Weekly CA Quiz: June 2018 1st week with PDF

Explanation: Veteran Television actor Robert Mandan, who starred as Chester Tate in ABC’s daytime-serial spoof ‘Soap’, died after a prolonged illness in Los Angeles. He was 86.

Explanation: India received its first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargo, LNG KANO, from Russia’s Gazprom at the Petronet LNG terminal in Dahej, Gujarat on June 4, 2018. The LNG cargo carried 3.4 TBTU of LNG.

Explanation: The first official World Bicycle Day was observed on June 3, 2018. On 12 April 2018, the United Nations (UN) declared June 3 World Bicycle Day. The Day aims to encourage a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation.

Explanation: The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has announced to create a new financial institution that will cater exclusively to the credit and lending needs of the food processing sector. The corpus for the non-banking financial institution will be Rs 2,000 crore with the government contributing 20% or Rs 400 crore.

Explanation: Noted Bengali litterateur Arabinda Guha, who is also known by his pseudonym Indramitra, passed away at a nursing home in Kolkata. He was 89

Explanation: The Government of India has launched the ‘JANAUSHADHI SUVIDHA’, the Oxo-biodegradable Sanitary Napkin, under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) in a move to achieve Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Affordable and Quality Healthcare for All.

Explanation: Mahesh Kumar Jain has been appointed as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a term of three years. He replaces SS Mundra who completed his three-year term in July 2017

Explanation: The Indian Naval Ships Sahyadri, Shakti and Kamorta of the Eastern Fleet would be participating in the 22nd edition of Malabar Exercise, off Guam, US from June 7 to 16, 2018.

Explanation: The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has launched the Krishi Kalyan Abhiyaan from June 1, 2018 till July 31, 2018 to be undertaken in 25 Villages with more than 1000 population each in 111 Aspirational Districts identified in consultation with Ministry of Rural Development as per directions of NITI Ayog.

Explanation: The 13th National Convention of the Global Compact Network India (GCNI), a local network of the United Nations Global Compact in New York, will be held in Bengaluru on June 8. The theme of the convention is Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Blueprint for Action. This year, the GCNI convention is of a greater significance as it is coinciding with the UN India Business Forum being hosted by Bengaluru on June 7.

Explanation: Jordan’s King Abdullah II has appointed a Harvard-educated former senior World Bank official, Omar Razzaz, as the new Prime Minister. He replaces Hani Mulki, who quit a day before Razzaz’s appointment amid widening protests against his government’s austerity program.

Explanation: World Environment Day (WED) is observed on the June 5 every year. India is the global host of 43rd edition of World Environment Day to raise awareness about protecting the environment. The theme for the World Environment Day 2018, “Beat Plastic Pollution”.

Explanation: Malaysia’s King Sultan Muhammad V has approved the appointment of an ethnic Indian lawyer, Tommy Thomas, as the new Attorney General. Tommy Thomas is the first minority to hold the post in 55 years.

Explanation: The 2018 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Third Asia- Pacific Regional Policy Forum on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) kicked off in Kathmandu.

Explanation: The 3rd edition of National Health Editors’ Conference on Yoga was inaugurated by the Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shri Shripad Yesso Naik at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga in New Delhi.

Explanation: The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has appointed Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces to be its next President. Maria, Ecuador’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, succeeds Slovakia’s Miroslav Lajcak and will preside over the 73rd session of the Assembly starting from September for a tenure of one year.

Explanation: The 11th edition of Geo-Intelligence Asia 2018 took place at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi on 04-05 June 2018. The theme of Seminar was ‘GeoSpatial : A Force Multiplier for Defence and Industrial Security’.

Explanation: Actor William Phipps, the voice of Prince Charming in the animated Disney film Cinderella, has passed away. He was 96.

Explanation: Tech giant Microsoft has announced to acquire San Francisco based software development platform GitHub for $7.5 billion.

Explanation: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance will be awarded the Sansad Ratna Award 2018 by Prime Point Foundation for its outstanding performance.

Explanation: Deccan Queen, the legendary Express train, also known as Dakkhan ki Rani, that has formed an irreplaceable part of fairy tales and poems in the state of Maharashtra completed 88 years of service on June 1. Deccan Queen is India’s first deluxe train launched by the Indian Railways in 1930 to connect two of Maharashtra’s most prominent cities- Mumbai and Pune.

Explanation: The Government of Singapore has named an Orchid after Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commemorate his visit to the National Orchid Garden of Singapore.

Explanation: The Ministry of Culture held a high level stakeholders’ workshop on the Taj Mahal  in Agra under the chairmanship of Minister of State (I/C) of Culture and Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma.

Explanation: Timothy Pereira, a former international footballer who represented Tata FC, died after a prolonged illness. He was 75.

