Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Ananya Vinay (12), the 6th-grader from California, has won the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee competition by successfully spelling “marocain” in the final round at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on June 1, 2017. She won $40,000 in cash among other prizes. Ananya is the 13th consecutive Indian-American to win the bee and the 18th of the past 22 winners with Indian heritage, a run that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory.

Notes:
Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer has become the first Indian to be nominated as a member of the ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee (URC). His term will be for two years and is extendable. Iyer is the only assigned competition manager of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in India. Beside this, Ganeshan has also been recommended as the Technical Commissioner from the Asian Continent to ITTF and his term will be for a period of four years. He is also the chairman of the South Asian Federation technical committee and a member of the Technical Committee of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation (CTTF).

Notes:
The Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Tripura that covers an area of about 389.54 sq km. It is home to animals like elephants, sambar, buffalo, yapping deer, sarow, wild goa, etc. The sanctuary is one of the prominent sanctuaries that speck the bush clad landscapes of Tripura; this sanctuary is a sign of the common legacy of the state and affirms the various Tripura wild life and it is one of the best places of the animal visitors.

Notes:
The World Environment Day (WED) is observed every year on June 5 to raise awareness about forests and wider issues of environmental protection. The 2017 theme is ‘Connecting People to Nature’. It implores us to get outdoors and into nature, to appreciate its beauty and to take forward the call to protect the Earth that we share. The host country for the WED 2017 is Canada, where the official celebrations take place.

Notes:
India has acquired the top position among 30 developing countries on ease of doing business at the 2017 A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index (GRDI). The 2017 GRDI titled “The Age of Focus” ranked China at second place, followed by Malaysia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam. The 16th edition of GRDI ranked top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide and analyzed 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables to help retailers devise successful global strategies to identify emerging market investment opportunities.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched its 3136 kg GSAT-19 communication satellite with its brand new and heaviest – Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III D-1 (GSLV-Mk III D-1) satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on June 5, 2017. The satellite GSAT-19 has an intended life span of 10 years and is developed to improve telecommunication and broadcasting areas. The GSLV-Mk III is popularly known as “fat boy” and is developed for 15 years at a cost of around Rs 300 crore. The rocket is capable of carrying payloads of up to 4,000 kg into the GTO and 10,000 kg into the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The GSLV-Mk III is a three stage rocket. Its first stage is made of two strap on motors filled with solid fuel. The second stage uses the liquid fuel and the third is the cryogenic upper stage “C25”, which is powered by the highly complex indigenous cryogenic engine “CE20”. The number 20 denotes the 20-ton thrust it generates for the rocket to reach the intended height with the heavy mass on board.

Notes:
The Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Fazilka District of Punjab. The formation of sanctuary relates to a unique success story of wildlife conservation in which people of Bishnoi community united themselves for protecting the Black Buck which is regarded as a sacred animal by them. It is also the State Animal of Punjab. It is home to several varieties of flora and fauna viz. Albizia lebbeck, Acacia nilotica, Azadirachata indica, A. tortilis, Wild Boar, Blue Bull, Porcupines, Hare, Jackal, etc.

Notes:
India’s first-ever Rural LED Street Lighting Project will be implemented by the Government of India (GoI) in Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power will retrofit10 lakh conventional street lights with LED lights in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in AP. This is the first project for rural LED street lighting in the country under the GoI’s Street Lighting National Project (SLNP). In the first phase, the replacement will be undertaken in gram panchayats of the districts of Guntur, Prakasham, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Ananthapur and Chittoor. This replacement drive in rural areas will help the gram panchayats to cumulatively save approximately 147 million units of electricity annually and lead to reduction of 12 crore tonnes of CO2. The entire upfront capital cost of this project is being funded by French Development Agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

Notes:
India has signed a $39.2 million loan agreement with the World Bank (WB) for the ‘citizen-centric service delivery’ project in Assam. The programme size is $49 million, of which $39.2 million will be financed by the World Bank and the remaining amount will be funded out of state budget. The programme duration is 5 years. The purpose of the project is to improve access in the delivery of selected public services in Assam. The Project seeks to enable citizens to access services under the RTPS Act in a timely, efficient, and accountable manner. The Project adopts an integrated approach to improve access and accountability.

Notes:
India has signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to provide fresh assistance of $318 million credit line to develop the island nation’s railway sector. The agreement was signed in Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 6, 2017. India has already provided four Lines of Credit for the development of railway sector in Sri Lanka through its EXIM bank amounting to approximately $966 million. These credit facilities have been utilized to improve the Southern and Northern railway lines and for the procurement of rolling stocks for the Sri Lanka Railways.