GK & Current Affairs June 2016

CFDA usually announces the recipient of the CFDA Fashion Icon Award prior to the show but for the 2016 presentation they decided to keep it secret.
•    Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter Receives CFDA Fashion Icon Award.
•    Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. 
•    Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child and rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of R&B girl-group Destiny's Child. 
•    Beyoncé has received numerous awards. 
•    As a solo artist she has sold over 16 million albums in the US, and over 100 million records worldwide (a further 60 million additionally with Destiny's Child), making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
•    The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) listed Beyoncé as the top certified artist of the 2000s (decade), with a total of 64 certifications.
•    Her songs "Crazy in Love", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo", and "Irreplaceable" are some of the best-selling singles of all time worldwide. 
•    In 2009, The Observer named her the Artist of the Decade and Billboard named her the Top Female Artist and Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade.
•    In 2010, Billboard named her in their "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" list at number 15.
•    In 2012 VH1 ranked her third on their list of the "100 Greatest Women in Music".
•    Beyoncé was the first female artist to be honored with the International Artist 

Facebook India on 7 June 2016 appointed Umang Bedi as its Managing Director (MD).
Bedi will take over from Kirthiga Reddy. Reddy will be returning to the US to take on a new role at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.
•    Bedi will officially start at Facebook in July 2016 while Reddy will take up her new role in August 2016.
•    Bedi has close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales, marketing and partnerships with multinational companies.
•    Prior to joining Facebook, Umang Bedi worked as Managing Director for South Asia at Adobe Inc.
•    He is an engineering graduate from the University of Pune. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School.
•    He is the recipient of the prestigious 40 Under Forty: India’s Hottest Business Leaders Award 2014 given by The Economic Times and Chicago-based global executive search and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart.

Western Railways will observe safety awareness week from June 6 to June 10, 2016 to mark the 'International Level Crossing Awareness Day' on June 10 at all six divisions to educate people about the dangers of crossing unmanned railway level crossings without caution.
•    India is a member country of 'International Union of Railways' which is celebrating June 10 as 'International Level Crossing Awareness Day'. 
•    Accidents can be avoided by ""3 Es"" viz Education, Engineering and Enforcement. 
•    With a view to spread awareness in this regard among the target audience, this awareness campaign will be conducted among school & college students and panchayats.
•    For the safety of railway passengers as well as road users, it is necessary for road vehicles to always stop before a railway crossing and watch carefully for the incoming train from either sides and then cross the railway level crossing safely.
•    It is planned to carry out this campaign on mass level for effective dissemination of related information. 
•    Caps, coasters, steering wheel stickers, pencil stand, paper scales, posters and sharpeners with LC (Level Crossing) Awareness slogans will be distributed at Schools and at LCs during Level Crossing Awareness week. 

American multinational retail corporation, Walmart has topped the Fortune 500 list for the 4th consecutive year. 
•    Rounding out the top 10 in the 62nd annual rankings, based on total revenues for their fiscal years: ExxonMobil, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, McKesson, UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health,General Motors, Ford Motor and AT&T.
•    Apple, which was the most profitable company on the list, with $53 billion in profits, was among companies making big moves this year, jumping to No. 3 from No. 5 last year. 
•    Other movers in the top 25 included Amazon.com (No. 18) and Walgreens (No. 19), which moved into the top 20 from No. 29 and No. 35 last year & Microsoft (No. 25) made the top 25 for the first time, up from No. 31 last year.
•    Facebook jumped 85 spots to No. 157, while Netflix leaped 95 spots to No. 379 (from No. 474) and Expedia moved 73 to No. 385. 
•    More than half of Fortune 500 companies saw sales drop, including No. 1 Walmart, which had a sales decline of 0.7% in 2015. 
•    For the entire list, revenues were down 4.2% from 2015.

Guwahati on 6 June 2016 became first city in the country to have its own ‘city animal’ with Kamrup metropolitan district administration declaring Gangetic River Dolphin as its mascot.
•    Gangetic River Dolphin is locally known as ‘Sihu’ and fewer than 2000 such animals remain in the River Brahmaputra along Guwahati.
•    In the three-month long voting process Gangetic River dolphin received 24247 votes out of 60003 total votes.
•    On the other hand, the Greater Adjutant Stork got 18454 votes while the Black Softshell Turtle got 17302 votes.
•    The Gangetic Dolphins are also called as the ‘Tigers of Ganga’ as it enjoys the position in Ganga that is equivalent to that of the tiger in the forest.
•    Its scientific name is Platanista gangetica.
•    Ganges River Dolphins prefer deep waters, in and around the confluence of two or more rivers. They share their habitat with crocodiles, fresh water turtles and wetland birds.
•    The distribution range of the Ganges River Dolphins in India covers seven states namely, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
•    Rivers where these dolphins are found: River Ganges, Chambal (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), Ghaghra, Gandak (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh), Sone and Kosi rivers (Bihar), River Brahmaputra from Sadia up to Dhubri and Kulsi River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra river,
•    The Ganges River Dolphin has a sturdy, yet flexible, body with large flippers and a low triangular dorsal fin. It weighs up to 150 kg. Females are larger than males.
•    The Gangetic Dolphins are generally blind and catch their prey by emitting an ultrasonic sound which reaches the prey.
•    A Ganges River Dolphin Conservation Programme was initiated in 1997 to build a scientific database of the population status of the species and study the habitat quality of the dolphins' distribution range.

