Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Jun 13, 2017

ANSWER: England

Explanation:
England on 11 June 2017 lifted the FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time ever.

England defeated Venezuela 1-0 in the summit clash held in Suwon, South Korea.

The only goal of the match, played at the Suwon World Cup Stadium carried the signature of Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin 34 minutes in the game.

Serbia, the 2015 champions, were not able to defend their title as they failed to reach the final round of the UEFA qualifying tournament.

In doing so, they became the fifth consecutive incumbent title holder to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament. The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the world championship of football for male players under the age of 20.

FIFA U-20 World Cup: Know More

• FIFA U 20 is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
• Till 2005, the tournament was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship.
• The Championship has been awarded every two years since the first tournament in 1977 held in Tunisia.
• In the past twenty one tournaments held, only ten nations have won the title.
• Argentina is the most successful team with six titles, followed by Brazil with five titles.
• The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was hosted by South Korea between 20 May and 11 June 2017.
• Along with Japan and Mexico, South Korea became the third nation to have hosted all of FIFA Men’s international competitions.
• These include 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 Confederations Cup and the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

ANSWER: Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova

Explanation:
Top seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova on 11 June 2017 won the Women’s Doubles title in the French Open tennis championships.

The US-Czech pair defeated unseeded Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-1 in the final to grab the title.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands is a US professional tennis player.

Currently, she is ranked No. 1 in the women’s doubles rankings.

Mattek-Sands is an Olympic Gold Medalist in mixed doubles.

She has won five Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles.

In women’s doubles, she has won fifteen WTA Tour titles, most notably the 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, 2016 US Open and 2017 Australian Open, all with Czech partner Lucie Safarova.

Lucie Safarova is a professional Czech tennis player.

She has won seven WTA tour singles titles and thirteen doubles titles. She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and her first Grand Slam final at the 2015 French Open.

She also won the 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, 2016 US Open and 2017 Australian Open women’s doubles titles partnering with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

French Open: Know More

• The French Open is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June.
• It is held at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France.
• The tournament is also called as Roland-Garros.
• It is named after the French aviator Roland Garros.
• It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments.
• The other three are the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

ANSWER: Michael Venus

Explanation:
Michael Venus became New Zealand’s first Grand Slam champion since 1974 on 10^th June 2017 when he partnered American Ryan Harrison to the French Open men’s doubles title.

Venus and Harrison defeated Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and American Donald Young 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 in the final at Roland Garros.

The 29-year-old is just New Zealand’s second Grand Slam winner in the modern era, after Onny Parun teamed up with Australian Dick Crealy to win the men’s doubles crown in Paris 43 years ago.

Michael Venus: Know More

• Born: 16 October 1987, Auckland, New Zealand
• Height: 1.91 m
• Weight: 85 kg
• Turned pro: 2006
• Education: University of Texas at Austin
• Prize money: 616,925 USD

ANSWER: Jelena Ostapenko

Explanation:
Jelena Ostapenko became the youngest grand slam champion since 2006.

She arrived here as the world No?47, hoping to get through a couple of rounds, or reach the second week at best.

Her pre-tournament odds were 100-1, so this 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Simona Halep made her the most unlikely major winner that modern tennis has produced.

Now Ostapenko goes away with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, and the small matter of £1.8?million in prize money.

This was the eighth major she has competed in, and she only turned 20 during 8th June’s semi-final against Timea Bacsinszky.

But by succeeding so spectacularly, she has already achieved a goal that eludes Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina – all former No?1s who have never won a grand slam.

Jelena Ostapenko: Know More

• Jelena Ostapenko, also known as Alona Ostapenko, is a Latvian professional tennis player.
• On 12 June 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 12 in the Women’s Tennis Association
• Born: 8 June 1997 Riga, Latvia
• Nationality: Latvian
• Height: 1.77 m
• Country (sports): Latvia
• Coach(es): Anabel Medina Garrigues
• Parents: Jelena Jakovleva

ANSWER: Rafael Nadal

Explanation:
Nadal, 31, came through 6-2 6-3 6-1 against the Swiss third seed to claim his 15^th major title.

He becomes the first man or woman in the Open era to have won a Grand Slam tournament 10 times.

Wawrinka, 32, was beaten in a major final for the first time after winning his first three.

Nadal moves above Pete Sampras on the list of all-time Grand Slam winners into second place behind Roger Federer, who beat the Spaniard to win his 18th at the Australian Open in January.

Only Australia’s Margaret Court has more victories at a single Grand Slam tournament, with 11 Australian Open wins between 1960 and 1973.

