Science & Technology Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

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1. ISRO’s Satellite-based chips for Unmanned Rail Crossings.

Satellite-based chip systems developed by ISRO will be used to alert road users at unmanned level crossings about approaching trains. These chips will also help the railways in tracking train movement on a real-time basis.

Initially, on a pilot basis the ISRO-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips will be installed in the Mumbai and Guwahati Rajdhani trains. Hooters will be installed at 20 unmanned level crossings on Rajdhani routes for Guwahati and Mumbai.

The system will warn the road users by hooters once a train approaches an unmanned level. The hooters will get activated when the train is present at a distance of about 500 metres from the level crossing, warning both road users as well as the train driver near the crossing.

The sound of the hooters will become louder as the level crossing nears, and finally it will become silent after the passage of the train. In a phased manner, more trains would be equipped with the ISRO-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips.

The satellite based system will also be used for tracking trains about their movement on real time basis. It will be useful to passengers as at present the movement of trains are tracked manually.

2. NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover finds evidence of Ancient Lake.

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has found rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater that might have been a lake of liquid water. The scientists believe that the rocks were either transported by a flood or eroded in place by the wind.

NASA’s Opportunity rover has been investigating on and near the western rim of Endeavour Crater since 2011. The Endeavour Crater is about 22 km across.

Opportunity has found out a pattern of striations running east-west outside the crest of the rim. The features have been observed just outside the crater rim’s crest above “Perseverance Valley”.

To ascertain whether the rocks are present in-place or got transported, scientists plan to drive Opportunity down Perseverance Valley. The Perseverance valley extends for a distance of about two football fields. It slopes down from the crest into the Endeavour crater.

The scientists are looking into several hypotheses for the perched lake. As per one hypothesis, one of the possibility is that a flood might have brought in the rocks and carved out the Perseverance valley. Another believes that the area was fractured by the impact that created Endeavour Crater.

3. SpaceX successfully completed 2 rocket launches and landings this weekend.

A SpaceX rocket carried 10 communications satellites into orbit from California on Sunday, two days after the company successfully launched a satellite from Florida.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off through low-lying fog at 1:25 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles. It carried a second batch of new satellites for Iridium Communications, which is replacing its orbiting fleet with a next-generation constellation of satellites.

About seven minutes after liftoff, the rocket`s first-stage booster returned to earth and landed on a floating platform on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, while the rocket`s second stage continued to carry the satellites toward orbit.

4. china`s fastest bullet train makes its debut run.

China`s indigenous next generation bullet train, with a maximum speed of 400 kilometer per hour, made its debut today on the country`s busiest Beijing-Shanghai line. `Fuxing`, a CR400AF model, boasts a top speed of 400 kilometres per hour and a consistent speed of 350 kilometres an hour.

`Fuxing` or rejuvenation departed Beijing South Railway Station at 11:05 am for Shanghai. At the same time, another CR400AF model left Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station for Beijing.

The new bullet trains, also known as electric multiple units (EMU), took about five hours and 45 minutes to reach Shanghai. On its way, it stopped by 10 stations, including Jinan, Shandong province and Tianjin.

The Beijing-Shanghai line is the country`s busiest route used by 50,5000 passengers daily.

The train was designed and manufactured by China, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It includes a sophisticated monitoring system that constantly checks its performance and automatically slows the train in case of emergencies or abnormal conditions.

A remote data-transmission system, a control centre will be able to monitor the train in real time, the report said.

Lu Dongfu, general manager of China Railway Corporation, operator of the new train, said `Fuxing`, underpins the unique role that high-speed railway has played in China`s economic and social development.

Previous bullet trains featured the characters `Hexiehao` (harmony) on the exterior of each train.

China has the world`s longest railway network with 22,000 kilometres by the end of last year, about 60 per cent of the world`s total.

5. ISRO successfully launches GSAT-17 Satellite.

ISRO has successfully launched GSAT-17 communication Satellite onboard the Ariane-5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center at French Guiana on June 28. GSAT-17 will be the ISRO’s third satellite that is launched within a span of three months.

The 3,477-kg GSAT 17 communication satellite will be placed in the geostationary orbit and will have a mission life of 15 years. The satellite will be an addition to the current fleet of 17 Indian communication satellites that are already providing services from space.

Apart from providing communication services, the satellite will provide meteorological and satellite-based data to help rescue services which were earlier provided by geostationary satellites called Indian National Satellite System (INSAT).

GSAT-17 will provide continuity of services of operational satellites in C, extended C and S bands Once launched, ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh will take over and place the satellite in geostationary orbit. GSAT-17 was designed and assembled at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.

In addition, GSAT-17 will also launch communication satellite Hellas Sat 3-Inmarsat S EAN. Hellas Sat 3 will provide directly to home television and telecom services across Europe, West Asia and South Africa. Inmarsat is set to provide in-flight Internet facilities for European airlines.

6. NASA achieves a major milestone in developing Quieter Supersonic Jet.

NASA has reached a major milestone in developing a quieter supersonic passenger jet that is capable of safely travelling over land.

NASA has completed the preliminary design review (PDR) of its Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) aircraft design. NASA had forged a partnership with Lockheed Martin, in February 2016 for the QueSST preliminary design.

With this development, NASA is a step closer to actually building an X-plane. The project falls under the ambit of NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) aircraft design is the initial design stage of NASA’s planned Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) experimental airplane.

The LBFD is also known as X-plane. QueSST design will be capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircraft’s mission objectives. NASA will be developing LBFD aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds which will produce a soft “thump” instead of creating the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flights of the present day.

NASA has already completed testing a scale model of the QueSST design in its supersonic wind tunnel located at Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland. In the early next year, NASA will award a contract to build the piloted, single-engine X-plane.

7. NASA launches Rocket to produce Colourful Artificial Clouds.

The NASA has successfully launched Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket that created colourful artificial clouds visible in the skies of the US. The rocket was launched from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The rocket during the 8-minute flight had released 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink into space. It was ejected about 9 to 19 kilometres away from the 300-kg main payload. The canisters deployed blue-green and red vapour that formed artificial clouds visible in the skies of the United States from New York to North Carolina.

The artificial clouds are formed through the interaction of barium, strontium and cupric-oxide. The vapour tracers will help in understanding the movement of the particles in the ionosphere. It will help to learn more about the movement of the air currents at that altitude.

The artificial clouds or vapour tracers will help in understanding the movement of the particles in the ionosphere. It will help to learn more about the movement of the air currents at that altitude.

They will permit scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space. The multi-canister ejection system will also help scientists to gather information over a much larger area than previously possible. Sounding rockets have been in use for more than 40 years to carry science payloads on scientific missions that usually last five to 20 minutes.

Sounding rockets have been in use for more than 40 years to carry science payloads on scientific missions that usually last five to 20 minutes.

National Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. Survey for world`s highest rail track to commence in Leh.

The Railways will kick off the final location survey of the 498 km long Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line at Leh in Jammu and Kashmir this week.

Coming up at a high of 3,300 metres, the strategically important rail project is touted to become the highest rail track in the world, overtaking China`s Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

The all-weather Leh rail network is one of the four important railway connectivities identified by the defence ministry along the China border.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the work for the final location survey on June 27 at an estimated cost of Rs 157.77 crore. The survey is funded by the defence ministry.

The proposed new rail line will connect all important locations between Bilaspur and Leh namely Sunder Nagar Mandi, Manali, Tandi, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi and Karu.

The final location survey has been entrusted to RITES, a Railways PSU.

"RITES has deployed its expert team to carry out this challenging task. The survey will be carried out in three phases and is slated to be completed by 2019," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Presently, the road route is open only for about five months in a year.

Apart from strategic considerations, the line connecting Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh to Leh in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir is expected to give immense "socio-economic benefits" to the region, including tourism.

The defence ministry had initiated rail line projects along China, Nepal and Pakistan borders as strategic lines.

2. Indian Army to rethink on its Sahayak System.

Indian Army is considering doing away with the colonial-era Sahayak System and considers recruiting civilian staff in peace stations.

The Indian Army’s move comes in the wake of rising cases of jawans coming out openly against the Sahayak system. Some jawans have accused of being treated as servants by their attached officers.

The critics point that Sahayak System is liable to be misused, and is demeaning to the soldier. However, the army has said that Sahayaks would continue to be deployed in key bases and field areas as these areas will have defined military duties.

Instead of Sahayaks, employment of civilian staff at peace stations will help the Indian Army in economising on its manpower as well.

3. HRD Ministry Constitutes K. Kasturirangan Panel to Frame National Education Policy.

The HRD ministry has constituted a new nine-member panel headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan to frame a new National Education Policy (NEP). The other members of the panel include chosen experts and educationists from wide-ranging backgrounds.

The panel includes former IAS officer K.J. Alphonse Kanamthanam, who was instrumental in making Kerala’s Kottayam and Ernakulam districts achieve 100% literacy. Another member of the panel will be Ram Shanker Kureel who has wide experience in the field of agricultural sciences and management. He is also the Vice-Chancellor of Baba Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.

The committee also comprises of M.K. Shridhar, former member secretary of the Karnataka State Innovation Council, T.V. Kattimani, an expert on language communication, Dr. Mazhar Asif, professor of Persian at Guwahati University, Krishan Mohan Tripathi, a former director of education, Uttar Pradesh, mathematician Manjul Bhargava from Princeton University and Vasudha Kamat, former vice chancellor of Mumbai’s SNDT University.

The panel members belong to different sections and regions of the country reflecting the diversity of the country. Background In 2015, Narendra Modi Government had set up a committee under former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian to chalk out a new education policy. This committee had submitted its report in May 2016.

