Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Jun 06, 2017

ANSWER: Thailand Open

Explanation:
B Sai Praneeth continued to enjoy a magnificent 2017 as he clinched the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold badminton title by defeating Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 17-21, 21-18, 21-19 in a closely-fought final in Bangkok.

The success in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold extended Sai Praneeth’s remarkable run in 2017.

In April, the ward of national coach Pullela Gopichand had defeated Kidambi Srikanth in an all-Indian Singapore Open Grand Prix final to claim his maiden Grand Prix title.

The shuttler from Andhra Pradesh had reached the final of the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow before his Singapore triumph.

In 2016, Sai Praneeth had won the Canada Open Grand Prix.

ANSWER: Haryana Sahari Vikas Pradhikaran

Explanation:
The BJP government in Haryana has altered the name of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) citing reason that it bears similarities with the name of former Chief Minister of the state Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The authority was called Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran in Hindi. In English, it was known as Haryana Urban Development Authority.

Now the government has decided to call it Haryana Sahari Vikash Pradhikaran in Hindi as well as English, the report says.

The decision was taken during a state cabinet meeting chaired by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday.

Speaking on the government’s decision, Health Minister Anil Vij said that similarities in the names of Hooda and HUDA used to create a lot of confusion. It is was difficult to differentiate between the two names.

ANSWER: Andhra Pradesh

Explanation:
Government will retrofit 10 lakh conventional street lights with LED lights in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in Andhra Pradesh.

The project will be carried out by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) functioning under the Ministry of Power.

This project will be the first rural LED street lighting project under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Project (SLNP).

It will help gram panchayats to cumulatively save approximately 147 million units of electricity in a year. It will lead to a reduction of approximately 12 crore tonnes of CO2.

The EESL will be made responsible for carrying out annual maintenance and warranty replacement exercises in these gram panchayats for a period of 10 years.

Andhra Pradesh became the first state to get assistance from EESL to replace conventional street lighting with LED lighting after cyclone Hudhud caused extensive damage in Visakhapatnam. Since then, EESL has installed an approximate 5,90,000 LED street lights in the State.

These lights has helped the state to reduce over 65,000 tonnes of CO2 every year. Across the country, more than 23 lakh conventional street lights have been replaced by LED street lights in 21 States.

100 Cities National Programme and SLNP: Know More

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched ‘100 cities National Programme‘ on January 5, 2015 to replace conventional domestic lights with energy efficient LED lights.
• Similarly, Under the Street Light National Programme (SLNP), the government has set a target of replacing 1.34 crore conventional street lights with LED lights across the country.
• LED bulbs have a very long life, almost 50 times more than ordinary bulbs, and 8 to 10 times that of CFLs, and therefore provide both energy and cost savings in the medium term.
• The benefits of LED lights are: (i) Electricity savings (ii) Reduction of load (iii) Reduction of consumer bills (iv) Greenhouse gas emission reductions.

ANSWER: Habibganj

Explanation:
Habibganj railway station in the suburbs of Bhopal will become country’s first railway station to be redeveloped in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

On June 9, station redevelopment work in the railway station will be launched by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The idea is to develop Habibganj railway station as a world-class transit hub equipped with all amenities.

The operation and maintenance of the railway station has been given to Bhopal-based Bansal Group for a period of eight years.

The group has managed to win the bid in 2016. Bansal Group plans to completely overhaul the station and develop four commercial land parcels to make Habibganj a commercial hub with shops, offices and hotels, all in a span of three years.

The environment-friendly railway station will be powered by solar energy. The station will have facilities for disabled, in addition, to lifts, escalators and travelators, underpasses.

In case of emergency, the station will be redesigned in such a way that the premises can be evacuated in four minutes and passengers can reach designated points of safety in six minutes.

Bansal Group will be responsible for all the facilities at the station like food stalls, retiring rooms, power, platform maintenance, parking etc.

