Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
The 2018 International Conference on TRIPS- CBD Linkage will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on 7-8 June 2018. The conference will bring together indigenous people/local communities in developing and developed countries, internationally acclaimed academicians working on the subject, Geneva-based negotiators and capital based experts. Resource persons, stakeholders and experts from a large number of countries, including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, and the US, would participate in the international conference. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a multilateral agreement on sustainable development and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resource. It has membership of 196 countries.

Notes:
The World Milk Day (WMD) is observed every year by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on June 1 to recognize the importance of milk as a global food. The day is intended to provide an opportunity to bring attention to activities that are connected with the dairy sector. Interestingly, this is an event which does not follow a specific theme worldwide. Instead, different countries, governments and non-governmental organizations get to pick a theme of their own. The WMD 2018 theme in India is “Drink Move Be Strong”. Milk is enriched with nutrients like calcium, protein, vitamin B2, potassium, iodine, etc.

Notes:
On June 1, the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has launched an online analytical tool to facilitate closer monitoring of the flow and utilization of foreign contributions received by various organisations registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010. The web-based tool enables decision-makers in various Departments of Government to scrutinize source of foreign funds and their actual use in India. It has analytical features to conduct big data mining and data exploration. Its dashboard will be integrated with the bank accounts of the FCRA-registered entities through the Public Financial Management System for updation of transactional data on a real-time basis. There are approximately 25 thousand active organisations registered under the FCRA. Foreign Contributions worth 8,065 crores rupees were received by such organisations from foreign donors for various social, cultural, economic, educational and religious activities during financial year 2016-17.

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:
Sanjana Ramesh has won the ‘Most Valuable Player’ (MVP) award at the Basketball Without Borders Asia 2018, which featured 66 campers from 16 countries from the Asia-Pacific region. Her compatriot Vaishnavi Yadav won the ‘Girls Grit Award’ in the camp. The camp got underway with the girls championship game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx. Coached on the sidelines by Ruth Riley and Sakshi Sheoran, the Lynx defeated the Liberty 20-13.

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:
Omar Razzaz, a Harvard-educated former senior World Bank official, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Jordan by King Abdullah II. He succeeded Hani Mulki, who recently resigned as a result of widespread protests against his government’s austerity program. Prior to this post, Razzaz served as education minister in the outgoing Mulki government.

Notes:
The Fuego volcano is an active stratovolcano in Guatemala that has recently erupted violently and buried several villages on its southern flank. The death toll has risen to 99 in the Fuego volcano eruption. The National Forensic Sciences Agency stated that, of the 99 people, only 28 have been identified, so far. Some 200 people are still missing, amid fears of a new blowup of the 3,763-metre volcano. The volcano is only 27 miles southwest of the capital Guatemala City, and ash has reached as far as the city’s airport, forcing it to close. At its peak, the Fuego reaches 12,346 feet above sea level and it is one of the most active volcanoes in Latin America. It sits on the Ring of Fire, a 25,000-mile horseshoe-shaped area where several tectonic plates rub against each other, creating intense volcanic activity and earthquakes. Three quarters of the world’s active volcanoes can be found on the Ring of Fire.

Notes:
The National Consultation on Accelerating Implementation of Tobacco Control Measures for achievement of Goals under National Health Policy (2017) has inaugurated by Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey in New Delhi on June 6, 2018. The Ministers of State also released the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2 India Report, 2016-17 and guidelines for establishing tobacco cessation centres in dental colleges at the consultation and felicitated tobacco workers who have transitioned to other livelihood options. The two-day consultation will focus on capacity-building of the National Tobacco Control Progamme Nodal Officers. Among the key areas of deliberation will be multi-sectoral engagement for implementation of WHO FCTC in India and synergizing tobacco control with new health initiatives. Tobacco is responsible for 4.5 lakh Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVD) deaths in the country. In 2011, the total economic cost attributable to tobacco use from all diseases in India for persons aged 35-69 years amounted to a staggering Rs. 1,04,500 crores.