Explanation: The Indian Navy has completed the “Service Life Extension Refit” of a 32-year-old ship of the Mauritius Coast Guard. The Indian Navy began the refit of the Mauritius Coast Guard Ship (MCGS) Guardian on December 1 2018 at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai ensuring timely completion of its hull, engineering, electrical and weapon work package.

Explanation: The Andhra Pradesh government has announced to implement a first of its kind Unemployment Scheme to cater the unemployed graduate youth of the state. Under the scheme, the unemployed graduate youths would get a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 each with an upper age limit of 35.

Explanation: The Andhra Pradesh has launched a Zero Based Natural Farming (ZBNF) scale-out scheme, aimed at benefitting around six million farmers by 2024.

Explanation: The Odisha Government has launched a Health Insurance Scheme called “Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana” for working journalists in the state. The health insurance scheme will be implemented in phased manner with effect from June 1, 2018.

Explanation: The Maharashtra Government has announced the opening up of a ‘sandbox’ to boost start-ups, aiming to develop the financial capital into a fintech hub. In this sandbox, all the start-ups will be welcome who can register, open their APIs (application programming interface) and banks can consume.

Explanation: A two day Conference of Governors and Lieutenant Governors will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 4-5, 2018.

Explanation: The Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shri Shripad Yesso Naik will inaugurate the 3rd National Health Editors’ Conference on Yoga at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) in New Delhi on June 05, 2018 on the theme ‘Evidence Based Recent Innovative Research on Yoga – A Review of Yoga Research’.

Explanation: The ICC included Nepal, Netherlands, Scotland and the UAE in their ODI rankings list apart from the 12 existing countries.

Explanation: HDFC Bank has been conferred with the Champion Security Award 2018 at the 14th Visa Asia Pacific Security Summit for second time in a row in the India and South Asia category.

Explanation: Kerala cartoonist Thomas Antony has won the World Press Cartoon Awards in the best caricature category. Antony is the lone cartoonist selected from Asia selected for the prize.

Explanation: Giuseppe Conte has been sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy’s new populist government.

Explanation: The Union Government has set up an executive committee, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy among the people at the national and international level.

Explanation: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru has made it to the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education’s World Reputation Rankings 2018. This makes IISc the only Indian institution to make it to the prestigious list this year and has been ranked in the 91-100 band of the list.

Explanation: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been sworn in for a second four-year term in office with 97% of valid votes in favour defeating Moussa Mostafa Moussa who was the only opponent. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won his first term in 2014 with an overwhelming majority of the vote.

Explanation: NTPC Ltd has adopted the iconic Charminar in Hyderabad under the Swachh Iconic Places Projects of India as a part of a special drive under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission.

Explanation: The Centre has approved construction of 1.5 lakh houses for urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry announced that latest approval entails an investment of Rs. 7,227 crore with central assistance of Rs. 2,209 crore.

Explanation: Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over the Padma Shri award, India’s fourth highest civilian awards, to former Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh. Koh was among 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) receipts of the prestigious award this year.

Explanation: Social networking giant Facebook has announced a partnership with National Commission for Women, under which it has launched a Digital Literacy Program for women. This programme will run in collaboration with the Cyber Peace Foundation, and attempts to conduct training across local languages to ensure safe use of the internet.

Explanation: The National Sports University Ordinance, 2018 has come into force as the President of India has given his assent to the Union Cabinet’s decision to promulgate the said Ordinance. The Union Cabinet, had on May 23, approved an ordinance to set up the country’s first national sports university in Imphal, Manipur.

Explanation: Pedro Sanchez took over as Spain’s Prime Minister after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote triggered by a long-running corruption trial involving members of his centre-right party.

Explanation: Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi  laid the foundation stone of an Advanced DNA Forensic Laboratory “Sakhi Suraksha” at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory campus in Chandigarh at a cost of Rs 99.76 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund to assist in investigation and prosecution of crimes especially committed against women and children.

Explanation: India has signed the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) in Nursing with Singapore. This is the first MRA being signed by India with any of our FTA partners. Under the agreement, Singapore has agreed to expand coverage of Indian nursing institutions by recognising seven nursing institutions in the MRA.

Explanation: Lt General Devraj Anbu has assumed charge as Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS). He succeeds Lt. Gen. Sarath Chand who completed his tenure on May 31, 2018

Explanation: The Ministry of Culture, Government of India has introduced a new scheme namely Seva Bhoj Yojna with a total outlay of Rs. 325.00 Crores for Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Explanation: Star batswoman Mithali Raj became the first Indian cricketer to amass 2000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I). The Indian veteran has also become the first Indian cricketer (Men and Woman’s) to complete this record. She now has 2,015 runs in 75 matches.

