Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Rajeev Singh, Member (Finance) in Prasar Bharati Board, has taken charge as acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the public service broadcaster Prasar Bharti. He succeeded Suresh Panda, who retires on February 4, 2017. Panda has been serving as interim CEO since November 2016, after full time chief Jawhar Sircar resigned in October 2016. Prasar Bharati looks after the functioning of Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR).
In June 2022, Doordarshan and Doordarshan News Director-General Mayank Kumar Agrawal was given the additional charge of Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Notes:
The Union HRD Ministry has recently constituted a sub-committee of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) under Chairmanship of Kadiyam Srihari to look into issues of girl’s education. Srihari is the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Telangana. The terms of reference of the sub-committee would be to examine the reasons for low participation of girls in education, including the socio-economic factors with resultant gender bias and suggest ways to reduce gender disparity so as to achieve better gender parity index. It will analyse girls’ participation at all levels of school education across socio-economic groups of SC/ST, minorities and in rural-urban areas and reduce existing educational disparities among them. It will also examine the existing schemes, measures and incentives aimed at enhancing girls’ participation and ensuring their retention in education and suggest improvements and modifications in the existing schemes.

Notes:
Hitting a magnet with a hammer can destroy its magnetic properties and is not recommended. Proper storage is essential to maintain the magnet's effectiveness and magnetism. Hence, only the second statement is correct while the first is incorrect.

Notes:
India will host a conference on counter radicalisation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to share experiences and ideas on prevention of radicalization in October 2017. The conference will provide common platform to countries for sharing experiences and ideas on prevention of radicalisation.

Notes:
Veteran journalist T V Parasuram (93), a former correspondent of the Press Trust of India (PTI), has recently passed away in United States. He began his stint in the US as the PTI correspondent at United Nations in the 50s. The veteran journalist, who won a Harvard Niemen Fellowship in journalism, served as the correspondent for The Indian Express for two decades till his retirement at age 58. Parasuram then became the PTI’s Washington correspondent till he quit journalism at age 82. He was a regular at the press conferences of US presidents during his over five-decade stay in America. He authored two books, ‘A Medal for Kashmir – a first hand account of the Indian Army’s operations in 1947-48 in Jammu and Kashmir – and ‘India’s Jewish Heritage’.

Notes:
The National Conference on Innovation in Educational Administration has started at Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra in New Delhi on March 5, 2017. The 3-day conference has organized by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). The main purpose of the programme is to recognise innovative ideas and best practices adopted by district and block level education officers for effective management of the educational administrative system at district and block levels. The National Awards for innovation in Educational Administration will be presented by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on March 7. About 150 district and block level education officers from across India and resource persons and faculty of the university will participate in the conference.

Notes:
Thiruvananthapuram has topped the list of Indian cities in the urban governance ranking of the 4th edition of Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS)-2016. The survey conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, which evaluated 21 cities across 18 states. Pune stood at 2nd position followed by Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The ASICS highlighted inadequacies in urban governance that could affect public service delivery and quality of life. Janaagraha recommends changes in planning laws to address the issues challenging the efficient planning of the cities.

Notes:
IDFC Bank has become the India’s first bank to launch the biometric-based digital payment system ‘Aadhaar Pay’ through its network that will allow even those without mobile phones to do cashless transactions. The Aadhar Pay service is for merchants which will enable them to receive Aadhaar-enabled payments by passing credit and debit cards, pin and password.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently launched a new “Work from Home” facility to enable its employees to work while at home using mobile devices to address any urgent requirement they may have, that prevents their travelling to work. SBI will use mobile computing technologies and shall have continuous control over all the enabled devices centrally to manage and secure the data and applications on the mobile devices.

Notes:
The Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TATA Power-DDL) has become the first Indian power utility to successfully implement teleprotection service using Line-Differential Relay (LDR) over an IP/MPLS network because of the deal with Nokia. The Nokia IP/MPLS technology has improved the reliability, scalability, security and efficiency of power distribution. The Nokia’s enhanced system will allow Tata Power-DDL to receive nearly instant updates of any fault in its infrastructure and reroute power through alternative lines to minimize the disruption to the end consumer. The system connects all grid stations and ensures there is tele-protection and in case there is a fault, then it can be addressed immediately. Apart from the network upgradation, Nokia’s system also provides more traditional business applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and video surveillance systems.