Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2018

Notes:
The Tipaimukh Dam is a proposed embankment dam on the river Barak in Manipur, which was first commissioned in 1983. The purpose of the dam is flood control and hydroelectric power generation. It has been subject to repeated delays as the project developed, as there has been controversy between India and Bangladesh over water rights, in addition to questions of environmental effects of the huge project, as well as the need to relocate Meitei people to make way for a vast reservoir. In 2013, both the governments announced up to a 2-year delay, to allow Bangladesh to complete additional environmental studies.

Notes:
Anant Barua, who is at present executive director in the market regulator, has been appointed as a Whole-time Member (WTM) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The post of WTM fell vacant after S Raman retired. Barua has been appointed to the post for 3 years on the pay as admissible to additional secretary to the central government or a consolidated salary of Rs 4 lakh per month. Currently, the SEBI board consists of Ajay Tyagi (Chairman); G Mahalingam and Madhabi Puri Buch (both Whole-time members); besides Subhash Chandra Garg, Injeti Srinivas, NS Vishwanathan and Arun P Sathe as part-time members. Besides the Chairman, SEBI can have three Whole-time Members.

Notes:
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has restricted the manufacture of Oxytocin formulations for domestic use to public sector only from 1st July 2018. It has also banned the import of Oxytocin and its formulations. Only Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL), a public sector company, would be manufacturing this drug for domestic use from 1st July 2018. The Oxytocin formulations meant for domestic consumption will be supplied by the manufacturer, i.e. KAPL, to the registered hospitals and clinics in public and private sector directly. Oxytocin in any form or name will not be allowed to be sold through retail Chemist. Oxytocin is a naturally-occurring hormone that causes uterine contractions during labour and helps new mothers lactate. But, its misuse is widespread in the dairy industry, where livestock are injected with oxytocin to make them release milk at a time convenient to farmers. The hormone is also used to increase the size of vegetables and fruits such as pumpkins, watermelons, brinjals, gourds and cucumbers.

Notes:
Screenwriter Supriya Kelkar has authored the book “Ahimsa”, which will be published in India in August 2018. Her debut novel will sheds light on the Indian freedom movement, which is inspired by her great-grandmother’s experience working with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1942, after Gandhi ji asked one member of each family to join the non-violent freedom movement, 10-year-old Anjali was devastated to think that her father will risk his life for the country. But he’s not the one joining. Anjali’s mother was. As the family got more and more involved in the cause, Anjali gives up her privileges and confronts her prejudices to ensure her little contribution to the movement is complete. “Ahimsa”, published by Scholastic India, is essentially about female empowerment and overcoming one’s internal struggles and giving up one’s biases.

Notes:
According to data on language released by the Union government as part of Census 2011, Hindi is the most spoken language in India. As per data, the percentage of Indian population with Hindi as their mother tongue has risen to 43.63% from 41.03% in 2001. Bengali has taken the second spot, followed by Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Gujarati. Urdu is the 7th most spoken language in India, while Sanskrit was the least spoken of the country’s 22 scheduled languages. Out of unscheduled languages, the most spoken language was Bhili or Bhilodi, native to Rajasthan with 1.04 crore speakers and is followed by Gondi with 29 lakh speakers. According to Census authorities, mother tongue is defined as the language spoken in childhood by the person’s mother to the person or, where the mother has died in the person’s infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person’s household during childhood.

Notes:
For screening cervical cancer, a new Liquid Based Cytology (LBC) technique — Direct to Slide — has launched in Tamil Nadu. The LBC technique would help in detecting cervical cancer during the pre-cancerous stages. In LBC, a soft brush is used to touch the cervix and take cells from the neck of the uterus. This is transferred into a bottle containing a preservative and sent for laboratory analysis. The cell contents are processed on a slide. In the conventional method, the total number of cells collected may not get transferred onto the slide, while in LBC, whatever sample is taken gets transferred onto the slide.

Notes:
The book “Vedvigyan Alok” (Maharishi Aitareya Mahidas Praneet – Aitareya Brahmina ki Vaigyanik Vyakhya) has been authored by Acharya Agnivarat Naishthik. It is recently received by M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India. The book is the scriptural verse in Vedas’ prose. The Brahman textbooks are placed second in order of preference of Vedic literature. These texts were composed only by the Brahmin community; hence their names are called “Brahmins”. Their language is Vedic Sanskrit which has been considered extremely complicated. All these are written according to the Vedas that means all the four Vedas get different Brahmins.

Notes:
Gujarat’s Dahod district topped the first Delta ranking released today by NITI Aayog that captures incremental improvements of Aspirational districts on health, education and other development parameters. Transformation of Aspirational District’s programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for quickly and effectively transforming some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country. In the recent list, Dahod district of Gujarat improved 19.8 points to rank first. West Sikkim district in Sikkim stood second with 18.9 points.

Notes:
The theme selected for the Statistics Day this year is ‘‘Quality Assurance in Official Statistics’ for focused discussions and efforts throughout the year, aimed at bringing about improvements in the selected area.

Notes:
India has moved up one place from 36 in 2016 to 35th spot in 2018 on JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) aided by improvement in market fundamentals, policy reforms, and liberalization of FDI. The report covers 100 markets and is based on 186 indicators divided into six areas –performance measurement, market fundamentals, governance of listed vehicles, regulatory & legal frameworks, transaction process and environmental sustainability.