The committee had presented its report in two volumes with around 90 suggestions. The other important past committees in Education includes Radhakrishnan Commission (1948-49) on higher education; Mudaliyar Commission (1952) on secondary education and the Kothari Commission (1964-66).

The Kothari Commission had a mandate to advise the government on the development of education at all stage and in all aspects. The Kothari Commission’s report was used to formulate the Education Policy of 1968.

4. Union Government clears proposal for setting up new airport in Greater Noida.

The government has cleared a proposal for setting up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida, which is likely to be operational in the next five to six years. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing here today that “in-principle clearance has been granted” for the airport.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land for a world-class international airport, Raju added. “Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years,” Raju tweeted.

The airport will help reduce congestion at the Delhi international airport. “In Delhi, we are expecting 91 million passengers by 2020 and 109 million passengers by 2024,” Raju told reporters.

5. Arunachal Pradesh Govt raises retirement age of employees to 60 years.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to increase the retirement age of regular state government employees to 60 years with effect from January 1 next year.

The matter was under consideration of the state government for past many months and was discussed in the cabinet in two separate occasions.

After threadbare discussion, the government observed that there are various categories of employees who are already having the benefit of retirement age of 60 years, an official release said here on Sunday.

In order to do away with differential retirement age for the regular employees serving under the same government, the state government decided to implement the retirement age of such employees from existing 58 to 60 years.

6. Delhi Police Launches Bicycle Patrols For Better Policing.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday launched a bicycle patrol scheme to increase police presence in congested areas of the city.The bicycle patrol, for which 65 high-end bicycles have been acquired, was flagged off by Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir from the Yamuna Sports Complex in east Delhi.

"Delhi Police has introduced bicycle patrols to supplement its existing motorcycle and PCR patrols which focus mainly on crime prevention along main roads of Delhi," said Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav.One of the main areas of focus of these bicycle patrols will be parks where people, including senior citizens and women, go for walks.

"The bicycle patrols will also be introduced near schools and campus so that officers can have a friendly interaction with student community," Mr Yadav said.The bicycle patrols will move around in pairs and each patrol will cover a distance of two to five kilometres, police said.

The patrolling officers will have standard police communication equipment and will function like mobile police posts of the local police station.The scheme will be extended to other areas of Delhi in due course.

7. FSSAI issues Draft Regulations for Organic Food Products.

The draft regulations have come up with the following definitions: Organic agriculture has been defined as a system of farm design and management that creates an eco-system of agriculture production without the use of synthetic external inputs such as chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides and synthetic hormones or genetically modified organisms.

The organic farm is defined as the product obtained from organic agriculture. Organic foods are defined as those food products that are produced in accordance with specified standards for organic production. Organic farm produce means the product obtained from organic agriculture, while organic food means food products that have been produced in accordance with specified standards for organic production.

FSSAI’s regulation mandates that labelling of organic foods should provide full and accurate information regarding the organic status of the organic foods. Organic food products must carry a certification mark or a quality assurance mark provided by the notified certification bodies. FSSAI’s regulations have exempted organic food marketed by the original producer or producer organisation through a direct sale from verification compliance. However, this exemption will not be applicable to processed organic products.

8. Indian Army gets Modern Bullet Proof Helmets.

After decades of wait, the Indian Army has finally received its first batch of bullet-proof helmets. The helmets were manufactured by Kanpur-based MKU Industries at the cost of Rs 180 crore.

The new bullet proof helmets are capable of withstanding the impact of 9mm ammunition fired from a short range. The helmets match global standards of equipment for armed forces. According to MKU, the bullet-proof helmets undergo rigorous quality and ballistic lab test at the company’s testing facilities in India as well as in Germany. The helmets are designed in such a way that it can be comfortably integrated with communication and night-vision devices.

Head forms the most vulnerable part of the body that is prone to get injured during the combat operation. As per the studies, nearly 26%-28% soldiers die of head injuries. Bullet proof helmets can make a significant difference between life and death during combat operations.

At present, Indian armed forces are using patkas that are worn over outdated infantry helmets. However, it had severe limitations as they are bulky and heavy, weighing over 2.5 kgs. They are capable of protecting only the forehead and back of the head.

9. Odisha to become First State in the Country to Open a Blood Bank for Cattle.

Odisha is set to become the first state in the country to open a blood bank for cattle. The proposal has received the nod from the National Agriculture Development Programme (NADP). It is now awaiting the approval from the state government.

The blood bank for cattle would be set up on the premises of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) at an estimated cost of Rs. 3.25 crore. 60% of the project cost would be funded by the Central government and the rest 40% would be funded by the Odisha state government.

Under this initiative, the blood would be procured voluntarily from the cattle farmers. The blood bank will also have blood transfusion facility for cattle blood. The blood bank will help in preventing cattle deaths during deliveries and other ailments. It would come handy in saving the lives of the domesticated animals.

10. NALSA has launched Web Application for Legal Services to Prisoners.

NALSA has launched a web application for free Legal Services to Prisoners at the conference held at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.

The Conference saw the participation of Member Secretaries and administrative officers of 18 State Legal Services Authorities. The Legal Services Management System has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The State Legal Services Authorities and District Legal Services Authorities will feed into the web application the data for each individual prison inmate in the jails within their jurisdiction. The feeds will have details regarding the representation of prisoners through a counsel in the court.

The software will also help in generating reports showing the total number of inmates, the number of inmates unrepresented, the number of inmates represented by legal services lawyers and the number of inmates represented by private lawyers.

All these information can be generated State wise, District wise and also with respect to each jail. The software is also capable of generating information with regard to prisoners eligible for bail under Section 436-A Cr.P.C.

11. Mizoram: 31st Anniversary of Mizo Peace Accord Celebrated.

The 31st anniversary of the signing of the historic Mizo peace accord on June 30, 1986, was celebrated in Mizoram.

The Mizo Accord was signed by the Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Laldenga, Mizoram Chief Secretary Lalkhama, and Union Home Secretary R D Pradhan. The accord ushered in an era of peace after 20 years of violence and disturbance that hampered Mizoram.

On pre-condition of statehood to Mizoram, the Mizo Accord was signed. The MNF fighters surrendered en masse and government fulfilled its promise by giving full-fledged state status to Mizoram, along with its own High Court. Mizo was notified as an official Indian language. A university was proposed.

Mizo religious and social customs were promised Constitutional protection. As per the accord, the MNF agreed to forgo all contacts with other insurgent groups in the Northeast. Mizo Accord is considered to be the most successful agreement with insurgents.

The peace established under the accord has been sustained in Mizoram for over 30 years. This is an achievement when the situation in parts of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam still remains turbulent and unsettled.

12. Chief Minister launches MSME corporation.

In a bid to encourage the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday launched the logo of the Andhra Pradesh MSME Development Corporation. The corporation, with a corpus of Rs. 100 crore, would help the MSME entrepreneurs in marketing, branding, skill development and quality improvement of products.

Showering many sops on the sector, Mr. Naidu assured the MSME entrepreneurs that there would not be any upward revision of power tariff for MSMEs. In fact, if required, the government would reduce the power tariffs, he said amidst a big round of applause at the MSME day celebrations here.

The Chief Minster said the government had plans to construct a MSME Bhavan at Amaravati in 15 acres. The bhavan would be the centre for the development of the MSMEs. A Research and Development (R&D) wing, training centre, advanced and latest technologies across the globe would be provided there, he said.

The government introduced a single window clearance policy with a view to boosting industry in the State.

It was necessary to fine- tune it further. The government was toying with the idea of introducing random and combined inspections to simplify clearances procedures. Except statutory clearances such as pollution, all other clearances would be given in real time. To hasten and streamline the process, the government intended to set up District Investment Promotion Council in each district, he said.

Person Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. IDFC appoints Sunil Kakar as MD & CEO for 3 years.

IDFC Ltd today announced the appointment of Sunil Kakar as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company with effect from July 16 for three years.

Kakar has also been appointed as additional director. Both the appointments are subject to shareholders’ approval at the annual general meeting (AGM).

Besides, the company announced that the board has approved the resignation of veteran banker Vikram Limaye from the post of MD and CEO who is set to join leading stock exchange NSE as its new Managing Director and CEO.

The board of directors has approved appointment of Sunil Kakar as the Managing Director and CEO of the company for 3 years with effect from July 16, 2017, IDFC Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

It further said the board has accepted the resignation of Vikram Limaye as Managing Director and CEO of the company with effect from July 15.

Kakar had joined IDFC as the Group Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for finance and accounts, business planning and budgeting and investor relations, among others.

Prior to joining IDFC, he had worked with Max New York Life Insurance Company since 2001 as CFO. He has also worked with Bank of America for 18 years in various roles.

2. Venkaiah Naidu launches book titled ‘The Emergency-Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu today said emergency is a bad part of Indian history and there is a need for systematic documentation of the emergency to make younger generation aware of its ill effects on our country.

Naidu said this after launching a book titled ‘The Emergency-Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour’ written by A. Surya Prakash, chairman Prasar Bharati Board.

The book launch was organised as part of the day-long convention organized to mark the anniversary of the Emergency by Megh Nirghosh Media today in Ahmedabad.

Naidu further said that freedom of speech and expression ensured in our Constitution comes with responsibility.

He said the real essence of democracy lies in people’s participation.

Shri Naidu stressed that it was Gujarat from where the Navnirman Movement to dislodge the then corrupt and ineffective government began the half years before emergency. The Minister talked about the failure of media and the judiciary to stand up against emergency.

He highlighted the role of Sarvodaya, Rashtriy Swayam Sevak Sangh in restoring the democracy in the country. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, senior BJP leader Subramanian swamy were also present on the occasion.

3. Romania: Mihai Tudose named as Prime-Minister Designate.

In Romania, President Klaus Iohannis has appointed outgoing economy minister Mihai Tudose as Prime Minister and thus paved the way for the formation of a new leftist Social-Democrat-led government in that country.

