GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 18, 2017

Notes:
The Vishakhapatnam railway station in Andhra Pradesh has been adjudged as the cleanest railway station among the 75 busiest stations in the country in category A1, followed by Secunderabad, Jammu Tawi, Vijayawada and Anand Vihar railway stations. This was revealed by Third Party Audit Report on Station Cleanliness i.e. released by Ministry of Railway in New Delhi on May 17, 2017. The railway stations are categorised — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F — based on their annual passenger revenue by the ministry. Among the ‘A’ category stations, Beas railway station in Punjab was rated the cleanest station followed by Khammam station in Telangana and Ahmednagar station in Maharashtra. Zone wise South-East Central railway has been ranked first followed by East Coast railway and Central Railway. The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and was based on criteria such as toilets on platforms, management of tracks and dustbins.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
According to recently revised United Nations “World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) as of mid- 2017” report, India’s GDP growth forecast has been downward from 7.7% to 7.3% in fiscal 2017. Earlier, the January edition of UN report had not taken into consideration the impact of the demonetisation policy on India’s economic growth. However, the revised report projected that India will achieve an impressive 7.9% GDP growth in fiscal 2018, revising upwards its January estimates when it had said India’s growth will be 7.6% next year. Though, the report warned that stressed balance sheets in banking sector will have an adverse effect on investment rebound in India.

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:
Sanjay Gubbi of Karnataka and Dr. Purnima Barman of Assam have won the prestigious 2017 Whitley Award, popularly known as Green Oscars, for their efforts in wildlife conservation. Ms. Barman has won the award for creating an all-female network to save the Greater Adjutant stork, known in India as Hargila, and its wetland habitat in Assam, while Mr. Gubbi has been awarded for his work to protect tiger corridors in Karnataka. Each of the winners will receive 35,000 pounds prize money in project funding over one year. The Whitley Fund for Nature is a UK-based charity that works to highlight grassroots leaders in nature conservation across the developing world.

Notes:
Anil Madhav Dave (60), the Union Environment Minister, has passed away in New Delhi on May 18, 2017. He was well-known for his work on river Narmada through an organisation ‘Narmada Samagra’ founded by him, which works on conservation of Narmada and its catchment area through various activities and events. Dave was appointed as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change on July 2016.

Notes:
Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the prestigious 2017 Dan David prize in the “Future” category for his contribution in the field of astronomy. The “Future” category for 2017 is being shared by Kulkarni with two other recipients — Andrej Udalski of the University of Warsaw and Neil Gehrels of NASA — for their discoveries on time-domain astrophysics at festive awards ceremony in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 21, 2017. Kulkarni is a professor of astrophysics and planetary science at California Institute of Technology in Pasadenan, United States. The three Dan David prizes of $1 million each are given every year in the categories of “Past”, “Present” and “Future” to people around the world who have made outstanding contributions to humanity in the sciences, humanities, or through their work in civil society.

Notes:
Reema Lagoo (59), the veteran actress of film and TV, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on May 18, 2017. She was best-known for her roles as mother in Bollywood movies such as “Hum Saath Saath Hain”, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, “Kal Ho Na Ho”, “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”, etc. She was also known for starring in the TV serials Tu Tu Main Main and Shriman Shrimati. Her last screen appearances were in the Marathi film Katyar Kaljat Ghusali and TV show Naamkaran.

Notes:
Pranay Varada, an Indian-American student, has won the prestigious $50,000 National Geographic Bee competition for year 2017. For the past one decade, this competition has been dominated by Indian-Americans. Another Indian-American from New Jersey Veda Bhattaram finished third at the finals and got $10,000 worth scholarships. This year, six of the 10 finalists were Indian-Americans.

Notes:
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.