Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2017

Notes:
The book titled ‘The Emergency – Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour’ has been authored by Surya Prakash, the chairman of Prasar Bharati. The book has recently launched by Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The purpose of the book is to honor all those who fought for the restoration of democracy in the country in the mid-1970s.

Notes:
P V Sindhu, an ace shuttler and Rio Olympics silver medallist, will be conferred with the best Sportsperson of the Year Award by the Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI). The Best Team of the Year award was bagged by the Indian Junior Hockey Team, which won the Junior World Cup title by defeating Belgium 2-1 in the final in Lucknow on December 2016. Both the awards would be presented at the 40th convention of the SJFI to be held in Indore in September 2017.

Notes:
India has been ranked 93rd out of 128 countries in the 2017 Social Progress Index (SPI). The list is topped by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The SPI is an aggregate index of social and environmental indicators that capture three dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. The 2017 SPI includes data from 128 countries on 50 indicators. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative, and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz.

Notes:
The International Trade Centre (ITC) has celebrated the first-ever International MSME Day on June 27, 2017 with theme ‘Small business – big impact’. The purpose of the day is to raise public awareness about the importance of MSMEs to economic growth and international development. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Day highlights the strong contribution of MSMEs worldwide to livelihoods, communities and economies and the need to support MSMEs towards their success. The ITC is the joint agency of the UN and the WTO supporting SMEs in developing countries and transition economies for sustainable and inclusive trade.

Notes:
O N Dhar (89), the veteran figure and former bureaucrat, has passed away in New Delhi. During the Quit Kashmir movement, he was detained for 13 months following the arrest of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1946-47. Dhar had worked with Sheikh Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and Mir Sadiq when they were prime ministers of Jammu and Kashmir till 1965. Till 1967, the elected head of government in Jammu and Kashmir was called prime minister before the nomenclature was changed to chief minister. Dhar had also held key secretarial-level posts in the state subsequently.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government has constituted an 11-member committee to scrutinize and recommend names from Maharashtra for the Padma Awards 2018 to the Government of India (GoI). The committee will be headed by Ram Shinde, the Minister for Water Conservation. The Padma awards seek to recognise work of distinction and exceptional achievements in different fields and disciplines such as art, literature and education, sports, medicine, social work, science and engineering, public affairs, civil service, trade and industry.

Notes:
Rajesh V Shah has been appointed as the new chairman of the board of governors of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and will be in charge till March 31, 2019. He succeeded former cricketer Chetan Chauhan, who resigned from the post after being made the Sports Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Rajiv Kumar, the 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh. He succeeded Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar, who has been made chairman of Greater Noida and investment commissioner. Prior to his latest assignment, Rajiv Kumar was Secretary in Shipping ministry, Government of India (GoI).

Notes:
Dr Jitendra Singh, the Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Personnel, has launched a new training programme Online Modified Modules on Induction Training (COMMIT) for State Government officials. The main objective of this training programme is to improve the public service delivery mechanism and provide citizen-centric administration through capacity building of officials who interact with the citizens on a day-today basis. It is cost effective and has the potential to cover about 3.3 lakh officials annually, compared to 10,000 officials under existing 12-Day Induction Training Programme (ITP).

Notes:
Achal Kumar Jyoti, a retired 1975-batch IAS Officer of Gujarat Cadre, has been appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for one year, when he will turn 65. He will succeed Nasim Zaidi, who will retire on July 6, 2017. Currently, A K Jyoti is the Election Commissioner of India along with O P Rawat. An EC or a CEC has tenure of six years in office or till he or she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.