According to the President of Romania, the decision has been taken keeping in mind the political crisis that risked damaging the country’s record economic recovery.

The ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) was ousted from the power following an internal power struggle. PSD filed a no-confidence motion against ex-Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu for causing delays in implementing reforms.

Grindeanu has been ousted from power barely six months after PSD swept back to victory in elections. The Prime Minister-designate Mihai Tudose will have 10 days to gain the vote of confidence.

4. Srinivas Gokulnath becomes First Indian to Solo finish Race Across America.

Nashik’s army doctor Srinivas Gokulnath and Nagpur’s doctor Amit Samarth has created history by becoming the first Indians to complete the 4,900-km Race Across America (RAAM) in the solo 18-59 age category.

While Srinivas Gokulnath finished the distance of 4941kms in 11 days and 18 hours, Samarth took 11 days and 21 hours to finish the race. Among the 9 persons who managed to finish the race, Gokulnath stood 7th while Samarth finished at number 8.

The race was won by Christoph Strasser. Srinivas Gokulnath is an aerospace medicine specialist and had participated in the 2016 edition of RAAM. However, he withdrew from the event after covering 2447 km. Gokulnath also has a national record for cycling 4,000km from Leh to Kanyakumari in 16 days in 2014.

His feat got into the Limca Book of Records. Dr Amit Samarth is also a doctor and has a Master’s Degree in Public Health. In the three decades old history of RAAM, only three Indians had attempted RAAM solo but so far no one was able to finish the event in the solo category.

5.Kaushik Basu takes over as President of IEA.

Kaushik Basu has taken over as president of the International Economic Association (IEA). Basu will serve a three-year term as the President. Kaushik Basu has served as India’s chief economic adviser from 2009 to 2012.

He has also served as senior vice-president and chief economist at the World Bank from 2012 to 2016. At present, Basu is the C. Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University.

The International Economic Association (IEA) is one of the key organisations of professional economists and has been significant in determining global economic policy and research. Amongst the past presidents of IEA were the Nobel Laureates Robert Solow, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.

IEA produces a large number of research papers and books and organises roundtables on topics of present-day interest. Its principal activities include International Congress organised every 3 years. The occasion serves as one of the major assemblies of economists from around the world.

6. Dr. Manoj Soni takes Oath as UPSC Member.

Dr Manoj Soni has taken Oath of Office and Secrecy as a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The Oath was administered to him by the UPSC Chairman Prof. David R. Syiemlieh. Born on 17th February 1965, Dr Manoj Soni was a former Vice-Chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University.

He became the youngest-ever Vice Chancellor in independent (India). Manoj Soni is a scholar of Political Science with specialisation in International Relation Studies. He has earned his doctorate in “Post-Cold War International Systemic Transition and Indo-US Relations” from Sardar Patel University.

He has received several awards and recognitions such as “Honorary Mayor-President of the City of Baton Rouge” from Mayor-President of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA and World Education Congress Global Award for Distance Learning Leadership.

UPSC is a constitutional body that conducts the prestigious civil services examination. It has been established under Article 315 of the Constitution and consists of a Chairman and ten Members, who are appointed and removed by President.

The chairman and members of the Commission hold office for a term of six years or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. Article 316 of the Constitution deals with the appointment and term of office of members.

7. PM Modi inaugurates Centenary Celebrations of Sabarmati Ashram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the centenary celebrations of Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. The Prime Minister has also released the coin and postal stamp in the honour of Shrimad Rajchandraji on his 150th birth anniversary at Abhay Ghat. Shrimad Rajchandraji was the guru to Mahatma Gandhi

Sabarmati Ashram otherwise called as Gandhi Ashram, Harijan Ashram, or Satyagraha Ashram is located on the banks of the River Sabarmati. Sabarmati Ashram served as one of the residences of Mahatma Gandhi for twelve long years. The ashram has been declared as a national monument by the Indian government. Gandhiji started the Dandi march also called as Salt Satyagraha from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930.

Shrimad Rajchandra is a Jain poet, philosopher, scholar and reformer born in the year 1867 in Vavania near Morbi. His mother was a Jain and father a Vaishnava Hindu. He was the spiritual guide to Mahatma Gandhi. He is known for his teachings on Jainism. He has written a large number of letters and commentaries and also translated some religious texts. He got into fame by performing Avdhan, a memory retention and recollection test which gained him popularity.

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8. Indian-American appointed as US Ambassador to Peru.

U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed an Indian-American named Krishna R Urs as the new US Ambassador to Peru.

Krishna R Urs is a career service American diplomat who has served at seven US embassies as well in several senior leadership positions in Washington, DC. At present, he is serving as Charge d’ Affaires of the US Embassy in Madrid, Spain.

Earlier, he has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs and Chief US Government Aviation Negotiator at the Department of State (2010 to 2014) Krishna R Urs has specialisation in economic issues and has extensive policy experience in the Andean region of South America.

He had earned his MS from the University of Texas and a BS from Georgetown University.

9. Prime Minister inaugurates Textiles India 2017.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Textiles India 2017, India’s first ever mega textiles trade fair at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The three-day fair will showcase the nation as a global sourcing hub and investment destination for manufacturers world-wide.

The fair has been organised by Union Ministry of Textiles.
It aims to explore opportunities and strengths of textiles and apparel manufacturing in India for global investors, and forge collaboration with global players in the textiles segment.
The event will have G2G, B2B and B2G meetings with 2,500 international buyers, 1000+ international and domestic exhibitors and 15,000 domestic visitors.
Besides, country sessions, state sessions, round tables and sectorial seminars will be also held, many of which will be chaired by Union Ministers. Fashion shows and thematic shows will also be held.

10. R K Pachnanda takes charge as Director General ITBP.

Senior IPS officer R K Pachnanda took charge as the new Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). He will be the 29th Chief of the ITBP.

With this appointment, Pachnanda became the only IPS officer who has served in all the major central paramilitary forces and agencies – CRPF, CISF, BSF, NDRF, SPG, CBI and now the ITBP.

Pachnanda is a 1983 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the West Bengal cadre. Prior to the appointment as DG ITBP, he has served in various capacities as Commissioner of Police, Kolkata and DG NDRF.

He has been decorated with Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service (1999) and President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service (2007). He has also authored the book ‘Terrorism and Response to Terrorist Threat’ in 2001.

11. KK Venugopal appointed as Attorney General of India.

President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed senior advocate and constitutional expert K K Venugopal (86) as the new Attorney General of India. He will be 15th Attorney General of India.

He succeeds Mukul Rohatgi as the country’s top law officer. Earlier, in the Morarji Desai’ government (1977-79), Venugopal had served as Additional Solicitor General of India

In his 50-year legal career, he had handled many high profile cases such as Mandal case, Ayodhya dispute, Presidential reference regarding appointment of Judges and also case involving judicial appointments.
He assisted the Supreme Court in a number of cases and was amicus curiae in the infamous 2G spectrum case. He also had represented senior BJP leader L K Advani in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Awards and Honours: He is the recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.

12. Shamma Jain appointed Indian envoy to Greece.

Senior diplomat Shamma Jain was today appointed as India`s ambassador to Greece.

A 1983-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Jain is currently serving as Indian envoy to Panama.

"She is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the External Affairs Ministry said.

Jain succeeds M Manimekalai as Indian envoy in Greece.

She had earlier served as ambassador to Cote d`Ivoire.

She has also served in Indian missions in Italy, the Philippines, Washington DC, Turkey and Argentina.

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Awards Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. Manushi Chhillar Wins Femina Miss India World 2017 Title.

Manushi Chillar has won the title of Femina Miss India 2017 at the grand finale ceremony of the event in Mumbai on Sunday. Manushi Chillar belongs to Haryana and did her schooling from Delhi and graduation from a college in Sonipat.

Manushi Chillar won the crown of Femina Miss India 2017 by beating 29 other contestants from different states of India. It was for the first time that all contestants wore an Indian dress during a round at the final ceremony of the much talked about beauty pageant.

There were a total of 30 participants who participated for the crown of Femina Miss India 2017. Participants were from all states of India.

Mentors were: Neha Dhupia, Dipannita Sharma, Waluscha De Sousa and Parvathy Omanakuttan.

The final round at Femina Miss World 2017 was judged by Bollywood stars like Arjun Rampal and Bipasha Basu. Fashion designer Manish Malhotra, Vidyut Jammwal, Abhishek Kapoor, Ileana D’Cruz, also had a role to play. Stephanie Del Valle, winner of Femina Miss India 2016 was also among the judges who choose Manushi Chhillar from Haryana as the winner of Femina Miss India 2017.

Femina Miss India 2017 Winners:

The crown of Miss India World has been bagged by Miss Haryana – Manushi Chillar.
First runner up = Miss J&K – Sana Dua.
Second runner up = Miss Bihar – Priyanka Kumari.

2. Doon girl Bhumika Sharma wins Miss World title in bodybuilding championship.

Dehradun’s Bhumika Sharma gained maximum points in three categories – individual posing, body posing and fall in that eventually bagged her the Miss World title and the gold medal at the world championship in Venice last week.

“The Indian squad had 27 members. I was the lone woman bodybuilder. I gained enough points in all the three rounds and made the country proud,” Bhumika told HT’s sister publication Hindi Hindustan.

The championship drew 50 competitors from different countries.

But bodybuilding wasn’t her original choice. Her parents - Hansa Manral Sharma the head coach of the India women’s weightlifting team and Vishwavijay Sharma, a businessman - wanted her to become a shooter but fate had something else in store for her.

During a shooting event in New Delhi three years ago, a chance meeting with a bodybuilding coach changed the life of the 21-year-old.

