Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Shashi Shekhar Vempati, a former principal architect of Infosys Technologies, has been appointed the new chief executive officer (CEO) of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati for a period of five years. Currently, Vempati is a part-time member of the Prasar Bharati Board. The appointment comes 7 months after the last Jawhar Sircar resigned from the post. He will succeed Rajeev Singh, member (finance) of the board, who was serving as the interim CEO after S C Panda retired in 2017.

Notes:
India has been ranked 37th out of 103 nations in the 2017 global Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI), according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative. The OPHI is an economic research centre at the Oxford University, led by Professor Sabina Alkire. The 2017 global MPI has covered 76% of the world’s population, living in 103 countries. The index measures the nature and intensity of poverty, based on the profile of overlapping deprivations each poor person experiences. It aggregates these into meaningful indexes that can be used to inform targeting and resource allocation and to design policies that tackle the interlinked dimensions of poverty together.

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:
Dr. Sharad Kumar Jain has assumed the additional charge of Director General (DG) of National Water Development Agency (NWDA) under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Presently, he is working as Scientist G with National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee. Jain succeeds S. Masood Husain who has moved over as Member (WP&P), Central Water Commission.

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.

Notes:
J P Nadda, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, has launched “Skill for Life, Save a Life” initiative in New Delhi to promote skill development in the health sector. The purpose of the initiative is to upscale the quality and quantity of trained professionals in the healthcare system. Under this initiative various courses are planned in specific competencies for healthcare professionals as well as for general public.

Notes:
Hoshiar Singh, a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Telecom Service, has been appointed as new Registrar of Copyrights for a period of five years. The Office of Copyrights, under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DoPT) is mandated to protect the music and film industry besides addressing its concerns, among others. According to norms, the Copyright Office is under the immediate control of a Registrar of Copyrights, who acts under the superintendence and directions of the Central Government. The headquarters is located in New Delhi.

Notes:
Adnan Khashoggi (81), a Saudi Arabian billionaire international businessman, has passed away in London, UK. He was best known for his involvement in arms dealing.

Notes:
The 2nd edition of National Health Editors’ Conference on Yoga will be inaugurated by Shripad Yesso Naik, the Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), at National Media Centre in New Delhi on June 9, 2017. The theme of 2017 conference is “Yoga for Health and Harmony”. The aim of the conference is to give insight to the journalists about the scientific aspects of yoga & its benefits for human health. More than 150 Health Editors and media persons from National, Regional and International media organizations are expected to attend the conference. Senior officers of PIB and Ministry of AYUSH will also remain present on the occasion.

Notes:
Indian-American Raja Chari, a Lieutenant Colonel with the US Air Force, has been chosen for the 2017 NASA Astronaut Candidate Class. He is among 12 new astronauts who will be trained for missions into Earth orbit and to deep space. Chari may become the 3rd person of Indian origin from the US after the late Kalpana Chawla and current NASA astronaut Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams to fly to space. Currently, he is a commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and the director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California.