Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
The Somasila Dam is built across the Penna River near Somasila in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The reservoir impounded by the dam has a surface area of 212.28 km2 with live storage capacity of 1.994 km3.

Notes:
The Union Government has set up an executive committee, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy among the people at the national and international level. The committee comprises, senior cabinet ministers, the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, renowned Gandhians, social activists and noted public figures. The panel was formed after the first meeting of the National Committee (NC) under the chairmanship of President Ram Nath Kovind to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. During the meeting, it was decided to form a sub-committee to consider policies and lay down guidelines for the celebrations. The NC has 125 members, of which 116 are from India. Other members are acclaimed foreign members.

Notes:
The BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting has started in the South African city of Johannesburg on June 4, 2018. The meeting is expected to lay the foundation for 2018 annual summit of the grouping which will also be held in Johannesburg. The BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is leading the Indian delegation. Beside this, Mrs Swaraj will also chair a meeting of Foreign Ministers of IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), another bloc working to deepen coordination among the three countries on major global issues. She will also attend a series of events marking the 125th anniversary of the historic incident where a young Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment in Pietermaritzburg railway station in 1893. The incident proved to be a turning point in Mahatma Gandhi’s fight against racial discrimination in South Africa.

Notes:
In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been sworn-in for a second four-year term in office as the country faces major economic and security challenges. Sisi won 97% of valid votes in the March presidential election.

Notes:
India has been ranked 113th among 175 countries in the “End of Childhood Index 2018”, issued by global child rights group “Save the Children”. The Index which is part of the report titled “The Many Faces of Exclusion” indicated that the child marriages in India have come down to 15.2% from 21.1% in 2017. It is significant to point that the child marriage data assessed does not include data on consensual unions. However, the Index shows that under five mortality rate (deaths per 1000 live births) was 43 which is a cause of concern. Also child stunting (children aged 0-59 months) was 38.4% and rated as high. The Index ranked countries with regards to where childhood is threatened as a result of poor health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, child marriage, early pregnancy and extreme violence. Singapore and Slovenia are placed at the top sharing the first place in the index and Niger figures at the end of the list at 175.

Notes:
Leela Menon (86), the senior journalist and chief editor of Malayalam daily Janmabhumi, has passed away in Kochi, Kerala on June 3, 2018. Menon, who began her journalistic career with The Indian Express in New Delhi in 1978, shot into the limelight for her wide-range of ‘exclusive’ stories and courageous reporting. She used to write for The Hindu, Outlook, and regional dailies. In an era with very few opportunities for woman in media, she broke the glass ceiling by breaking several stories of national relevance like the rampant poverty and prostitution at Aruvacode in Malappuram district, Vypeen hooch tragedy, Suryanelli case and Thopumpaddy prostitution racket. She exposed the first high-profile case of ‘Love Jihad. Ms. Menon penned an autobiography titled ‘Nilaykatha Symphony’.

Notes:
On June 6, the screening of the biopic ‘Making of the Mahatma’ in Pietermaritzburg marked the opening of a three-day series of events to commemorate the historic incident 125 years ago when Mahatma Gandhi was evicted from a train because the compartment he was in was reserved for whites only. On the night of June 7, 1893, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young lawyer then, was thrown off the train’s first class compartment at Pietermaritzburg station in South Africa for refusing to give up his seat. The incident led him to develop his Satyagraha principles of peaceful resistance and mobilise people in South Africa and in India against the discriminatory rules of the British. The film, a co-production between India and South Africa, was made in 1996, soon after Nelson Mandela ascended to the position of South Africa’s first democratically-elected President. The film was directed by Shyam Benegal based on the book ‘Apprenticeship of a Mahatma’ by late freedom activist Prof Fatima Meer.

Notes:
The World Bank has approved Rs.6000 crore for Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. The scheme is to be implemented over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23, with World Bank assistance. The ABHY has been formulated by the Ministry to address the criticality of ground water resources in a major part of the country. The scheme proposal has already been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and the Ministry will be seeking Cabinet approval for the project shortly. The purpose of the scheme is to improve ground water management in priority areas in the country through community participation. The priority areas identified under the scheme fall in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These States represent about 25% of the total number of over-exploited, critical and semi-critical blocks in terms of ground water in India.

Notes:
On June 6, the 6-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked the key policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% in its second bi-monthly monetary policy review of FY19. Concurrently, the reverse repo rate adjusted to 6.0%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.50%. This is the first time since January 2014 that RBI has announced a rate hike. Since then, RBI has either reduced the rate or maintained status quo. Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends to banks generally against government securities while the reverse repo is the rate at which RBI borrows money from the banks. In its monetary policy statement, RBI revised CPI inflation projections for the first half (H1)of FY19 to 4.8-4.9%, and 4.7% in the second half (H2). RBI retained its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for the financial year at 7.4%.

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind has recently declared the ‘Queen’ variety of pineapple as the state fruit of Tripura. The famous ‘Queen’ variety is spiny, golden yellow in color and emits pleasant aroma and flavor at the ripen stage. The fruits are harvested when eyes turns yellow during mid-May to mid-July when the fruit is available. The average weight of fruit varies from 600 Grams to 800 Grams. It got the Geographical Indication (GI) in 2015 and is the best quality of pineapple in the world. Tripura is one of the largest pineapple growing states in the country and there are more than 100 commercial scale pineapple plantations in the state. Earlier, President Kovind dedicated a 73.71km stretch of National Highway 8 from Mata Tripurasundari temple in Udaipur of Gomati district to Sabroom in South Tripura.