Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
The 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) will be held in Barcelona, Spain from February 27 to March 2, which will be organised by the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). The MWC is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry. In it, the Indian researchers from IIT Hyderabad will showcase its C-RAN prototype for 5G technology, which is one of the first prototypes in the world.

Notes:
Bhau Jambhuwantrao Dhote (83), the former Member of Parliament (MP) from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, has recently passed away in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. He was known for his demands of a separate state for Vidarbha. Dhote won his first election to Lok Sabha in 1971 from Nagpur as a Forward Bloc nominee. Later in 1980, he joined Congress and won the Nagpur seat on the Congress ticket. After leaving Congress he founded Vidarbha Janta Congress party in 2002. He was elected to Maharashtra Assembly five times. Due to his active participation in various movements for separate Vidarbha and farmers and his aggressive speeches, he was also known as the Lion of Vidarbha.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government has signed MoU with Visa to transform Vishakhapatnam into India’s first ‘less cash’ city. As per MoU, this initiative is designed to provide the foundation for the city to emerge as India’s ‘Fintech Valley’. For this, Visa will focus on driving payments digitisation, and work with the city to help build the talent pool required in city organisations and in academia on emerging technologies like blockchain. Visa will also provide support to FinTech start-ups by providing access to Visa’s APIs, providing subject matter expertise, and participating in boot camps and hackathons. The state government has also signed a MoU with Thomson Reuters for cooperation in Fintech initiatives in the state.

Notes:
Ace Indian badminton player, Saina Nehwal will represent International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission (IOC AC) in the Badminton World Federation (BWF). She will join the BWF Athletes’ Commission as a representative of the IOC AC. It’s a rare honour for an Indian sportsperson. Before this, she was appointed a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission (AC) in 2016.

Notes:
The Zero Discrimination Day (ZDD) is observed every year on March 1 to promote and celebrate everyone’s right to live a full life with dignity—no matter what they look like, where they come from or whom they love. The symbol for Zero Discrimination is the butterfly, widely recognized as a sign of transformation. The 2017 theme is “Make Some Noise for Zero Discrimination”.

Notes:
Raymond Kopa (85), the French football legend, has recently passed away in Paris, France. He was one of the best attacking midfielders of all time. Kopa is best remembered for a series of superb performances for France that helped his country to third place in the World Cup finals of 1958. But he was also a key member of the great Real Madrid side that won the European Cup three years running in 1957, 1958 and 1959.

Notes:
Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation, has recently launched nationwide ‘Swachh Shakti Saptah’ from Gurugram, Haryana on March 1, 2017 to raise awareness on sanitation and cleanliness. Over 1,500 women sarpanches of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and all women sarpanches of Gurugram division are participating in this event. The ‘Swachh Shakti Saptah’ will observe across the country from March 1 to 8, 2017. PM Narendra Modi will take part in closing ceremony of the week long programme on 8th of March at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

Notes:
The annual tribal festival ‘Bhagoria’ will be held in Jhabua and four other districts of Madhya Pradesh from March 13, 2017. The week-long festival is organised at different Bhagoria haats (local markets) in Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Khargone and Barwani districts in western Madhya Pradesh. The haat festival is organized in the form of a ‘swayamvar’ or a marriage market where young girls and boys are allowed to choose their partners. Bhagoria Haat Festival has an agricultural significance attached to it, that is, it coincides with the end of harvesting. So some people also celebrate it to mark the completion of harvesting. Foreign tourists also converge in large numbers at these haats to catch a glimpse of the traditional festival.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has won the 2017 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum Technology in the Service of Society Award for its solar-Direct Current (DC) inverter system. The system, developed using micro grid technology, converts in-home power distribution from 230V Analog Current to 48V DC to directly power appliances and devices. The system is also equipped to tap rooftop solar power that makes it the most energy efficient solution for homes and offices.The award is presented to the company/institution voted by IEEE Spectrum editors as having developed the technology that has the potential to benefit mankind.

Notes:
Arun Jaitley, who is the current Finance Minister and Minister of Corporate Affairs in the Cabinet of India, has taken additional charge of the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) on March 14, 2017. He succeeded Manohar Parrikar, who resigned from the post to take on the new role of Chief Minister of Goa. This is the 2nd time that Jaitley is holding the additional portfolio of Defence Ministry during the present NDA government. He was in-charge of the ministry earlier from 26th May to 9th November in 2014.