The Open era, when the Grand Slam tournaments allowed professional players to compete with amateurs, began in 1968.

Securing a 10th title in Paris – La Decima – further entrenches Nadal’s place as the greatest clay-courter in history.

The Spaniard won the title for the loss of just 35 games over the course of seven matches, second only to six-time champion Bjorn Borg’s 32 at the 1978 French Open.

He extended his record at Roland Garros to 79 wins and two losses since his first victory in 2005, the only defeats coming against Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2015.

Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon nine times, while Roger Federer and Pete Sampras are the only post-war players among a group of six men to have won a Grand Slam seven times.

ANSWER: Damian Green

Explanation:
Theresa May on 11 June 2017 appointed her close ally Damian Green as her first secretary of state, effectively her deputy prime minister. The cabinet reshuffle follows the shock results of UK general elections 2017, which saw Conservatives lose their majority status.

This is forcing May to form a minority government.

May has brought back former Justice Secretary Michael Gove whom she ousted in 2016, as the new Environment Secretary.

She has also shifted former department secretary, Andrea Leadsom to the post of leader of the House of Commons.

James Brokenshire has been appointed as the Northern Ireland minister and Karen Bradley as the new Minister of Culture, media and sports.

Senior-most Indian-origin Cabinet minister, Priti Patel will retain her position as the secretary of state for International development.

The five top-most Cabinet posts will also remain unchanged.

These include Philip Hammond as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Amber Rudd as home secretary, Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, David Davis as Brexit secretary and Michael Fallon who will remain as the in-charge of the ministry of defence.

Besides this, Greg Clark and Liam Fox will also retain their positions as the Secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy and Secretary of State for international trade respectively.

David Gauke would be taking over as Work and Pensions minister and Justine Greening, who would be retaining her position as the Secretary of State for Education, will be taking additional charge as Minister for women and equalities.

Other appointments rather than Damian Green include Liz Truss as the new chief secretary to the treasury, David Lidington as the new Lord Chancellor and justice minister, Alun Cairns as the new Secretary of State for Wales, Gavin Williamson as the new parliamentary secretary to the Treasury and Chris Grayling as the new transport minister.

Pakistani-origin Sajid Javid would also continue to hold his post of secretary of state for communities and local government, as would Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

ANSWER: Soumitra Chatterjee

Explanation:
Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, 82, has been selected for the highest French civilian honour, the Legion d’Honneur.

The award will be presented to the Kolkata-based actor by the French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler.

However, Chatterjee rejected any comparisons between him and legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who received the award 30 years ago.

The actor first worked with Ray in Apur Sansar in 1959.

He had also worked in Ray’s Abhijan (1962), Charulata (1964), Aranyer Din Ratri (1969), Ashani Sanket (1973), Sonar Kella (1974), Joi Baba Felunath (1978), Ghare Baire (1984) and Ganashatru (1989).

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted congratulating the actor. People from the

Soumitra Chatterjee: Know More

• Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay is an Indian Bengali film and stage actor and poet.
• He is best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray,
• Spouse: Deepa Chatterjee
• Major Awards: Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Padma Bhushan, Legion d'Honneur

ANSWER: CN Reddy

Explanation:
Renowned Telugu poet and writer Cingireddi Narayana Reddy has passed away.

In 1992, Reddy was awarded the country’s third-highest civilian honour, Padma Bhushan. In 1977, he was awarded the Padma Shri.

In 1997, he was nominated to the Upper House of Parliament. In 1998, he received the prestigious Jnanpith award for his poetic work Visvambara which got translated into three other languages.

Reddy has also written several songs for Telugu movies.

Narayana Reddy was born in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on July 29, 1931.

He had obtained his MA and PhD in Telugu literature from Osmania University. Previously, he had also worked as a professor of the University.

ANSWER: Bat Man

Explanation:
Adam WestAdam West, the US actor best known as the star of the 1960s hit TV series Batman, has died aged 88.

West died peacefully in Los Angeles after a “short but brave battle” with leukaemia.

His portrayal of Batman and the superhero’s alter ego Bruce Wayne won a cult following.

He later struggled to find big acting roles, but won a new generation of fans in more recent times after joining the cast of Family Guy.

First appearing in season two in 2002, he voiced Quahog’s eccentric Mayor Adam West, described by series creator Seth MacFarlane as an “alternate universe”, satirised version of the actor.

The Batman TV series, with its onscreen fight-scene graphics of Wham! and Pow! became an unexpected hit.

