Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
Bano Qudsia (88), the renowned Pakistani Urdu novelist and playwright, has recently passed away in Lahore, Pakistan. She was born in November 1928 in Ferozepur, India and migrated to Pakistan after partition. Among her prominent writings include Aadhi Baat, Aatish-i-zer-i-paa, Aik Din, Amer Bail, Asay Pasay, Chahar Chaman, Chhotaa Sheher Baray Log, Footpath ki Ghaas, Hasil Ghaat and Hawa Kay Naam.

Notes:
The Union government has recently formed a 6-member committee to study the ways to improve India’s Haj policy and look into the issue of subsidy to the pilgrimage. The committee has been constituted in the light of 2012 Supreme Court order on gradually reducing the subsidy and abolishing it by 2022. The convenor of committee is Afzal Amanullah, former Consul-Consul General of India in Jeddah. The committee will examine implications of various directions of the Supreme Court with regard to the existing Haj policy, and suitable amendments in it. It will also review the effectiveness of Haj Committee of India’s management of pilgrims’ accommodation and air travel. It will also figure out whether the pilgrims can travel to Saudi Arabia paying less in the absence of the subsidy. It will also assess the aspects of transparency, consumer satisfaction and disclosure requirements for private tour operators to protect interest of the pilgrims to make the policy of greater assistance to the pilgrims. The committee will submit its report in a month or two.

Notes:
For the first time, two Indian cagers – Aashay Verma and Priyanka Prabhakara – have been selected in a 67-strong international group of boys and girls for the NBA and FIBA’s third annual Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp in New Orleans, USA. The camp will be held February 17 to 19 as part of NBA All-Star 2017. The BWB Global Camp is a great opportunity for the top male and female prospects from around the world to compete against one another, learn directly from NBA and FIBA players, legends and coaches, and experience the excitement of NBA All-Star. The Basketball without Borders program was founded on the belief that basketball brings young players from different backgrounds together and transcends cultural boundaries.

Notes:
The 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) will be held in Barcelona, Spain from February 27 to March 2, which will be organised by the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). The MWC is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry. In it, the Indian researchers from IIT Hyderabad will showcase its C-RAN prototype for 5G technology, which is one of the first prototypes in the world.

Notes:
Sir Peter Mansfield (83), MRI pioneer and Nobel laureate, has recently passed away in London, England. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003, along with late US chemist Paul Lauterbur, for discovering Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MIR), a technique used by medical specialists to generate images of the human body’s anatomy. MRI uses magnetic fields, radio waves and field gradients to detect damage such as cancer, in various parts of the body.

Notes:
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is co-hosting the Second Gateway of India Geo economic Dialogue with Gateway House in Mumbai, Maharashtra on February 13-14, 2017 . This is India’s premier geo-economics conference on the theme ‘Where Geopolitics meets Business’ focused on building synergies between business and foreign policy. There will be panel discussions covering topics like Sovereign Funds, Global Taxation and Digital Economy.

Notes:
Nilesh Shivji Vikamsey, who has been a member of the ICAI since 1985, has become the new President of Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI). Prior to this appointment, Vikamsey was the Vice President of the CA institute in 2016-17. ICAI is the national professional accounting body of India. The affairs of ICAI are managed by a council in accordance with the provisions of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 and the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988. The council has 32 elected members and eight are nominated by the central government.

Notes:
The Kerala Government will soon launched a six-day anti-corruption induction training mandatory for the government service officials in the state. The induction training programme is claimed to be the first of its kind in India. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is the nodal agency for the implementation of the ambitious initiative to cover new recruits and select existing employees.The purpose of the training is to create a mindset against corruption and make the employees prepare to fight against the menace.

Notes:
The Ministry of Minority Affairs will host Cultural Harmony Conclave under Hamari Dharohar Scheme in New Delhi on April-May 2017. It has been decided recently in the first meeting of high-level committee on Cultural Harmony Conclave under “Hamari Dharohar (Our Heritage)” scheme of Minority Affairs Ministry. The meeting was chaired by Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in New Delhi. It was attended by several renowned artists, musicians, writers.

Notes:
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has won the annual Visitor’s Award for the ‘Best University 2017’. Apart from this, Dr. Deepak Pant from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh won the Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ while the Visitor’s Award for ‘Research’ has been jointly won by Dr. Shyam Sunder from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Prof. Niranjan Karak from Tezpur University. President Pranab Mukherjee will present the Visitor’s Awards at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 6, 2017 as part of the ‘Festival of Innovations’. The ‘Best University’ will receive a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’ and ‘Research’ will
receive a Citation and cash award of Rs 1 lakh. The aim of these awards is to promote healthy competition amongst Central Universities and to motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in the pursuit of excellence.