Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Lucideus, an IT risk assessment and digital security services provider, has won the ‘Best IT Startup of India’ award under the IT (Information Technology) and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) category at the National Entrepreneurship Award 2016 at the DRDO auditorium in New Delhi. Lucideus is behind the security for BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app — an Aadhaar-based mobile payment platform. The annual awards were organised by the Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship.

Notes:
Achamkulangare Gopinathan, a top Indian diplomat, has been re-appointed by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) for a 5-year term beginning from January 1, 2018. Beside him, Sukai Prom-Jackson of Gambia, Jean Wesley Cazeau of Haiti and Nikolay Lozinskiy of Russia are also appointed members of the JIU. The Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) is the only independent external oversight body of the United Nations (UN) system mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide. Gopinathan’s re-appointment follows his nomination by India and endorsement as the sole candidate of the Asia-Pacific Group.

Notes:
The Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal has recently launched TAMRA mobile application and portal to ensure transparent award of statutory clearances for mining operations. TAMRA stands for “Transparency, Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation”. The portal covers block-wise, state-wise and mineral-wise information of the blocks to be auctioned, monitors various statutory clearances, and also highlights the additional resources generated through e-Auction. In case of delay in obtaining any clearances, TAMRA will send triggers to the concerned authority so that the remedial steps can be taken immediately by those responsible.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad has recently launched Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK) in New Delhi for Botnet cleaning and Malware analysis. The CSK is a part of Government’s digital India initiative to create a secure cyber space by detecting botnet infections. The centre will operate in close coordination and collaboration with Internet Service Providers and Antivirus companies. The centre is being operated by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. Beside this, the Union Minister has also launched ‘Mkavach’ app to protect smart phones and tablets from hackers and another App ‘Samvid’ to protect Desktops from suspicious applications from running.

Notes:
The 13th edition of Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) summit was held in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 1, 2017. The purpose of the summit is to increase cooperation in areas such as trade, energy, tourism, economic growth and productivity. Ambassador Halil Ibrahim Akca from Turkey is the current Secretary General of ECO. The ECO was formed in 1985 by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. It now also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Notes:
HDFC Bank has recently launched India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based banking chatbot “Electronic Virtual Assistant (EVA)” for customer service. EVA can answer millions of customer queries across multiple channels instantly. Eva can assimilate knowledge from thousands of sources and provide answers in simple language in less than 0.4 seconds.

Notes:
M Chandrakasu (67), the Former Puducherry Minister, has recently passed away in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He represented Nedungad constituency in the outlying enclave of Karaikal for six terms. He was Agriculture Minister in the All India N R Congress (AINRC) government formed by N Rangasamy in 2011.

Notes:
Vienna has topped the list in the Mercer’s 19th Quality of Living survey 2017. Zurich is in second place, followed by Munich, Auckland, Vancouver, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Geneva. The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79). Among Indian cities, Mumbai is ranked the highest at 141, followed by Kolkata (149) and Pune (151), while Bangalore was rated the lowest (177) by the report. The survey included a city infrastructure ranking that assesses each city’s supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services, and public transportation as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports. The survey highlights that Indian cities that have been part of the survey haven’t made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year.

Notes:
Soumya Swaminathan, the director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been named to United Nations’ ad hoc Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance to provide expertise on and coordinate the global fight against antimicrobial resistance. Swaminathan is also Secretary, Department of Health Research in India’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. She is a multi award-winning paediatrician, clinical scientist and is known for her research on tuberculosis. The purpose of the newly formed UN group will be to provide practical guidance for approaches needed to ensure sustained effective global action to address antimicrobial resistance, including options to improve coordination, taking into account the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. The UN group will be co-chaired by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan.

Notes:
The 12th edition of Special Olympics World Winter Games has started at Graz and Schladming in Austria from March 14 and will continue till March 25, 2017. Over 2,600 athletes from 105 nations are taking part in the event. From India, the team of 89 differently-abled sports persons of the Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) is participating in the competition. So far, Indian team has won 18 medals in the ongoing 2017 Olympics World Winter Games. The Special Olympics World Games are an international sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities, organized by Special Olympics.