West and his co-star Burt Ward, who played Batman’s sidekick Robin, won widespread acclaim for their kitsch portrayal of the Dynamic Duo.

When the series ended, West struggled to break free from the character, but over a long career appeared in nearly 50 films including Drop Dead Gorgeous, An American Vampire Story and Nevada Smith.

ANSWER: Tele law Scheme

Explanation:
With an aim to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas, the government on 11th June 2017 has launched the Tele Law initiative.

For this, the Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in an initiative that anchors the Digital India programme, to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country.

According to the Law Ministry, in the first phase, the ‘Tele-Law’ scheme will be tested as a pilot across 500 such CSCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the challenges and make necessary corrections to the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country in a phased manner.

Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the CSC network.

This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology-enabled platforms.

‘Tele-Law’ will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the CSC.

Additionally, law school clinics, District Legal Service Authorities, voluntary service providers and Non-Government Organisations working on legal aid and empowerment can also be connected through the CSCs anywhere and anytime, in order to strengthen access to justice for the marginalized communities.

A robust monitoring and evaluation system is also being designed which will help in assessing the quality of legal advice provided and the ensuing benefit to those accessing it.

ANSWER: Maharashtra

Explanation:
The Maharashtra government on 11 June 2017 announced a loan waiver for farmers.

It decided to form a committee to decide the criteria for debt relief, after which cultivators called off their protests.

The move is expected to benefit 1.07 crore farmers in the state, who have land holdings of less than five acres.

A discussion between the government of Maharashtra and representatives of farmers have reached a consensus and farmers have called off the strike.

With this, Maharashtra became the first state to offer loan waiver to farmers. The loans of the small and marginal farmers were waived with immediate effect.

The decision was made that the benefits of the waiver will be provided only to those farmers who are dependent only on farm produce.

The benefits of the loan waiver will not apply for political leaders, businessman and salaried person.

On the real farmers will be benefitted from the scheme of waiving the farm loans.

A separate committee will be formed to fix criteria based on which further waiver will be sanctioned.

Besides, the ministers’ group has decided to restart fresh loan disbursal to farmers from 12 June 2017.

The state government has also accepted the demand of farmers to increase the milk prices.

The milk societies will have to agree with 70:30 formula (70 per cent of selling amount to farmers, 30 per cent to the distribution chain) of profit sharing on the lines of the sugar industry.

Devendra Fadnavis, CM of Maharashtra had earlier formed a six-member high power committee led by senior BJP minister Chandrakant Patil to look into various demands of farmers, including a loan waiver. The panel was asked to submit its report to the state government after holding discussions with farmers’ leaders.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
Indian shooters Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu have clinched the gold medal in mixed team 10m air pistol event of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup held at Gabala, Azerbaijan.

However, they narrowly missed out making to the finals of the individual men’s and women’s 10m air pistol event.

While Jitu Rai finished 12th, Heena Sidhu finished 9th in their respective qualification rounds. Only top 8 are eligible to compete in the finals.

Significantly, mixed team events have been approved as medal events for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

This win is the Indian pair’s second World Cup gold together.

A total of 430 athletes from 45 nations are participating in the Gabala World Cup to qualify for the ISSF World Cup Finals (WCF).

The event will be the last chance for Rifle and Pistol shooters to qualify as only eight best shooters of the world in each Olympic discipline along with reigning Olympic and World Championship medalists and wild-cards will be able to compete in the WCF.

China presently leads the medal tally at Gabala.

ANSWER: Project Jal Sanchay

Explanation:
‘Project Jal Sanchay’, a water conservation model which is successfully adopted in Nalanda district of south-central Bihar, has been chosen for the national award for excellence .

This is with respect the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee programme (MGNREGP) by the Ministry of Rural Development.

The award will be conferred on June 19 at a function held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

Nalanda being an agriculture-oriented district remained affected by drought-like conditions that hampered the farming activities in the district.

Though the district receives flash floods during the monsoon, the water runoff in the district was very high so much so that the entire water got washed away in a span of 15 days.

Under these circumstances, ‘project jal sanchay’ was launched under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) to offset the water crisis in the district.

Under the project, check dams and traditional Aahar-Pyne irrigation systems were created. In addition, traditional water bodies were desilted and renovated.

Campaigns about the usefulness of rainwater harvesting were also carried out.

The project was a mix of modern day techniques and technologies with traditional knowledge and got evolved into a holistic program to conserve water.

As a result of the implementation of the project, availability of water got improved drastically which positively impacted the farm production in the district.