Chronicle August 2018

World Food Prize 2018

·         The World Food Prize will be awarded this year to two men who have dedicated their careers to improving the availability of nutritious food for pregnant women and children in an effort to reduce the effects of malnutrition in developing counties.

·         Lawrence Haddad, who is a British economist and food policy researcher, and Dr. David Nabarro, who has worked with the World Health Organization and United Nations on health and hunger issues, have been named the 2018 prize recipients.

·         The world Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize language Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and other who have improved the quality and availability of food.

 

Nikkel Asia Prize

·         Noted social reformer and founder of Sulabh International Bindeshwar Pathak was honoured with Japan's prestigious 'Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture for Culture and Community' for his significant work in tacking poor hygiene and discrimination.

 

Hero to Animla Award

·         Singer Zubeen Garg would be honoured with the Hero to Animals Award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India for his recent appeal to end animal sacrifice at the Kamakhya Temple in Assam.

 

AR Rahman    

·         Renowned music composer A R Rahman has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of the Sikkim government.

 

Dhivya Suryadevara

·         An Indian-American woman, Dhivya Suryadevara has been named the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of the US' largest automaker, General Motors (GM).

·         She will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Barra, 56, who has been head of the automaker since 2014.

·         Barra and Suryadevara are the first women in their respective positions in the auto industry, as no other major global automaker has a female CEO, nor a CEO and CFO who are both female.

 

Karthik Nemmani

·         Karthik Nemmani, a 14-year-old Indian-American boy, won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home more then $42,000 in cash and prizes after correctly spelling "koinonia" to become the 14^th champion from the community in 11 consecutive years.

·         Another Indian-American, Atman Balakrishnan, the 12-year-old son of 1985 champion Balu Natarajan, did not advance to the finals.

 

Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces 

·         The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on June 5 picked Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, Ecuador's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, to be its next president.

·         Garces beat Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake, permanent representative of Honduras to the United Nations, by 128-62 votes, She will succeed Slovakia's Miroslav Lajcak and preside vakia's Miroslav Lajcak and preside over the 73^rd session starting from September. The tenure is for a year.

·         The 193-member General Assembly, one of the highest policy-making bodies at the United Nations, will have a woman presiding over it for the fourth time in UN history.

·         By tradition, the UN's regional groups nominate a single candidate who is then approved by the Assebly, But this year the election was being constented for the first time since 1991, because Latin American countries (LAC) couldn't agree on a nominee.

·         Since 1945, the Assembly has elected only three women (excluding Espinosa Garces) as presidents: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953) and Sheikha Brooks of Liberia (1969) and Sheikha Haya Rashed A1-Khalifa of Bahrain (2006), and that's three out of 72 presidents   

 

K.N. Jain

·         The government has appointment IDBI Bank MD and CEO, M.K. Jain, as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in place of S.S. Mundra.

·         Mahesh Kumar Jain began his career in Punjab National Bank and later moved to Syndicate Bank before becoming an ED, and later head of Indian Bank.

 

Pedro Sanchez

·         Pedro Sanchez was sworn in as Spain's Prime Minister on June 2.

·         The Socialist leader successfully ousted predecessor Mariano Rajoy who lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

 

QS World University Rankings

·         A year after it broke into the top 200 club, IIT-Bombay has emerged as the country's best university in the latest edition's best university in the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings.    

·         IIT-Bombay moved up 17 places (163 rank) this year to displace IIT-Delhi as India's top ranked institution. The latter has also been overtaken by IISc-Bangalore, which gained 20 positions to 170 rank. However, despite the improvement, IISc has not managed to get back into the top 150 clubm the position it held two years ago.

·         Globally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology remains the world-leader for the seventh year in a row. Stanford University, Harvard University, Caltech and Oxford University follow, in that order.

 

Global Peace Index 2018

·         India has moved up four places to the 137^th rank among 163 countries on the 2018 Global Peace Index, due to a reduction in the level of violent crime driven by increased law enforcement.

·         Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark also sit in the top five most peaceful rankings.

·         Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past five years. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia comprise the remaining least peaceful countries.

·         India was improved by four positions in the overall ranking from 141^st to 137^th. 

 

E Sreedharan Panel

·         The Government has approved the setting up of a committee to lay down the standards for metro rail system across the country.

·         The committee will be headed by 'metro man of India', E. Sreedharan.

 

Suresh Mathur Committee

·         Regular Irdai has set up a 10-member panel to review norms related to insurance marketing firm (IMF) with an aim to increase insurance penetration in the country.

 

Ten New Swachh Iconic Places Launched

·         Ten new iconic sites, namely, Raghavendra Swamy Temple (Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh); Hazardwari Palace (Murshidabad, West Bengal); Brahma Sarovar Temple (Kurukshetra, Haryana); Vidur Kuti (Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh); Mana village (Chamoli, Uttarakhand); Pangong Lake (Leh-Ladakh, J&K); Nagvasuki Temple (Allahbad, Uttar Pradesh); ImaKeithal/market (Imphal, Manipur); Sabrimala Temple (Kerala); and Kanvashram (Uttarakhand) have been taken up under Phase III of the flagship project Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) of the Swachh Bharat Mission.    

 

Operation NISTAR

·         The Indian Navy on June 3 June rescued 38 Indians who were stranded at the Socotra Island off the coast of Yemen.

·         The sailors were stuck at the island after a severe cyclonic storm, Mekenu, hit the area on 24 May and damaged/sunk three Indian dhows while one was still missing.

·         The 38 Indians rescued by INS Sunayana that was diverted by the Navy from the Gulf of Aden for the operation.