She left shooting, opted for bodybuilding and began to win medals regularly.

As an only child it was not easy for Bhumika to convince parents to let her go for bodybuilding. After initial reluctance, her parents finally gave her the nod to continue her passion. Her mother keeps a tab on her schedule and shares tips from time to time. And her coach, Bhupendra Sharma ensures she remains impressive.

She follows a punishing schedule at the gym for up to seven hours a day. Bhumika has now set her sights on the Miss Universe title for bodybuilding. Bhumika is the only woman bodybuilder from Uttarakhand who has made mark in the national /international arena.

“I am preparing hard for Miss Universe Championship to be held in December this year” she told the newspaper.

Organised by National Amateur Body-Builders’ Association (NABBA) of United Kingdom, bodybuilders from 60 countries will participate for the Miss and Mr Universe titles.

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3. Ankit Kawatra bags Queen’s Young Leaders Award for 2017.

Anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra has been awarded the Queen’s Young Leaders Award for 2017 by Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony in the Buckingham Palace.

The Queen’s Young Leaders Award recognises exceptional work towards solving hunger and malnutrition in India. Ankit Kawatra is the founder of Feeding India, an organisation which works towards eradicating hunger and food wastage in India.

The organisation which was established in 2014 functions across 43 Indian cities with the help of 4,500 volunteers serving 8 million meals to the needy.

Economy Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. RBI: Fiscal Deficit of States Soars to Rs 4.93 trillion in FY16.

According to ‘Handbook of Statistics on States 2016-17‘, the gross fiscal deficits of all the states have soared to Rs 4,93,360 crore in fiscal 2016 from Rs 18,790 crore in FY1991. This is the second edition of RBI’s statistical publication.

Key Points:

‘Handbook of Statistics on States 2016-17 follows a ‘one-indicator-one table’ approach. It covers all sub-national statistics on socio- demographics, state domestic product, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, banking and other fiscal indicators across the states during the period 1950-51 to 2016-17.

The handbook also provides data on the state-wise availability of power, per capita availability of power, installed capacity of power, and power requirement, the length of national highways, roads and state highways, and railheads. Uttar Pradesh had a fiscal deficit of Rs 3,070 crore in FY91, which has soared to Rs 64,320 crore in FY16.

It is projected to improve to Rs 49,960 crore in FY17. Rajasthan had a fiscal deficit of Rs 540 crore in FY91, which has soared to Rs 67,350 crore in FY16. However, the gross fiscal deficit is projected to decline to Rs 40,530 crore in FY17.

Maharashtra has a fiscal deficit of Rs 37,950 crore in FY16 which is projected to soar to Rs 35,030 crore in FY17. Gujarat which has seen rapid industrialisation in the period of data analysis has got its fiscal deficit increased from Rs 1,800 crore in FY91 to Rs 22,170 crore in FY16 and the deficit is projected to further deteriorate in FY17 to Rs 24,610 crore.

In fact from FY01, Gujarat has not shown improvement in its macro numbers even for a single year. Andhra Pradesh has a deficit of Rs 17,000 crore in FY16 which is set to increase to Rs 20,500 crore in FY17.

Tamil Nadu is also projected to have a higher deficit at Rs 40,530 crore in FY17. Karnataka is also estimated to post higher deficit in FY17 at Rs 25,660 crore. Bihar which has a fiscal deficit of Rs 28,510 crore in FY16 is slated to improve its finances with the fiscal deficit of Rs 16,010 crore in FY17. Similarly, West Bengal is also slated to improve its fiscal deficit to Rs 19,360 crore in FY17 .

2. World Bank clears $250-million loan for Skill India Mission.

The World Bank has cleared a USD 250-million loan to aid the Skill India mission. The loan amount would be used for making Indian youth more employable through reskilling.

The USD 250 million Skill India Mission Operation (SIMO) is set to increase the market relevance of short-term skill development programmes (3-12 months or up to 600 hours) both at the national and state levels. It will help the government of India to better equip the young workforce with employable skills. SIMO will be a six- year programme in support of National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017-23).

Under the programme, persons in the age group of 15-59 will acquire skill training irrespective of their employment status. This will benefit 1.2 crore youngsters in the age bracket of 15 and 29 years who are entering the labour market every year.

The programme is expected to benefit approximately 15,000 trainers and 3,000 assessors. The programme has also a mandate to offer placement and entrepreneurship opportunities to women and increase their exposure to skill training.

As per the official estimates, India is in need of additional 109 million skilled workers to work in 24 key sectors by 2022. SIMO will support the government’s vision of increasing women’s participation in the labour force and increase greater off-farm employment. Higher skilled labour force will have an improved employment opportunity to raise their earnings.

3. The World’s Top Airline Stock Is India’s SpiceJet With 124% Gain.

Two and a half years after SpiceJet Ltd. was forced to ground its entire fleet on its inability to pay a mere $2.2 million in fuel bills, the budget airline has become the world’s best-performing airline stock — with $26 billion in plane orders to boot.

The company’s co-founder and Chairman Ajay Singh has played the white knight, injecting capital, cutting loss-making routes and aggressively adding capacity in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. To top it all off, crude prices are staying low.

For investors, that’s been a winning formula: SpiceJet shares are the best performers on a Bloomberg Intelligence index of airline stocks this year. The stock is up 124 percent in 2017 and has gained more than 800 percent since the company’s near-demise in December 2014, giving SpiceJet a market value of $1.2 billion.

The outlook for aviation stocks looks good “as long as oil prices are under control,” said Mahesh Patil, co-chief investment officer of Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co., which has $30 billion in assets. Birla held a stake of about 1.2 percent in SpiceJet as of May 31, according to Bloomberg data.

4. Government issues Notification for roll out of GST.

The government has notified the roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1st.

To launch GST in the midnight of June 30th, the government has organised a special programme to be held in Central Hall of Parliament. The event will see the participation of President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other Ministers and bureaucrats.

As per the last year’s Constitutional amendment approved by Parliament, the government has been given time only till 15th of September, 2017.

Within that time period, the government has to replace the existing indirect tax structure by the GST, failing which may trigger a constitutional crisis as no tax can be levied on goods and services.

So, the government has ruled out the possibility of deferring the roll out of GST by any further time period. GST which will subsume a host of indirect levies like excise, service tax and VAT will be one of the nation’s biggest economic reform.

5. India offers $100,000 to UN Tax Fund.

India has contributed $ 100,000 to the UN Trust Fund for International Cooperation in Tax Matters (the UN Tax Fund). The fund is aimed at helping the developing countries to actively participate in the discussion of tax issues.

This was announced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Office for Financing, Development Office. India has also earned the distinction of becoming the first country to make a voluntary contribution to the UN tax fund.

The objective of UN Tax Trust Fund is to support the work of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (the UN Tax Committee). The funding will be used for supporting the participation of the developing countries’ in the sub-committee meetings of the UN Tax Committee, which are currently unfunded.

The UN and the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters have been calling for the voluntary contributions for the tax fund since its establishment in 2006. The call for the contribution to the tax fund was also made at the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which was adopted at the third International Conference on Financing for Development in 2015.

India has become the first country to respond to this call. India has expressed its hope that other countries will also make similar contributions to the UN fund in near future. The UN expects that the funding will support more developing countries to draw upon the best practice of other bodies, ensuring effective and efficient global tax cooperation norms and rules for all countries and all stakeholders.

6. ADB commits USD 10 billion to support development of States in India.

The Asian Development Bank has committed USD 10 billion to support infrastructure building and to cater to the immediate development needs of less-developed States in India. This has been stated by ADB President Takehiko Nakao during his 3-day visit to India.

The ADB president has said that the bank is ready to meet immediate critical infrastructure needs of less developed states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh over a period of five years.

ADB has also assured its support to relatively lesser developed states in the area of power, transport, urban development, and health services.

ADB’s President has also in-principle accepted India’s suggestion of setting up a regional hub in New Delhi to cater to the needs of the South Asia region. As per the estimates of ADB, India is expected to grow by 7.4% in the current financial year and 7.6% in 2018-19.

7. Money Parked by Indians in Swiss banks hit record low.

According to the data released by Zurich-based SNB, money parked by Indians in Swiss banks have nearly halved to 676 Swiss francs (about Rs. 4,500 crore) in 2016. The data release comes ahead of a new framework for the automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and India to check the menace of black money. SNB (Swiss National Bank) is Switzerland’s central banking authority

During 2016, the total money held by Indians fell by 45 % to stand at CHF 675.75 million. This is the biggest ever yearly decline in such funds. Out of the total funds, CHF 377 million was in the form of customer deposits, about CHF 98 million owed to Indians through other banks and CHF 190 million constitutes other ‘liabilities’.

The funds reported in 2016 is the lowest amount of funds possessed by Indians in the Swiss banks ever since 1987 and marks the third straight year of decline. Apart from this year, since 1987, the earlier lowest ever figure was recorded in 1995 at CHF 723 million.

On the other hand, the funds held through fiduciaries was nearly $11 million. These funds which used to be in billions till 2007 has been falling since then due to the regulatory crackdown. Similarly, the funds held by Indians with Swiss banks was CHF 6.5 billion (Rs 23,000 crore) at 2006-end. But at present, the funds have come down to nearly one-tenth of that level. Except in 2011 and 2013, the quantum of funds held by Indians has seen a decline. Swiss banks have said that Indians have parked their money in other global financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong after a global clampdown was initiated on the mighty banking secrecy practices in Switzerland.

