Current Affairs June 2017 - Persons in NEWS

1 - Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer became First Indian to be in inducted in ITTF URC

Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer became the first Indian to be nominated as a member of the Umpires and Referees Committee (URC) by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

He has been nominated for a period of two years which can be extended further.

Ganeshan has also been recommended as the Technical Commissioner from the Asian Continent to ITTF and his term will be for a period of four years.

Ganeshan hails from Thiruvananthapuram and he is the only assigned competition manager of the ITTF, the world governing body of table tennis.

2 - Sachin became part of the UN Campaign "Super Dads"

Sachin Tendulkar along with other stars from the world of entertainment and sports like David Beckham, Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton, Hugh Jackman, joined Super Dads, a new UNICEF initiative launched for Father’s Day to celebrate fatherhood.

The ‘Super Dads’ initiative forms part of UNICEF’s #EarlyMomentsMatter campaign and it highlight the importance of love, play, protection and good nutrition for the healthy development of young children’s brains.

3 - Indian American Raja Chari among 12 new astronauts chosen by NASA

Indian-American Raja Chari has been selected by NASA along with 11 other candidates who will be trained for missions into Earth orbit and to deep space. The seven men and five women comprise the 22^nd class of American spaceflight trainees since 1959.

Raja is a Lieutenant Colonel with the US Air Force. He is a commander of the 461^st Flight Test Squadron and the director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He earned a Master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School.

4 - Padmalaya Nanda crowned Little Miss Universe Internet 2017

12-year-old Indian girl from Odisha, Padmalaya Nanda was crowned title of "Little Miss Universe Internet 2017" and "Little Miss Actress" in Little Miss Universe 2017 contest held at the Batumi in Georgia.

She will further compete in the "Little Miss World 2017" competition that will be held at Greece. With this, she created history by becoming youngest girl to bag the crowns.

Padmalaya Nanda is a student of class 8^th at a school in Cuttack. It is first time that a 12-year Indian girl has won this beauty pageant title.

5 - Neeru Chadha elected as 1^st Indian woman member of ITLOS

Indian nominee Neeru Chadha was elected to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). She became first Indian woman to be appointed as a judge at the tribunal.

She won by 120 votes, the highest in the Asia Pacific group and was elected in the first round of voting itself. Elections were conducted for a total of seven seats.

The Tribunal consists of 21 independent members who are elected from among persons enjoying the highest reputation in the field of law.

6 - Katy Perry became first person to mark 100mn twitter followers

Pop Singer Kate Perry created history by becoming the first person to mark 100 million followers on Twitter, leaving behind popular personalities such as Justin Bieber on second spot with 96.7 million followers, Barack Obama on third spot with 90.8 million followers, Taylor Swift at 4^th spot with 85.1 million followers and Rihanna at 5^th spot with 74.1million followers.

The ‘Twitter’ website posted a video compilation of her tweets since she joined in 2009. Katy Perry, is an American singer and songwriter with $125 million as her Net worth.

7 - Amitabh Bachchan appointed as brand ambassador to promote GST

In order to promote Goods and Services Tax (GST), ahead of the sweeping tax reforms implementation scheduled from July 1, government has roped in popular Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. It has been decided to launch a video of 40 seconds casting Amitabh Bachchan.

Actor will promote GST stating that GST is an initiative to create 'one nation, one tax, one market', just like the three unifying colors of national flag. GST is expected to give value addition to 2% points to the GDP growth rate.

8 - Manushi Chhillar won the title of Femina Miss India World 2017

Manushi Chhillar from Haryana has won the 54^th Femina Miss India World 2017. The first runner-up is Sana Dua from Jammu and Kashmir and the second runner-up is Priyanka Kumari from Bihar.

Vinali Bhatnagar won the Miss Active crown whereas Vamika Nidhi won the special award of 'Body Beautiful'. The event was held at Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai. The panel of judges included Miss World 2016 Stephanie Del Valle, along with other Bollywood stars.

9 - Bhumika Sharma won Miss World title in bodybuilding championship

Bhumika Sharma of Dehradun has won the Miss World Body Building Championship held in Venice, Italy. The championship drew 50 competitors from different countries.

Bhumika gained maximum points in three categories – individual posing, body posing and fall in. The international championship was organized by World Amateur Body Building Association (WABBA).

Bhumika will next participate in the Miss Universe title in the bodybuilding championship.

10 - Indian Film Festival of Melbourne appointed Vidya Balan as its brand ambassador

Victorian Government appointed famous Bollywood actress Vidhya Balan as the ambassador of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. The theme of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is diversity.

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has selected over 60 films from India and several short films in 20 different languages which will be screened in the festival.

In the past, various other actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Fawad Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sonam Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut have participated in the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.