Explanation: India has been ranked 137th rank among 163 countries on the 2018 Global Peace Index by Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace. The index is topped by Iceland, followed by New Zealand, Portugal, Austria and Denmark, whereas war-torn Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen.

Explanation: RBI has raised the housing loan limit under PSL as per which the metropolitan centres (with population of 10 lakh and above) will now qualify for home loans up to Rs 35 lakh for the benefits of priority sector lending, as against up to Rs 28 lakh earlier. Similarly, loans up to Rs 25 lakh will now qualify under PSL for other centres, compared with Rs 20 lakh earlier.

Explanation: Three Indian universities feature in the top 200 universities of the QS World University rankings 2019. IIT-Bombay is now the top institute in the country at 162 rising 17 positions from 2018, IIT-Delhi retained its 2018 position with a rank of 172 while the Indian Institute of Science has overtaken IIT-Delhi and is ranked 170. The list has been topped by Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Explanation: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced to allow voluntary transition of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) into Small Finance Banks (SFBs) given that they meet the prescribed criteria. The decision to allow the transition has been made on the basis of a report submitted by the high-powered committee on urban cooperative banks headed by the then RBI deputy governor R. Gandhi.

Explanation: President Ram Nath Kovind has announced to recognise the “Queen” a variety of Pineapple as Tripura’s state fruit. Prez also inaugurated a 73 km. long National Highway from Matabari (Udaipur) to Sabroom along the Gomati and South Tripura districts.

Explanation: Team India captain Virat Kohli will be presented with the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award for the Best International Cricketer (2016-17 and 2017-18) at the BCCI Awards to be held in Bengaluru on June 12th, 2018. In the women’s category, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana are set to be maiden recipients of the award for Best International Cricketer for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons respectively.

Explanation: President Ram Nath Kovind has given West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi additional charge of Tripura Governor, during the absence of Tathagata Roy who is on leave.

Explanation: The state government of Andhra Pradesh and Singapore has signed several pacts for the development of a start-up area (1,691 acres) in the new capital, Amaravati, to transform it into a world-class city.

Explanation: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to set up a Public Credit Registry (PCR), containing information on all borrowers to ensure financial stability and check loan default. The PCR will be introduced in a modular and phased manner. This move follows recommendations by a high-level task force on PCR for India headed by Yeshwant M Deosthalee.

Explanation: Veteran film actor Anupam Kher will be given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement honour at the upcoming International Indian Film Academy awards ceremony in Bangkok. He will be presented with the honour on June 24 at the 19th edition of IIFA.

Explanation: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was apprised of the agreement signed in connection with release of Joint Stamps between Department of Posts, India and Russia Post (Joint-Stock Company “MARKA” of Russian Federation) to establish postal cooperation and strive towards mutually beneficial operational excellence in the field of issuance of stamps.

Explanation: Maharashtra government has announced to provide financial grant of Rs 1,000 per quintal to those farmers whose tur and gram could not be purchased by the administration before the May 31 deadline. The state government had set up tur procurement target of 44.6 lakh quintals. The government will also give a financial aid of 160 crore rupees to farmers whose crops got damaged due to unseasonal rain or hailstorm.

Explanation: Nepal’s Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Rajendra Chhetri is on six-day visit to India beginning June 6 on the invitation of his Indian counterpart General Bipin Rawat.

Explanation: Cabinet has approved the extension of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Netherlands on technical cooperation in the field of Spatial Planning, Water Management and Mobility Management

Explanation: In its second bi-monthly monetary policy review, the six member Monetary Policy Committee headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel unanimously hiked the policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 percent to curb inflationary pressure from rising crude prices.

Explanation: Cabinet has approved Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Denmark on technical cooperation in the field of Sustainable and Smart Urban Development. Cabinet has also approved Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and United Kingdom on technical cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development. Besides, Cabinet approved Agreement between India and France on technical cooperation in the field of Sustainable Urban Development. The agreement signed between India and France in March, 2018 shall remain in force for a period of five years.

Explanation: The Government of India has constituted a group of eminent persons led by Baba Kalyani, chairman, Bharat Forge, to study the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Policy of India.

Explanation: Cabinet has approved Memorandum of Understanding between India and Oman on Cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

Explanation: The Madhya Pradesh government headed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an outstanding power bill waiver scheme “Bijli Bill Mafi Yojana 2018 (Power Bill Waiver Scheme)” for labourers and poor families.

Explanation: The World Bank has approved Rs.6000 crore Central Sector Scheme “Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY)” 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.

Explanation: India cricket team captain Virat Kohli is among the world’s highest-paid athletes, according to Forbes. Kohli is the only sportsperson from India to be featured in the list topped by American boxing champion Floyd Mayweather. The Indian skipper is ranked 83rd with earnings of USD 24 million, according to the website.