Current Affairs Questions & Answers - Jun 16, 2017

ANSWER: PN Bhagwati

Explanation:
Justice Bhagwati is survived by his wife Prabhavati Bhagwati and three daughters - Parul Jayakar, Pallavi Shroff and Sonali Bhagwati.

Justice Bhagwati was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 1973 and became the 17th CJI in 1985.

He was the architect of a new concept - Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - for dispensing justice to the voiceless poor on whose behalf a third person could approach the Supreme Court or high courts.

For his pioneering work in devising this great concept, akin to class action suit in the US - and many other landmark decisions, the government had conferred Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, on him in 2007.

Early in his career as a judge of the SC, he was part of the five-judge bench which in 1976 delivered the infamous ADM Jabalpur judgement that upheld the government decision to suspend fundamental rights.

This is including the Right to Life, during Emergency, which remained in force in India from 1975 to 1977.

Justice H R Khanna was the only judge among the five who gave the dissenting judgement holding that the Right to Life is a core fundamental right which could never be suspended by any government even during Emergency.

ANSWER: Mathura

Explanation:
In the year of commemoration of the birth centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who hailed from Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India is launching the implementation of the ‘‘National Mission on Cultural Mapping of India.’

This is at Goverdhan Block, Mathura District, Uttar Pradesh.

It will be a day long, Block level mega talent hunt programme (Sanskritik Pratibha Khoj Samaroh) on 17th June, 2017 from 10 am to 5 pm at Radheshyam Sewa Sadan (in front of Gaudiya Math), Radha Kund Road, Gowardhan.

This Mission is part of the ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ umbrella.

Around 1-2 thousand artists are expected to take part in this Block level event where artists can also register themselves following which a registration certificate/slip/code will be provided to all the artists who register.

A stage will be provided to the registered artists for performance and displaying their talent.

A panel of renowned artists has also been invited for judging the participants in different art forms. Registration can also be done directly on the portal culturalmappingofindia.nic.in.

For those artists who, for some reason, are not able to register themselves and their art forms, enumeration teams have been sent to all the 47 villages of Gowardhan Block for geo mapping of artists and their art forms.

Any person who claims to be an artist can register at the initial level.

Cultural Mapping Mission: Know More

• Paving the way for the ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ programme, the mission aims at converting the vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective cultural map.
• It is designing a mechanism to fulfil the aspirations of the whole artist community of the nation and preserving the rich cultural heritage of this country in the form of a cultural repository of artists and art forms.
• This Mission encompasses data mapping, demography building formalising the processes and bringing all the cultural activities under one web based umbrella for better results.
• The Mission also seeks to open a direct channel of communication of artists with the Government and peer to peer communication among artists for talent honing and handholding of each other.
• The scheme is set to cover all the Blocks of the Country, involving a total of 6.40 Lakh villages over the span of next 3 years
• The Artist/Organisations also may register online at www.culturalmapping.nic.in.
• The Cultural Mapping of India portal will serve as a repository/consolidated database of information about cultural assets and resources i.e. a cultural inventory at one place for essential planning, sustainable economic development and for preserving the scattered and near extinct art forms.
• Ministry of Culture will be organising similar Block level events in other States too so as to kick start the process of scaling up the efforts to cover all the Blocks of the Country.
• The current round includes Shimoga Block in Shimoga District, Karnataka, Thanesar Block in Kurukshetra District, Haryana, Chauri – Chaura Block in Gorakhpur District in Uttar Pradesh & Saraikela Block in Saraikela - Kharsawan District in Jharkhand.

ANSWER: Only a and b

Explanation:
The European Union (EU) delegation to India on 13 June 2017 announced its decision to release the final tranche of Euro 25 million of its euro 80 million grant to the Indian government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).

An official statement from EU read "This brings to a conclusion the EU’s sector support to school education in India, to which it has contributed over euro 520 million (currently valued at INR 3,700 crore) in grant funding."

The EU grants have contributed in setting up new schools, improving existing ones, bridging gender and social gaps, providing toilets especially for girls, training teachers, and enrolling nearly all children in the primary school years.

EU was the Indian government’s first development partner in education through its participation in the 155 districts initially selected under District Primary Education Programme in 1994.

The Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK and the World Bank joined subsequently as partners.

The EU has also provided euro 32 million to the Chhattisgarh from 2006-2015 for improving elementary education.

These programmes anticipated and then supported the implementation of the Right to Education Act of 2009, which made elementary education compulsory.

Education in India: Know More

• India has more than 1.5 million schools in the public and private sectors, with over 227 million children enrolled.
• Around 1.29 million or 84.7 per cent are in rural areas.
• The reduction of dropout rates and the improvement of education outcomes as measured by various surveys are the main challenge for school policy makers and public authorities, going forward.

ANSWER: Websites

Explanation:
The leaders of France and Britain have announced an anti-terror action plan to stop terror propaganda on internet.

The announcement was made by French President Emmanuel Macron after having talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Both the countries agreed that social networks were not contributing enough to weed out extremist elements and put a stop to terror propaganda.

One of the key measures of the action plan would be to prevent the incitement of “hate and terrorism” on the internet.

Both France and UK agreed that more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online.

The main objective of the action plan is to ensure the internet cannot be used to host the radicalising material that leads to much harm.

The British government has already started working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that aims to corrupt young minds.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also confirmed the cooperation between the two nations by saying that the UK and France will be working together to encourage organisations to do more and abide by their social responsibility to step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks.

Though no such parameter has been decided upon as yet, the campaign does explore the possibility of imposing legal penalties against the tech companies that fail to take the necessary action to remove unacceptable content from their social media site.

The United Kingdom recently faced one of the most shocking terror incidents when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a pop concert by American singer Ariana Grande on 22 May 2017. The incident followed by a knife and van attack in central London that left eight dead.

France has been a constant target for jihadist attacks since 2015.

ANSWER: TATA Motors

Explanation:
Automobile major Tata Motors on 13 June 2017 announced the appointment of Girish Wagh as the head of its Commercial Vehicle Business Unit.

Wagh will take charge of his new responsibilities with immediate effect. On 5 June 2017, Tata Motors had informed that Director of its associated companies and Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles) Ravindra Pisharody has resigned due to personal reasons.

TATA Motors: Know More

• Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company.
• It is headquartered in Mumbai.
• The company was founded in 1945 as a manufacturer of locomotives.
• It manufactured its first commercial vehicle in 1954 in a collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969.
• Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles.
• It has auto manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar, Lucknow, Sanand, Dharwad, and Pune in India, as well as in Argentina, South Africa, Great Britain and Thailand.
• Tata Motors’ principal subsidiaries purchased the English premium car maker Jaguar Land Rover and the South Korean commercial vehicle manufacturer Tata Daewoo.
• On 17 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed the Chairman of the company.

ANSWER: 14th June

Explanation:

World Blood Donors DayWorld Blood Donors Day (WBDD) was observed on 14 June 2017.

The theme of the 2017 World Blood Donor Day is Give Blood. Give Now. Give Often.

This year’s campaign focuses on blood donation in emergencies.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) via the theme is emphasizing on the role that every individual can play in preparing for the next unforeseen emergency by giving blood now.

Of the 112.5 million blood donations collected globally, approximately half of these are collected in high-income countries.

In low-income countries, up to 65% of blood transfusions are given to children under 5 years of age; whereas in high-income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 65 years of age.

67 countries report collecting fewer than 10 donations per 1000 people.

Of these, 38 countries are in the WHO African Region, 5 in the WHO Region of the Americas, 6 in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, 5 in the WHO European Region, 6 in the WHO South-Eastern Asia Region, and 8 in the WHO Western Pacific Region.

126 countries have national guidelines on the appropriate clinical use of blood. 57 countries collect 100 per cent of their blood supply from voluntary, unpaid blood donors.

Blood donation by 1 per cent of the population can meet a nation’s most basic requirements for blood.

WBDD: Know More

• The World Blood Donors Day was established in 2004 to raise awareness of the need for safe bold and blood products, and to thank donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.
• It is one of the eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO) along with World Tuberculosis Day (24 March), World Health Day (7 April), World Immunization Week (last week of April), World Malaria Day (25 April).
• Others include World No Tobacco Day (31 May), World Hepatitis Day (28 July), and World AIDS Day (1 December).

ANSWER: Sikkim

Explanation:
The Human Resource Development department of Sikkim government signed an MoU with the British Council to enhance quality of education in the state.

The MoU will improve the educational structure of the schools of Sikkim as planned by the Chief Minister and his vision to revolutionise Sikkim's education and help children achieves greater feats in life.

The purpose of the MoU is to support the aims and aspirations of the young people of Sikkim through collaborative projects in the area of English, education and skills by strengthening the capacity of the teachers and other professionals, working with youth in the state and support its cultural economy.

The programme also include capacity building in teaching, learning and research pedagogy of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Social Science teachers from undergraduate colleges and universities in Sikkim by UK higher education experts along with internship of young faculties at relevant UK Universities.

ANSWER: India, Pakistan

Explanation:
Welcoming India and Pakistan into the SCO, China dismissed apprehensions that their differences could disrupt the unity of the grouping saying its charter strictly prohibits members to bring their bilateral hostility into the organisation.

China, a dominant member of the now eight-member group, hosts the headquarters of the organisation.

The SCO headquarters held a ceremony today to hoist the flags of India and Pakistan.

Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Gokhale and his Pakistan counterpart Masood Khalid attended the ceremony which included jointly beating a huge SCO cooperation drum heralding the admission of their respective countries into the grouping.

India and Pakistan were formally admitted as members at Kazakhstan capital Astana at the SCO summit held on June 8-9.

ANSWER: X-ray

Explanation:
China has launched its first X-ray space telescope to study black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts.

The telescope weighing 2.5 tonne was sent to the space using China’s Long March-4B rocket. The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Black hole refers to the remains of a supergiant star that has collapsed into itself. It is so dense and has a gravitational field so intense, that light itself cannot escape from it.

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They are spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than that of the sun.

Scientists are using pulsars to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth’s solar system and measure cosmic distance.

In recent times, China sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a symbol of its rise.

In April, China had launched its first cargo spacecraft and successfully docked it with an orbiting space lab. This launch was hailed as a key development toward China’s goal of having its own crewed space station by 2022.

Recently, China also opened a “Lunar Palace” laboratory on earth to simulate a moon-like environment.

In the lunar palace laboratory, China is conducting experiments by housing students for up to 200 days to prepare for its long-term goal of sending humans to the moon.

In 2016, China had also successfully launched experimental X-ray pulsar navigation satellite XPNAV-1, which was world’s first pulsar navigation satellite or spacecraft.

China's First X-ray Telescope

• Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), named Insight, will allow scientists from China to observe magnetic fields and the interiors of pulsars and understand the evolution of black holes.
• The telescope is also expected to help scientists to search for gamma-ray bursts corresponding to gravitational waves.
• It will also study how the pulsars can be used for spacecraft navigation.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The Bhupen Hazarika National Award, 2017 has been conferred upon the noted writer Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi.

This is the fifth edition of the award which was first conferred in 2012. The award has been instituted by Sarhad, a Maharashtra-based organisation.

The award honours an outstanding literary work at national and international level. The award consists of 51,000 rupees, a memento and a certificate.

Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi: Know More

• Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi belongs to the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. He graduated from Cotton College, Guwahati and did his MA from Guwahati University.
• In spite of having Sherdukpen as his mother tongue, Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi started writing his works in Assamese over which he has excellent command.
• So far, he has written about a dozen novels and numerous short stories and plays.
• His famous novel includes Mauna Onth Mukhar Hriday (Silent lips, murmuring hearts) which won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2005.
• Yeshe Dorjee Thongshi joined the Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service in 1977 and was elevated to the IAS in 1992. He is the founder and president of Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society.

ANSWER: One Family At a Time

Explanation:
According to the ‘One Family at a Time’ study conducted by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Indians working across the world had sent home USD 62.7 billion in 2016 making India the top remittance-receiving country surpassing China.

Around 200 million migrants across the world have sent more than USD 445 million in 2016 as remittances to their families. Top Remittance Receiving Countries: India (USD 62.7 billion), China (USD 61 billion), the Philippines (USD 30 billion) and Pakistan (USD 20 billion).

Around 80% of the remittances across the world are received by 23 countries such as India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan.

US, Saudi Arabia and Russia: these countries account for almost half of annual flow of remittances.

The study is the first ever study conducted that analysed a 10-year trend in migration and remittance flows over the period 2007-2016.

In the period between 2007 and 2016, India has surpassed China to become the world’s largest receiver of remittances.

In 2007, India was at the second spot behind China.

Asia remains the main remittance-receiving region with 55% of the global flows. The amount of money sent to the families in developing countries have increased by 51% over the past decade.

This increase in remittances is expected to lift millions out of poverty and in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The report expects that in the year 2017, one of out of every seven people will be involved in either sending or receiving more than USD 450 billion in remittances.

The amount of money sent back home by the migrants’ averages less than 1% of their host’s GDP. In total, these individual remittances account for more than the total foreign direct investment to almost every low-and-middle-income country.

The report has also made recommendations for improving public policies to reduce costs and create opportunities for migrants and their families to use their money more productively

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development: Know More

• IFAD was set up in 1977 as the 13th specialised agency of the United Nations.
• India is a founder member of IFAD and a key contributor among the member countries.
• IFAD works towards removing poverty and hunger in rural areas all over the world, especially in developing countries.
• Its goal is to empower poor rural men and women in developing countries to achieve higher incomes and improved food security.
• IFAD is managed by the two main governing bodies i.e. the Governing Council and the Executive Board.
• The Governing Council is the highest decision-making body of IFAD.