GK & Current Affairs Quiz: May 9, 2017

Notes:
Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has been conferred with the Fellowship Award at the 7th annual Asian Awards in United Kingdom (UK). Beside this, India’s playback singer Adnan Sami has also won the award for ‘Outstanding achievement in Music.” The award for outstanding achievement in Cinema was conferred to renowned Indian actor Om Puri who died in 2017. Other award recipients were Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Outstanding Achievement in Television), Ajay Banga (Business Leader of the Year), Masayoshi Son (Entrepreneur of the year), Nisha Dutt (Social Entrepreneur of the year), Dr Jack Preger (Philanthropist of the year), Ding Punhui (Outstanding achievement in sport), Demis Hassabis (Outstanding achievement in Science and Technology) and Sir Harpal Kumar (Outstanding contribution to the community).

Notes:
The Tholkappiyar award is a Presidential Award for scholars in classical Tamil. Recently, President Pranab Mukherjee presented the ‘Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil’ for the year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 9, 2017. The Tholkappiyar Award for lifetime achievement in classical Tamil was awarded to Dr S N Kandaswamy (2013-14), Dr A Dakshinamurthy (2014-15) and Dr R Kalaikkovan (2015-16). Young scholar awards were conferred on 15 persons. The awards were instituted to give recognition and honour to distinguished scholars who have made outstanding contribution to Classical Tamil language and literature. The award carries a citation and shawl and a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh for Tholkappiyar awardees, while Rs 1 lakh for young Scholar Awardees. The awards have been instituted by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil functioning under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Notes:
The Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary is located 10 km from the city of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. It is famous for holding many elephants and other animals, which come downhill during the monsoons and winter and enter nearby villages and towns of Jharkhand and West Bengal. Beside elephants there are Indian giant squirrel, sloth bear, barking deer, wild boar, porcupine, mouse deer, pangolin and mongooses in the sanctuary. Commonly seen birds in the sanctuary are the falcons, golden oriole, Indian tree pie, paradise fly catchers, grey hornbills, Indian peafowl, different varieties of king fishers, herons, egrets, mynas, pigeons, racket tailed drongo, magpie robins etc.

Notes:
As per latest report “Regional Economic Outlook (REO) for Asia and Pacific” by International Monetary Fund (IMF), India’s GDP growth is projected to rebound to 7.2% in the FY18 (2017 18) and 7.7% in FY19 (2018-19) after disruptions caused by demonetization. IMF has recommended the removal of long-standing structural bottlenecks to enhance market efficiency. It said temporary disruptions caused by cash shortages accompanying the currency exchange initiative are expected to gradually dissipate in 2017 as cash shortages ease. Such disruptions would also be offset by tailwinds from a favorable monsoon season and continued progress in resolving supply-side bottlenecks. The IMF maintains a positive outlook on the Indian economic growth and is confident that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation will be smooth. According to the report, growth in Asia is forecast to accelerate to 5.5% in 2017 from 5.3% in 2016.

Notes:
The 2017 hunting festival ‘Bishu Parv (or Sendra)” of the tribal community has recently observed in a ‘bloodless and symbolic’ manner without harming the wildlife in the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary in Jharkhand. To observe fest peacefully, the awareness campaign was launched by the forest department to convince the tribals to observe the hunting festival in a symbolic manner. Apart from this, the forest department has set up check posts at all entry points to prevent hunters from entering the sanctuary with arms to kill the animals. The wildlife sanctuary has elephants, barking deer, sloth bear and porcupines as the main inhabitants.

Notes:
The Union government has approved the proposal for re-appointment of Sushil Chandra as Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for a period of one year from June 1, 2017 till May 31, 2018. He was scheduled to retire on June 1, 2017. The Chairperson of CBDT is ex-officio special secretary and is under the direct charge of the revenue secretary of India. The CBDT is the apex policy making body for the Income Tax department. It has six members apart from the chairman and is responsible for framing policy and administrative issues related to direct taxes and the Income Tax department. The headquarters of CBDT is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
The Hollywood star Emma Watson has won the first-ever Gender-Neutral Acting award for the Best Actor category for her movie “Beauty and the Beast” at the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards in Los Angeles, California. It was the 26th edition of the awards and for the first time it presented honors for work in television as well as cinema. It was also the first time men and women competed jointly in the acting categories.

Notes:
The Government of Jharkhand and Oracle has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 8, 2017 to improve cloud-based citizen services and to make Jharkhand an attractive destination for start-ups. Oracle will offer its support to the state through its vast portfolio of technology solutions, including Oracle Cloud. As part of the MoU, the Government of Jharkhand and Oracle will jointly explore and identify areas in which Oracle’s latest cloud-based technologies can be used to deliver improved citizen services and to address the state’s citizen and business requirements.

Notes:
Indian-born legendary sitar player Ustad Rais Khan (77) has recently passed away in Karachi, Pakistan on May 6, 2017. Ustad Raees was born in 1939 in Indore, India in a family of musicians. He belonged to the Mewati Gharana of Indian classical music. His maternal grandfather Inayat Ali Khan was also considered one of the finest sitar players in the subcontinent. He composed many famous songs like `Jab Tera Hukam Mila Tarkay Mohaabat Kar Di’, `Ab Kay Saal Poonam Main, `Neend Ankhoun Se Uri’, `Mojoun Sahil Se Milo’, `Main Khayal Hun Kisi Aur Ka’, `Kabhi Kitaboun Main Phool Rakhna’ and many others. In 1968, he moved to Pakistan. Khan was honoured with Presidential award and Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2005 and 2017, respectively.

Notes:
Venu Rajamony, the 1986 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He will also be India’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Hague and cover the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other international organisations based in the Netherlands. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. Rajamony is a journalist-turned-career diplomat, who is currently the Press Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee.