for young people to expand their knowledge and encourage documentation of India’s rich cultural heritage. The Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowships will be available to post-doctoral scholars, doctoral candidates, post-graduates, and graduates. The fellowships will be available in two variants — the Sahapedia Project Fellowship (SPF) and the Sahapedia Research Fellowship (SRF) — that gives the applicants the option of participating either at the level of primary documentation or in the content curation process.

Notes:
The Jigme Dorji National Park is the second-largest National Park of Bhutan. The park provides sanctuary for 37 known species of mammals including several endangered, threatened or vulnerable species, such as the takin, snow leopard, clouded leopard, Bengal tiger, bharal or Himalayan blue sheep, etc. It is also home to the Indian leopard, serow, sambar, barking deer, goral, marmot, pika and more than 300 species of birds. It is also the only park in Bhutan where the national animal (takin), flower (blue poppy), bird (raven) and tree (cypress) exist together.

Notes:
John Bew has been bestowed with the 2017 Orwell Prize for his extraordinary biography “Citizen Clem” , which is about Clement Attlee, the founder of the NHS. The £3,000 award is the Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing, which is awarded annually by the Orwell Foundation to a book that comes closest to the George Orwell’s ambition to make political writing into an art in London.