On 4th  June 2016 India became the co-chair of Working Group on Maritime Situational Awareness under Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS).
Steps taken by Indian Navy to ensure safety at Somalian Coast and in the Indian Ocean Region
•    In addition to escorting Indian-flagged ships, ships of other countries have also been escorted by the Indian Navy. 
•    To maintain high degree of alertness in the region, around 19 coastal security operations and exercises have been undertaken over the past year. 
•    It is a coalition of states, international organizations, the private sector and civil society that came together to fight piracy together in a coordinated manner.
•    It works on the basis of Contact Group model that facilitates discussion and coordination of actions among states and organizations to suppress Somali piracy.
•    Till now, more than 60 countries and international organizations, including India, have become part of this forum.
•    Seychelles is the current Chairman of the CGPCS for the biennium 2016-17.

On 5 June 2016 Rajasthan Government launched mobile application RajVayu for sharing information about Air Quality Index of Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur. 
•    The app was launched by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on the eve of World Environment Day.
•    With this, Rajasthan became first state in country to launch such app for sharing information about air quality index of cities.  
•    The app has been designed by Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) jointly with Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). 
•    It will share details about the air quality, such as levels of pollutants likes SOx, NOx, CO, Ozone particles and Particulate Matter (PM) with the city residents and tourists. 
•    It will also share temperature, wind speed, humidity, weather forecast and advisories. 
•    This app is based on the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Research (SAFAR-India) which is presently connected in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. 
•    By 2017, the services of this application would be expanded in other cities in the state including in Ajmer, Alwar, Bhiwadi, Kota and Pali.

Ashok Ganapathy was on 6 June 2016 appointed as the Director of Bharti Airtel Ltd. He will take over the post with effect from 1 July 2016.
•    Ganapathy succeeds Manish Prakash as Director (Airtel Business). Prakash has been appointed as Director (strategic alliances). 
•    He will report to Gopal Vittal, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.
•    In this new role, Ashok will be responsible for driving the growth of Airtel's B2B portfolio that serves top corporations, government entities and other corporate with end-to-end solutions.
•    Ganapathy joined Airtel in 2013 as the Hub CEO for Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa & Gujarat circles. 
•    Ganapathy has an experience of 26 years in FMCG, entertainment, retail and telecom sectors. 
•    He started his career with Hindustan Unilever in 1990 as a management trainee.
•    He has a B. Tech degree from IIT, Madras and MBA from IIM, Ahmadabad.

Airbus on 1 June 2016 displayed the world's first 3D-printed aircraft THOR at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Schoenefe.
The drone THOR is short for Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality and it resembles a large, white model airplane.
•    Is the world's first 3D-printed aircraft with just 3 parts.
•    It is windowless, weighs 21 kilo grams (46 pounds) and less than four metres (13 feet) long. It is Lighter, faster and cheaper.
•    Except the electrical elements, all other parts are printed (3D) from a substance called polyamide.
•    Thor's inaugural flight was conducted in November 2015 near the northern German city of Hamburg.
•    Airbus and Boeing are already using 3D printing, notably to make parts for their huge passenger jets the A350 and B787 Dreamliner.
•    The new 3D printers can make pieces up to 40 centimeters (15 inches) long and is of most use in particularly complex designs.
•    Apart from costs savings, 3D printing also promises ecological benefits as lighter jets use less fuel and spew out fewer pollutants.
•    It will be a radical technical innovation to reducing carbon emissions in aviation with air traffic expected to double in the next 20 years.

Deshauna Barber, a serving Army Reserve officer of United States (US), was on 5 June 2016 crowned as the Miss USA 2016 at the Miss USA competition 2016 held at the T-Mobile Arena off the Las Vegas Strip.
•    She represented the US capital as Miss District of Columbia. Miss Hawaii Chelsea Hardin came in as the first runner-up and Miss Georgia Emani Davis was the second runner-up.
•    With this, Barber became the first-ever military member to win Miss USA title. She will now represent the USA at Miss Universe Competition 2016.
•    Barber inherited the crown from 2015 winner Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan.
•    Barber works as an IT analyst at the US Department of Commerce.
•    Barber was commissioned as a Quartermaster Officer in 2011 in the Army Reserve of US.
•    She is currently a Logistics Commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit based at Fort Meade, Maryland.
•    She is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority.
•    She was crowned as Miss District of Columbia USA 2016 in December 2015 by outgoing titleholder Lizzy Olsen.