8. Eight core sectors growth slips to 3.6% in May 2017.

The growth of eight core sectors slowed to 3.6% in May 2017 due to fall in output of coal and fertilisers. It was 5.2% in May 2016. In April 2017, these eight sectors had recorded a growth rate of 2.8%. Core industry can be defined as the main industry. In most countries, there is a particular industry that seems to be the backbone of all other industries and it qualifies to be the core industry. In India, there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. The electricity has the maximum weight of 10.32% followed by Steel (6.68%), Petroleum Refinery (5.94%), Crude Oil production (5.22 %), Coal production (4.38 %), Cement (2.41%), Natural Gas production (1.71 %) and Fertilizer production (1.25%). These eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which measures factory output.

In May 2017, Coal and fertiliser productions recorded negative growth of 3.3% and 6.5%, respectively. Steel sector growth dipped to 3.7% as against 13.4% in May 2016.
Slow growth in these key sectors may also have implications on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) number as these segments account for about 41% to the total factory output.
However, growth in refinery products and electricity output grew by 5.4% and 6.4% in May 2017 as against 3.3% and 6.2%, respectively in the same period last year.
Natural gas production too grew by 4.5% in May 2017 as against a negative growth rate of 6.5% a year earlier.

International Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. India and Portugal Sign 11 Pacts.

India and Portugal have signed 11 pacts after in-depth talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies.

This is the first-ever bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal. India thanked Portugal for its support for India’s permanent membership of UNSC, and of Multilateral Export Control Regime.

India and Portugal have agreed to set up a joint Science and Technology fund of four million euros. The two countries also signed MoUs for the creation of an India Portugal Space Alliance for advancing collaborative research. This agreement is expected to promote India’s science and technology partnership with Portugal and to set up Atlantic International Research Centre on the Azores Archipelago. This Centre will act as a research, innovation and knowledge hub for tratrans-Atlantic and north-south cooperation. The objective behind the Centre is to provide a shared environment for supporting new climate, earth, space and marine research.

Remainig Agreements

The other agreements cover cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nano technology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education and scientific research, and Portugal-India business hub and Indian Chamber of Commerce. They are:

Protocol amending the Double Taxation Aviodance Agreement
MoU on Nano Technology
MoU on Public Administration & Governance Reforms
MoU on Cultural Cooperation
MoU on Youth & Sports
MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & Indian Chamber of Commerce
MoU on Cooperation in the fields of Higher Education and Scientific Research
MoU on Biotechnology
MoU on Collaborative Research
MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & AICEP

2. International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking falls on June 26 each year to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society. This day is supported by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world.

3. World Taekwondo Federation changes name over `negative connotations`.

The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) has changed its name to World Taekwondo because of the "negative connotations" associated with its initials.

The organisation had used the previous name since it was established in 1973.

However, it felt in the "digital age" the slang of the old abbreviation was "unrelated to our organisation and so it was important that we rebranded to better engage with our fans".

The change was made before the start of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships.

The event is taking place in Muju, South Korea.

"World Taekwondo is distinctive and simple to understand and reinforces the global nature of our sport," said World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won.

"Our vision is taekwondo for all and as World Taekwondo we are confident we can build on our success to date and achieve that vision."

4. Key Takeaways from Prime Minister Modi’s US Visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first foreign leader to have a White House dinner after the US President Donald Trump assumed power.

Pakistan:

India and the US have asked Pakistan to make sure that its soil is not used for cross-border terror strikes. Both the countries have asked Pakistan to expeditiously bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai and Pathankot attackers to justice.

Drones:

The US has cleared the sale of Guadian Unmanned Aerial Systems to India. The drones would help India to keep a closer watch over the strategically important Indian Ocean.

Hizbul chief:

The US has designated Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist. The 71-year-old Salahuddin also leads the United Jihad Council, which is an umbrella organisation of militant groups operating in Kashmir.

Trade Barriers:

Donald Trump has asked India to maintain a fair and reciprocal trade relationship and has called for the removal of barriers for the export of US goods into Indian markets.

GST:

Donald Trump has given a thumbs up to India’s GST that will come into effect on July 1.

Naval Exercise:

Donald Trump has said that India and the US would join Japan to conduct the largest maritime war game ever conducted in the Indian Ocean.

Afghanistan :

India and the US have expressed concern over the rising instability in Afghanistan and vowed to strengthen cooperation for establishing peace in the war-torn country.

North Korea:

Trump and Modi have labelled the missile programs of North Korea as a grave threat to global peace.

Areas of Cooperation:

Prime Minister Modi has named trade, commerce and investment as key areas of mutual co-operation. In addition, he also said that India is actively looking at technology, innovation and knowledge economy.

5. EU slaps Google with 2.42 billion euros Fine.

The European Union’s competition watchdog has fined Google a record 2.42 billion euro for breaching the anti-trust rules by illegally favouring its shopping service. The European Commission regulates EU competition rules.

According to the European regulators, Google has abused its market dominance by offering an illegal advantage to its another product, its comparison shopping service. The fine of 2.42 billion euro is the biggest fine for a single company in an EU antitrust case.

It exceeds the 1.06-billion-euros slapped on Intel in 2009. EU’s action has come after a 7 year-long investigation from the complaints received from Google’s rivals such like Yelp, TripAdvisor, UK price comparison site Foundem, News Corp and lobbying group FairSearch.

The EU has asked Google to stop its anti-competitive practice in 90 days or be prepared to face penalty payments up to 5% of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover.

6. World’s First ATM celebrates its 50th Birthday.

The world’s first ATM (automated teller machine) celebrates its 50th anniversary. In the past five decades, ATM machines have heralded a transformation in the way people obtained and used cash.

The ATM machines were the brainchild of Scottish inventor Shepherd-Barron. The first ATM was opened on June 27, 1967, by Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London. English actor Reg Varney became the first person to withdraw cash from the first ATM machine.

At present, there are over 3 million cash machines across the globe. Around 70,000 cash machines are present in the UK alone. The World’s most northerly ATM machine is present at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway.

The most Southerly ATM is situated at the McMurdo station of the South Pole. To commemorate the 50th anniversary, Barclays Bank has transformed the first ATM that it commissioned at its Enfield branch into gold.

7. India and Netherlands sign 3 Agreements.

India and the Netherlands have signed three MOUs after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte in Hague the Netherlands. Prime Minister’s visit to the Netherlands has come at a time when both the countries are celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations.

The Netherlands has backed India’s entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and other multilateral export control regimes. The Netherlands also supported India’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat. For its part, India has thanked the Netherlands for its role in India’s accession to the Missile Technology Control Regime in June 2016. Also, Prime Minister Modi invited the Netherlands to join the International Solar Alliance. In addition, both the countries have reaffirmed their commitment towards Paris climate deal.

Agreements:

In total three agreements were signed:
MOU on Cultural Cooperation
MOU on Water Cooperation
Agreement on Amending Social Security Arrangement

8. China has launched its Biggest Naval Destroyer.

China has launched its most powerful naval destroyer, the Type 055, at the Shanghai port. The naval destroyer is one among the largest warships in the world.

The Type055 vessels will weigh more than 12,000 tonnes when fully armed. The Type055 vessels are larger and more powerful than India’s latest Project- 15B “Visakhapatnam” class destroyers. India is yet to commission Project- 15B “Visakhapatnam” class destroyers.

India’s destroyers when fully armed will displace only 8,200 tonnes and are capable of carrying only a mix of nearly 50 surface-to-air, anti-ship and land attack missiles. On the other hand, the Type055 vessels will combine nearly 120 missiles, making it one of the most heavily-armed ships in the world.

Chinese vessels are fitted with powerful phased array radars that are capable of focusing on targets at sea, on land and in the air. The vessel is more modern and has more sophisticated control and battle management system. Chinese vessels are fitted with powerful phased array radars that are capable of focusing on targets at sea, on land and in the air. The vessel is more modern and has more sophisticated control and battle management system than India’s vessels under construction. In the last five years, China has launched several naval vessels.

From March 2014, China has commissioned five Type 52D destroyers which have similar capability to that of India’s Visakhapatnam’ class warships. In addition, China has planned to build a fleet of at least 18 such naval ships. India, on the other hand, has planned to build only seven ships belonging to the Vishakhapatnam class.

Earlier this year, China had also launched its first indigenous aircraft carrier whose construction began only in 2013. India’s indigenous aircraft carrier, the Vikrant whose construction is carried out since 2009 is unlikely to be completed before 2023.

Growing Chinese naval prowess is a cause of worry to India. In the last five years, China has increasingly begun to deploy its nuclear submarines, warships and other support vessels in the Indian Ocean. India’s important maritime ally, the United States has also expressed its deep concerns about the expansion of the Chinese Navy, particularly in the Indian Ocean.

9. Petya Ransomware is part of a new wave of cyber-attacks and has infected computer servers across the world.

India :

In India, the ransomware has crippled the operations at one of the terminals of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. The affected terminal was being operated by AP Moller-Maersk. The company operates the Gateway Terminals India (GTI) which has a capacity to handle 1.8 million standard container units. The attack has impacted the external trade by affecting the systems dealing with the cargo and ships at the country’s largest port.

World :

The Petya ransomware has hit computer servers all across Europe. Ukraine and Russia are the worst affected countries. The ransomware has also impacted some companies in the US and other Western European countries. In the severely affected Ukraine, government offices, energy companies, banks, cash machines, gas stations, and supermarkets, Ukrainian Railways, Ukrtelecom, and the Chernobyl power plant has been worst affected.

10. US issues New Visa Criteria for Six Muslim Countries.

The US has issued new criteria for visa applicants from six Muslim countries. The US Supreme Court has partially restored President Trump’s executive order that banned travel of people from the six Muslim-majority countries. President’s executive order was widely criticised as a ban on Muslims.

As per the new criteria, applicants from the six Muslim-majority countries must prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling in the US.

In short, the applicants must prove a “close” family or business tie to the United States. As per the new guidelines, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancées or other extended family members will not be considered as close relations by the US State Department.