IRSDC will oversee the Habibganj project. IRSDC is formed by railway unit Ircon International Ltd (IRCON) and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) to undertake station redevelopment projects.

WB's First PPP Mode Station: Know More

• The idea to set up world-class railway stations was mooted by former railways minister Mamata Banerjee in 2009-10.
• It was only in 2015, the project was revived by the railway minister Suresh Prabhu.
• The Habibganj project is a part of the Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to re-develop 400 A1 and A category railway stations.
• Indian Railways’ ambition to redevelop 400 stations into world-class facilities is completely based upon its idea of land monetization.
• It aims to modernize and upgrade passenger amenities at stations by raising money through commercial development of railway land.
• Avenues such as land monetization, catering and parking will be utilized to boost overall revenue.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The Indian Army is all set to open up combat positions for women, a gender barrier broken by only a few countries globally.

Army chief general Bipin Rawat said the process to allow women in combat roles, currently an exclusive domain of men, is moving fast and initially women will be recruited for positions in military police.“

Currently, women are allowed in a number of select areas including in medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army, but combat roles are kept off limit for them due to operational concerns and logistical issues.

The army chief said he was ready to recruit women as jawans and the matter is being taken up with the government.

ANSWER: Single women

Explanation:
The Telangana government was the only government in the country to launch welfare schemes such as pension for single women for the betterment of society.

The government was also proving pension to senior citizens, widows, disabled persons, and beedi workers.

Following petitions on the plight of single women deserted by their husbands and relatives, the government decided to distribute pension of INR 1,000 per month to such women on humanitarian grounds.

Stating that the earlier government had spent only INR 800 crore on pension to 29 lakh beneficiaries, he said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was providing pension to 38 lakh persons spending INR 5,600 crore per annum.

The government had also increased the Kalyana Laxmi and Shaadi Mubarak scheme amount from INR 50,116 to INR 75,116.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti

• President: Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao
• Leader: Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao
• Headquarters: Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
• Founder: Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao
• Founded: 27 April 2001
• Newspaper: Namasthe Telangana
• Ideology: Conservatism, Regionalism

ANSWER: Mysuru

Explanation:
The first bicycle sharing initiative in the country has launched, bringing 450 bicycles and 48 docking stations to the city of Mysuru.

The bikes, of which 450 will be available to the city’s 1.2 million inhabitants, will be hirable from 48 docking stations across the city.

The scheme, which is being run by bike sharing company Trin Trin, was launched with a fair amount of fanfare in the city of Mysuru which is already known as India’s cleanest city.

Alongside the physical launch, an app has been released and several videos have been published detailing how the system works.

Registered users will be able to access the bikes with an NFC-capable card.

Registration costs INR 350 rupees, which is just over £4, and includes a refundable deposit for the activation cards.

Mysuru: Know More

• Mysore (or Mysuru), a city in India’s southwestern Karnataka state.
• It was the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1399 to 1947.
• In its centre is opulent Mysore Palace, seat of the former ruling Wodeyar dynasty. The palace blends Hindu, Islamic, Gothic and Rajput styles.
• Mysore is also home to the centuries-old Devaraja Market, filled with spices, silk and sandalwood.

ANSWER: Madhur Bhandarkar

Explanation:
Bhandarkar, known for his path-breaking films was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India last year.

The filmmaker already has the National Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Director for Page 3 and Traffic Signal respectively.

Now, the ace director is being conferred with the Bharat Gaurav Award on June 9 at the United Nations Hall, New York.

Madhur Bhandarkar who started his career with Trishakti later on directed several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films.

The 48 year old will be conferred with Bharat Gaurav Award along with spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Late Kalpana Chawla, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (who is behind Shulabh Shauchalayas in the country), Acharya Lokesh Muni and few others prominent personalities on June 9, 2017.

Madhur Bhandarkar is known for his movies which reflect the reality of the world. His films like Page 3, Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate, Satta and Fashion were critically acclaimed along with the novel Indu Sarkar. This Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer film is set in the period of emergency in India.