Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Debendranath Sarangi, who is the President of the Squash Rackets Federation of India, has recently elected as the vice-president of the Asia Squash Federation (ASF) with two-third majority at the 37th ASF Annual General Meeting. With this, he became the 2nd Indian to become the vice-president of the ASF after N Ramachandran. Sarangi replaced Syed Razi Nawab of Pakistan.

Notes:
The National Women’s Parliament (NWP), a first-of-its-kind conclave has started in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. The 3-day conference has been organised by the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with the theme of “Empowering Women-Strengthening Democracy”. The well-known women personalities from diverse walk of life including social and corporate women leaders of India and overseas will share their experiences with the young girls. Dalai Lama has attended the inaugural session along with a host of leaders from India and abroad.

Notes:
A solenoid is defined as a cylinder-shaped coil consisting of many circular turns of insulated copper wire placed closely together. The magnetic field inside the solenoid is represented by parallel straight field lines, signifying a uniform magnetic field throughout its interior. Both statements correctly describe the structure and field properties of a solenoid.

Notes:
The First Sherpas Meeting of the 9th BRICS Summit was held in Nanjing, the capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, from February 23-24, 2017. The Sherpas Meeting discussed the priority areas for BRICS cooperation for this year, especially in the areas of political affairs, economy and culture, under the theme “BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future.” The meeting attracted more than 100 participants, including coordinators from all sides, foreign diplomats, and representatives from the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB).

Notes:
Amjad Hussain B Sial, a senior Pakistani diplomat, has become the new Secretary-General of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He succeeded Arjun Bahadur Thapa of Nepal. Sial has 33 years of experience in Pakistan’s Foreign Service. He has also served at SAARC Secretariat as director in Kathmandu. The Secretary-General tenure is of three years and is the head of the SAARC Secretariat, which is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal. The SAARC Secretariat coordinates and monitors the implementation of activities, hosts meetings, and serves as a channel of communication between the Association and its member states as well as other regional organizations.

Notes:
Sam Querrey, an American professional tennis player, has won the 2017 ATP Mexico Open hard court tennis tournament by defeating Rafael Nadal in the final by 6-3, 7-6 at Acapulco in Mexico.

Notes:
Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has been ranked at 8th among top 10 in Times Higher Education 2017 list of world’s best small universities. The list is topped by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (United States), followed by Ecole Normale Superrieure (France), Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (South Korea) and Ecole Polytechnique (France). According to Times Higher Education (THE), to be eligible for the Best Small Universities rankings, the institutions must appear in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2016-17, teach at least four subjects, and have fewer than 5,000 students. The Best Small Universities in the World for 2017 highlights that small universities provide high student satisfaction and good working relationships between students and their professors.

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:
The mega cultural festival ‘India by the Nile’ has started at the foot of the Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt from March 8 and will continue till March 14, 2017. The event is a special moment as this year India celebrates 70 years of independence and also 70 years of its diplomatic relations with Egypt. The Handicraft Exhibition which runs from March 8-14, is an initiative to promote Indian and Egyptian handicrafts. It is organised by the Embassy of India in partnership with the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India; Export Promotion Council For Handicrafts (India), the Ministry of Social Solidarity (Egypt) and the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI). The festival is a celebration of Indian music, dance, theatre, visual arts, food and wellbeing.

Notes:
Jiratchaya Sirimongkolnawin from Thailand has been crowned the new Miss International Queen 2016 at a contest billed as the world’s largest and most popular transgender pageant. This 12th edition of beauty pageant was held in Pattaya City, Thailand on March 10, 2017. The mission of the pageant aims towards LGBT and Transgender awareness and equality in both society and workforce.