However, the applicants can be exempted from the ban if they can prove a “bona fide relationship” with a US person or entity.

The Supreme Court has given only a broad guidelines on such relationships and has suggested that such bonafide relationships would include a relative, job offer or invitation to lecture in the US. The Government lawyers must determine how to define such a relationship. The new guidelines are expected to come into force immediately.

11. UNESCO names Sharjah as World Book Capital.

UNESCO has named Sharjah as the World Book Capital for 2019. Sharjah was chosen for its efforts to make books accessible to its entire population.

Sharjah was selected to underline the efforts taken by it to make books accessible for reading to as many people as possible, especially the marginalised populations. It has followed an innovative and inclusive community-focused activity programme to engage people, in particular, the very large migrant population.

Sharjah is the 19th city to be named as World Book Capital by the UNESCO. The earlier cities which were named as World Book Capital are: Madrid (2001), Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogota (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012), Bangkok (2013), Port Harcourt (2014), Incheon (2015), Wroclaw (2016), Conakry (2017) and Athens (2018).

Sharjah has become the first among the Gulf Cooperation Council and third in the Arab world and the Middle East to receive this prestigious recognition. The GCC countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Earlier, it has received various accolades like Capital of Arab Culture (1998), Capital of Islamic Culture (2014), and Capital of Arab Tourism (2015) etc.

12. US to sell C-17 Globemaster Transport Aircraft to India.

US has decided to sell one C-17 transport aircraft to India. US and India have built a close defence relationship in recent years. The US along with Russia and Israel has emerged as a top three arms supplier to India.

The sale of USD 366.2 million C-17 transport aircraft manufactured by Boeing also includes one Missile Warning System, one Countermeasures Dispensing System, one Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Transponder and precision navigation equipment. This proposed sale is expected to improve the capability of India to meet current and future strategic airlift requirements as the country lies in a region prone to natural disasters. It will also provide additional capability for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. In addition, India will be able to provide more rapid strategic combat airlift capabilities for its armed forces.

The proposed sale is expected to improve the capability of India to meet current and future strategic airlift requirements as the country lies in a region prone to natural disasters. It will also provide additional capability for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. In addition, India will be able to provide more rapid strategic combat airlift capabilities for its armed forces.

At Present, India is using C-17 aircraft and according to Pentagon, the sale of this aircraft will not alter the basic military balance in the region. The Boeing C-17A Globemaster III military airlift aircraft is one of the most flexible cargo aircraft of the US Air Force fleet. The aircraft is capable of strategic delivery of up to 170,900 pounds of personnel and/or equipment to operating locations. In addition, the aircraft is capable of short field landings with a full cargo load.

The Boeing C-17A Globemaster III military airlift aircraft is one of the most flexible cargo aircraft of the US Air Force fleet. The aircraft is capable of strategic delivery of up to 170,900 pounds of personnel and/or equipment to operating locations. In addition, the aircraft is capable of short field landings with a full cargo load. The aircraft will have a fully integrated electronic cockpit and advanced cargo delivery system. It can carry out tactical airlift and airdrop missions as well as transport litters and ambulatory patients.

The aircraft will have a fully integrated electronic cockpit and advanced cargo delivery system. It can carry out tactical airlift and airdrop missions as well as transport litters and ambulatory patients.

13. SIERRA ODC building in Coimbatore receives World’s Second Highest Green Rating.

SIERRA ODC building has been recognised as the world’s second highest ranking Green Building. The building has scored 103 points out of 110 under LEED certification.

The SIERRA ODC is a three-storeyed building which has been constructed by laying specific emphasis on increasing the efficiency of resource use such as energy, water or materials.

The building has managed water use efficiency of 89% by using water saving fixtures and curbing wastage. In the building, water is recycled 100%. The building is a carbon-neutral building.

The building was the first to implement a technology called Amorphous Silicon Thin Building Vortec for the first time in South India. By using this technology, photovoltaic modules produce power at the low cost per watt.

14. British Prime Minister Theresa May wins confidence vote in Parliament.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday won the confidence vote in Parliament on her legislative plans, known as the Queen’s Speech, AFP reported. She won the House of Commons vote with the Democratic Unionist Party’s support for the Conservatives.

This parliamentary vote determines whether a United Kingdom government has the confidence of the House of Commons.

The Tories had failed to reach the 326-mark to win a majority in the June 8 snap elections, which had led to a hung Parliament. May’s minority government had reached a deal with the Northern Ireland’s DUP, which got her the support of 10 of the party’s MPs in vital votes for legislation in the UK House of Commons. This gives her a working majority of 13 parliamentarians.

The majority of the Bills in the Queen’s Speech are related to Britain’s exit from the European Union. The Brexit negotiations began on June 19, with May’s Brexit proposals facing criticism from various quarters.

Sports Current Affairs June 5th Week 2017

1. K Srikanth Wins Australian Open Super series Title.

The world No.11 Kidambi Srikanth has sealed his second successive Super Series win by defeating reigning Olympic champion Chen Long in the Australian Open summit clash in Sydney.

Chen Long is World No.6 and also the current All England champion. Srikanth had lost all of his previous five encounters with Chen Long. Srikanth has also become the fifth player in the world to take part in three successive Super Series finals by reaching the summit clash in Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

Last Week, Srikanth had won the Indonesian Open title. In the last edition of Australian Open tournament, Srikanth was a semi-finalist.

2. Anish Bhanwala set a junior world record at World Championship.

Haryana`s Anish Bhanwala gave a robust start for the Indian challenge by clinching the 25-metre standard pistol gold with a world junior record in the Junior World Shooting Championship in Suhl, Germany.

The 14-year-old Anish shot 579 to win the gold seven points ahead of Florian Peter of Germany. In the process, Anish also bettered the junior world record of 574 set by Denis Koulakov of Russia in Lahti, Finland, in 2002.

Interestingly, Anish has pistol prodigy Jaspal Rana as the national coach of the junior squad, who had made his initial impact on the world stage with the standard pistol gold in Milan, Italy, in 1994.

Jaspal went on to win the Asian Games gold in centre fire pistol the same year in Hiroshima.

3. Ulaanbaatar Cup: Ankush Dahiya wins boxing gold, Devendro Singh bags silver.

The fast-rising Ankush Dahiya (60kg) clinched a gold while the experienced L Devendro Singh (52kg) settled for a silver medal on the final day of the Ulaanbaatar Cup boxing tournament in Mongolia.

The 19-year-old Ankush, who is a former Asian youth silver-medallist, defeated Korean Man Choe Chol in a split verdict, while Devendro lost to Indonesia`s Aldoms Suguro, again a split decision.

India thus signed off with a gold, a silver and three bronze medals from the tournament. K Shyam Kumar (49kg), Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg) and Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg), lost their respective semifinal bouts to settle for bronze medals yesterday.

Devendro, a Commonwealth Games silver-medallist besides a former Asian Championships silver-winner, was the first to step inside the ring for India on Sunday and was his usual aggressive self against Suguro.

The diminutive Manipuri, who is getting back to form after recovering from some niggles, exhausted his rival with a fine display of tempo-boxing, not letting the intensity slip even once.

Denied a clear shot due to Suguro`s shell guard, Devendro did well to connect fine body blows.

However, much to the Indian camp`s disappointment, Devendro`s overall dominance did not find favour with the judges who ruled 3-2 in Suguro`s favour.

However, the disappointment soon made way for celebration when Ankush edged past Man Choe Chol.

The youngster put his long reach and height advantage to good use and landed some lusty straight blows, which swung the contest in his favour.

4. BCCI forms Committee to oversee Lodha Panel Reforms.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has constituted a special seven-member committee to analyse the few contentious Lodha panel reforms which are being opposed by the state units.

The seven-member Lodha committee has been formed under the head of Rajeev Shukla. The other members of the committee include former India captain Sourav Ganguly, T.C. Mathew (Kerala Cricket), Naba Bhattacharjee (North East representative), Jay Shah (Gujarat Cricket Association), BCCI Treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary.

The decision to form the panel was arrived at the BCCI’s Special General Meeting in Mumbai. One of the major reforms of the Lodha Committee which are being opposed by the state units speaks about disqualifying any individual who is more than 70-years-old, and who has already completed nine years in cricket administration.

The BCCI committee has been asked to submit its written report by July 10. BCCI’s move to constitute a committee is widely seen as its attempt to delay the implementations of the reforms suggested by the Lodha Committee.

Justice Lodha committee was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2014 to make recommendations to the BCCI in order to prevent frauds and conflict of interest in cricket administration. The committee was appointed in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in Indian Premier League (IPL). The recommendations of the committee are aimed at resolving issues of governance, transparency, and conflict of interest in BCCI.

5. Wayde Van Niekerk Breaks 300m World Best And Bolt`s Meet Record At Ostrava.

Those were the words of 400m world record holder Van Niekerk ahead of his 300m race at the Golden Spike Meet in Ostrava today, and he certainly followed through on them.

Van Niekerk decimated the field and ran 30.81, a new world best at the distance (the IAAF does not recognize 300m marks as world records). van Niekerk`s mark bettered both Usain Bolt`s meeting record of 30.97 and former 400m world record holder Michael Johnson`s world best of 30.85.

Van Niekerk was already the first ever sprinter to run sub-10 in the 100m, sub-20 in the 200m, and sub-44 in the 400m, and now he can add an impressive sub-31 in the 300m to that résumé.

Though his much-anticipated matchup with Bolt over 200m will likely never happen as Bolt is retiring this year, van Niekerk will be running the 200m and 400m at this summer`s World Championships in London.

6. Roger Federer wins ninth Halle Open title.

Swiss legend Roger Federer has clinched his ninth Halle Open title after beating hapless Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-3 in the final. The top seed Roger Federer showed no mercy with fourth seed Alexander Zverev after wrapping up his ninth title in his 11th Halle final within 53 minutes on Sunday.

From the start Federer piled on the pressure to establish a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, local hero Zverev was unable to gain a foothold into the first set. Thus, the 18-time Grand Slam champion sealed the first set 6-1 with only 22 minutes played.

Zverev grabbed a better start into the second set yet the German was unable to break through Federer`s faultless service despite one break chance in the opening game.

The former World No. 1 continued powerful and made use of break chances in the 6th game to ensure the 4-2 lead in the second set.

Alexander Zverev failed to stop Federer`s momentum as the Swiss sewed up the match on his first match ball to reap his 92nd career title.

"It is a dream to start a final like that and to pull through then. I played great today. Everything worked out really well. "It was by far my best match of the week. Alexander also played a great tournament," Federer said after winning the warm-up tournament for Wimbledon. "It is unbelievable how he plays with 35 years. He does things on the court we will probably never see again in Tennis.

"It is always a joy to play against him, only today it wasn`t. He could have been a little nicer to me," Zverev said. With this result, Federer won, for the first time in his career, one tournament nine times. The match was the quickest final in the history of the Halle Open.

Awards Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute bags PM’s Yoga Award.

PM’s Yoga Award was instituted at the 2nd International Day of Yoga celebrations at Chandigarh by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister had instituted the award for promoting the ancient Indian spiritual discipline. The Ministry of AYUSH framed guidelines for the awards and constituted two committees, namely, screening committee (for preliminary evaluation) and evaluation committee (Jury).

The Institute has been selected from among 85 nominations and 15 more recommended by the Screening Committee. The Award was recommended by an Evaluation Committee (Jury) under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary.

Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute has worked to spread Yoga both domestically and internationally over a period of four decades. It has also published a number of books on yoga which has been translated into multiple languages.

2. Indian agricultural microbiologist Shrihari Chandraghatgi conferred the Ministry of Environment Award for 2017 in Japan.

Indian agricultural microbiologist Shrihari Chandraghatgi has been conferred the Ministry of Environment Award for 2017 in Japan for developing cutting edge technologies to address burning environmental problems.

Chandraghatgi, who is President and CEO of EcoCycle Corporation, is the first foreigner to be given the Ministry of Environment Award, the highest award in environmental sector in Japan, a company release said.

The Ministry of Environment Award is the highest honour given in the environmental sector every year jointly by the Ministry of Environment, Japan, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan and The Nikkan Kogyo Shinbun (a media group).

The award was given away recently by State Minister of Environment, Japan, Seki Yoshihiro, at a ceremony at Kasumegaseki, Tokyo.

Chandraghatgi, hailing from Siddapura in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, has been residing in Tokyo for almost two decades. He has over a dozen patents against his name. These patented technologies have been applied over 400 sites in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India, China and the US, the release said.

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3. West Bengal Honoured with UN Public Service Award.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has received the highest prize in United Nations Public Service Award for the state government’s Kanyashree Prakalpa (Girl Child) scheme in The Hague, Netherlands.

Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme of West Bengal came first among the 552 project nominations received by the UN from 62 countries.

West Bengal has been awarded in the Asia-Pacific group for the category: ‘Reaching the Poorest and Most Vulnerable through Inclusive Services and Participation‘.

4. Nisha Dutt bags Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Nisha Dutt, Chief Executive Officer of Intellecap has become the first Indian woman leader to have been honoured with the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award at The 7th Asian Awards in London.

Nisha Dutt has been honoured in recognition of her work in making Intellecap a globally known enterprise that focuses on social capital. Her key contribution lies in integrating technology with challenges of healthcare, financial services, incubation and conceptualising programs such as Innovations Labs.

The previous winners of the award include Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Asha Bhosle, Zayn Malik etc. In the Social Entrepreneur category, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Masa Kogure and Vikram Patel have been honoured with the award in the past.

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National Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. First Indigenously built Floating Dock Launched by L&T.

After the trials, FDN-2 will be moved to Andaman & Nicobar Islands. There it would be used for repairing assets of the Indian Navy and also of other services.

These floating docks are capable of being installed either along a jetty, moored in calm waters and also moved to high seas enabling round-the-year operation. FDN-2 will be capable of repairing up to 8,000-tonne ships with draught up to 7 metres, including submarine FDN-2 will be capable of simultaneous docking of multiple ships.

In addition, off-center docking options were also feasible. It has hauling-in system to handle a ship’s docking and undocking operations. It can also cater to the ships berthed along its side.

At any point of time, FDN-2 can cater to six ships for repairs or refit. The FDN-2 is a wholly Made in India product. The 468 crore FDN-2 was lowered into the Bay of Bengal by Anjali Deshpande, wife of the Vice-Admiral Controller Warship Production and Acquisition of Indian Navy, DM Deshpande.

Background FDN-2 is the first Naval shipbuilding project for L&T. L&T has been undertaking repairs and refits of Naval and Coast Guard ships. It has delivered six ship refits including the largest Logistics Tanker ship INS Jyoti. L&T has so far invested around Rs 5,000 crore in the Kattupalli Shipyard.

2. Reliance Defence inks Pact with Serbia’s Yugoimport to Manufacture Ammunition in India.

The two companies will work jointly in the field of ammunition amongst others. Both the companies would undertake joint development of next generation ammunition to cater to the needs of the future requirements of the Indian armed forces.

The proposal also involves the transfer of technology by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and indigenous manufacturing in India. Reliance Defence Ammunition will set up a greenfield facility for the production of ammunition.

India at present imports around 50% of its ammunition with an annual spending of more than Rs 10,000 crore.

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3. Railways to launch Operation Swarn to revamp Rajdhani, Shatabdi Trains.

With an aim to enhance travel experience and provide passengers with advanced amenities, Indian Railways premium trains – the Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express are all set to get a face-lift.

After years of service, the two trains are believed to undergo a makeover under the project ‘Operation-Swarn’.

An amount of Rs 50 lakh will be allotted to each Rajdhani and Shatabdi train on various routes for the revamp and two committees will be formed to monitor the work.

Operation Swarn:

An amount of Rs 50 lakh will be allotted to each Rajdhani and Shatabdi train on various routes for the revamp and two committees will be formed to monitor the work.
In the first phase, the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express and Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express have been selected for upgradation.
Work will start on September 26. More trains will be identified in a phased manner.

4. Uttarakhand and Haryana Declared Open Defecation Free States.

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), rural Uttarakhand and rural Haryana have been declared as the 4th and 5th Open Defecation Free (ODF) States of India.

Already, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, have been declared ODF. As per the government sources, nationally the sanitation coverage has increased from 42% to over 64% since the launch of SBM.

Uttarakhand has 13 districts, 95 blocks, 7256 gram panchayats and 15751 villages while Haryana has 21 districts, 124 blocks, and 6083 gram panchayats. All these have been declared as ODF.

With this, the total number of ODF states in the country have increased to 5 covering more than 2 lakh villages and 147 districts across the country.

5. 30 new Smart Cities announced by Venkaiah naidu.

Thirty new cities were added to the Centre`s Smart Cities Mission and total investment of Rs. 57,393 crore was announced by Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday, taking the total number of smart cities to 90.

Marking the second anniversary of the launch of the Smart Cities Mission, Mr. Naidu announced the new cities added to the scheme.

Announced Cities Are :

Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala
Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh
Rajkot in Gujarat
Amravati in Andhra Pradesh
Patna in Bihar
Karimnagar in Telangana
Muzaffarpur in Bihar
Puducherry
Gandhinagar in Gujarat
Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir
Sagar in Madhya Pradesh
Karnal in Haryana
Satna in Madhya Pradesh
Bengaluru in Karnataka
Shimla in Himachal Pradesh
Dehradun in Uttarakhand
Tirupur in Tamil Nadu
Pimpri Chinchwad in Maharashtra
Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh
Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh
Jammu in J&K
Dahod in Gujarat
Tirunelveli
Thootukkudi
Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu
Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh
Aizawl in Mizoram
Allahabad
Aligarh in U.P.
Gangtok in Sikkim.

6. Ayurveda specialist Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha appointed special secretary in Ayush ministry.

Ayurveda physician ‘Vaidya’ Rajesh Kotecha has been appointed as special secretary in Ayush Ministry. Usually a senior bureaucrat is appointed to such a post.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Kotecha’s appointment for three years on a contract basis, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. Vaidya (meaning physician) Kotecha is chief consultant of Chakrapani Ayurveda Clinic, Jaipur.

The appointment is in line with the Centre’s efforts to bring in specialists from the private sector in the government. Last year too, former IAS officer and well known sanitation specialist Parameswaran Iyer was appointed Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Iyer, who had taken voluntary retirement from Indian Administrative Service, was appointed on contract basis for a period two years.

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7. POSOCO-IMD Weather Portal & Web Portal ‘MERIT’ launched.

Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal has launched Weather Portal for Power Sector & Web Portal ‘MERIT’ (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency).

The weather portal has been developed in association with POSOCO and IMD. The portal will have information regarding weather forecast to the state Discoms.

The weather variations have an impact on load demand, energy production, transport and distribution management, as well as on energy prices.

Extreme events associated with weather like heat waves or cold waves, windstorms or floods can have adverse impacts on the production and can inflict physical damage to the infrastructure.

8.NITI Aayog Selects CCMB as Incubation Centre for Biotech Start-ups.

NITI-Aayog has chosen the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for hosting the ?10-crore Atal Incubation Centre for biotechnology start-ups.

The centre will identify promising start-ups and create facilities for them to succeed in the field of biotechnology. The CCMB is one of the 10 organisations that have been identified to host the ‘Atal Incubation Centre’.

The government will release a Grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore for a maximum of 5 years. After that, it is expected that the Centre would become self-sustainable. The CCMB is a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

It is the only one in the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to be chosen as an incubation centre under Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).

9. Government launches VAJRA Scheme.

Department of Science and Technology has launched VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme that enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India.

on 8th January 2017, during the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, Prime Minister had announced that a new scheme called VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme would be launched by the Department of Science and Technology.

10. Power Minister Piyaush Goyal launches portal on weather information.

Shri Piyush Goyal Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal , New & Renewable Energy and Mines launched Weather Portal for Power Sector in association with POSOCO and IMD at the meeting of the Forum of Regulators here today .

Day to day weather variations have an impact on load demand and energy production, transport and distribution management, as well as energy prices. Extreme events such as heat waves or cold waves, wind storms or floods can of course have dramatic consequences on the production means or the electrical grid of a country including physical damage to the infrastructure.

The information available in the Portal regarding weather forecast shall help State Discoms to take pro-active steps regarding short term and medium term management processes and supply planning requirements and also for better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply.

11. Maharastra Government to launch My Plant app to create database on tree plantation.

Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar onFriday announced that a mobile app named ‘My Plant’, which would help in recording data about tree plantations in the state, would be launched on July 1.

Using this app, people and organisations can feed the data about the saplings they have planted with the forest department, which would help it in creating a database of trees.

The forest department has set a target of planting four crore saplings through public participation between July 1 and 7.

Mungantiwar said, “This app makes it possible to upload information of all the tasks given to the government departments in the tree plantation programme, the name of the tree species being planted and the status.”

12. ONGC and UNESCO join hands to get chilaka lake heritage site tag.

Bhubaneswar, June 21 (IANS) A joint team of the ONGC and Unesco has carried out a preliminary survey for the conservation of Chilika Lake to help the country’s largest coastal lagoon secure the world heritage site tag, said an official on Wednesday.

“With the objective to declare Chilika Lake as a Unesco World Heritage Site, both Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will work together,” said Shigeru Aoyagi, Unesco Chief Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

“In order to get world heritage site recognition, it should have outstanding global value in terms of biodiversity and eco-system. The state government has assured us to provide full support to conserve the lake,” he added.

During their visit to the periphery areas of the lake, they interacted with various stakeholders in the village and local officials, where certain focal areas were identified to begin with, so that the efforts could finally lead to the declaration of Chilika Lake as a heritage site.

13. Palbinder Kaur Shergill becomes first turbaned Sikh woman to be appointed as Judge in Canada Supreme Court.

Palbinder Kaur Shergill has become the first turbaned Sikh woman to be appointed as Canad’s Supreme Court judge.

The announcement was made by the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould. The appointment of Shergill as Supreme Court Judge of Canada is considered as a milestone for the Sikh community in Canada.

Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill was born in Rurka Kalan in Jalandhar district. At the age of four, justice Shergill had migrated to Canada.

Justice Shergill has fought various cases and has actively represented the interests of Canadian Sikh community including the right of Sikh students to wear a ‘kirpan’ in schools.

14. Quality of Life: Government launches Index to Rank 116 Cities.

The index named ‘City Liveability Index’ will cover cities with a population above one million, including the capital cities. The index will help cities to analyse where they stand in terms of the quality of life.

It will help them to come up with interventions required to improve it. The index will assess cities based on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters such as availability of roads, education, healthcare, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities etc.

The rankings based on the index would be released in 2018. Soon, the government will select the agency for undertaking the assessment and data collection for the rankings would be completed in the next 6 months.

15. India-Russia Signs Roadmap for Defence Cooperation.

India and Russia have finalized a roadmap to further boost bilateral defence cooperation during the 17th India-Russia intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation held at Moscow.

The meeting was co-chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Shoygu. The agenda for the discussion ranged from joint development of futuristic weapon systems to a major upgrade of military-to-military ties.

India and Russia had signed a protocol that aims to enhance cooperation between both the countries in the field of political and military dialogue, exercises, exchange of visits, military cooperation and training.

16. Union Minister inaugurated commemorative postage stamp released on completion of 50 years of Passport Act.

The Minister for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha launched Passport Seva Project (PSP) in India with its successful implementation in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

To extend passport services to our citizens on a larger scale and to ensure wider area coverage, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Posts (DOP) have agreed to utilize the Head Post Offices in the country as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the citizens of our country.

The Passports Act provides issue of passports and travel documents and regulation of the departure from India of Indian citizens.

Awards Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

1. Israeli Author David Grossman wins Man Booker International Prize.

Israeli author David Grossman has won the Man Booker International Prize for his novel “A Horse Walks Into a Bar“. David Grossman has become the first Israeli author to win the Man Booker International Prize.

He will share the £50,000 ($64,000) award money with his translator Jessica Cohen. David Grossman has also won other international awards. David Grossman’s 1986 novel “See Under: Love” is hailed as a masterpiece of his work which revolved around Holocaust and the generation of Jews that followed.

Other important works of David Grossman includes The Yellow Wind, To the End of the Land. His works have been translated into over 30 languages. He is also a recipient of France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998.

David Grossman is one among the seven noted writers who appealed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to sanction the Syrian government over its actions in 2011.

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Person Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. BJP Declared that Ram Nath Kovind is the presidential candidate.

He first stepped into politics in 1994 when he was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh

Ram Nath Kovind, who has been chosen as the National Democratic Alliance`s presidential nominee, was a lawyer who practised in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court for 16 years.

The Dalit leader first stepped into politics in 1994 when he was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. He served for two consecutive terms for 12 years till March, 2006. He represented India in the United Nations in New York and addressed United Nations General Assembly in October, 2002.

During his parliamentary tenure, Mr. Kovind emphasised on development of basic infrastructure for education in rural areas and helped in the construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand under MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development) Scheme. He has served as a member of several parliamentary committees, including the Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, among others.

Mr. Kovind served as a member of the Board of Management of Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

2. Imran Khawaja Appointed as ICC Deputy Chairman.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Imran Khawaja as its deputy chairman. Imran Khawaja is Chairman of Associates counties and a veteran administrator from Singapore.

Recently, the ICC Full Council had brought a constitutional change approving the creation of the post of deputy chairman. Imran Khawaja was part of a five member ICC working team that framed ICC’s new constitution last year.

Following his election, Khawaja will deputise the ICC meetings in the absence of chairman Shashank Manohar. Imran Khawaja is a senior lawyer and has been serving in the ICC Board for several years. He had also served as a part of influential committees of the ICC.

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Economy Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. GST: Anti-profiteering Panel to be set up.

A five-member anti-profiteering authority will be set up to decide on levying a penalty if businesses do not pass on the benefit of price reduction to consumers under the goods and services tax regime. The authority to be headed by a retired secretary-level officer, can take suo motu action, besides acting on complaints of profiteering.

The GST Council, chaired by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state finance ministers as members, on Sunday approved the anti-profiteering rules. As per the norms, the authority will have a sunset date of two years and will decide on a penalty to be levied. It would ask the businesses to refund the price reduction on a proportionate basis to consumers.Where the consumer cannot be identified, the amount would be credited to the consumer welfare fund, an official said.

A search-cum-selection committee will be set up for finalising the members of the anti-profiteering authority. Officials said it is likely to take about two months to finalise the members.

Besides the chairman, the four other members of the authority will be joint secretary-level officers who have been commissioners in central excise and service tax either at the Centre or states.

As per the structure, the complaints of profiteering would first come to the standing committee comprising tax officials from states and the Centre. It would forward the complaint to the Directorate of Safeguards (DGS) for investigation, which is likely to take about two-three months to complete the inquiry.

On completion of the investigation, the report would be submitted to the anti-profiteering authority which would decide on the penalty. The Section 171 of the Central GST Act provides that any reduction in the rate of tax on any supply of goods or services or the benefit of input tax credit will be passed on to the recipient by way of commensurate reduction in prices.

2.India’s Largest Municipal Bond Programme Launched.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) became the first municipal corporation in the country to tap money through municipal bonds in 14 years. The AA+ rated PMC’s municipal bonds raised Rs 200 crore at 7.59 per cent rate at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

This is the first-ever mobilisation of debt capital by a municipal corporation on the BSE BOND platform. This will also be the first issuance since the publication of ‘Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities Regulations, 2015’ by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The 10-year bonds will be used by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for a Rs 2,300-crore water project. The scheme is aimed at providing water 24×7 for all residents of Pune.

3. CBDT notifies Rule 10CB for secondary adjustments under section 92ce of it act, 1961.

Rule 10CB for operationalising the provisions of secondary adjustment has been notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 15th June, 2017.

It prescribes the time limit for repatriation of excess money and the rate of interest to be applied for computing the income in case of failure to repatriate the excess money within the prescribed time limit.

Separate rates of interest have been provided for international transactions denominated in Indian currency and in foreign currency. The rates of interest are applicable on an annual basis.

The time limit of 90 days for repatriation of excess money shall begin only when the primary adjustments exceeding Rupees One Crore made in respect of Assessment Year 2017-18 or later, attains finality.

Where the transfer pricing order is appealed against by the taxpayer, the time limit for repatriation shall commence only after the appeal is finalised by the appellate authority.

4. Government notifies 18 sections and 2 rules under GST Act.

The government has notified 18 sections and two rules to be effective from 22 June 2017 under the GST Act.

The notified sections are related to registration of current central excise, service tax and VAT payers with the GSTN as well as transitional provisions.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has notified two rules of registration and composition levy.

Every business carrying out a taxable supply of goods or services with a turnover exceeding the threshold limit of Rs.2 million will have to register for GST, as per the notified sections.

5. RBI releases Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2016-17.

The Reserve Bank of India released the second edition of its statistical publication titled “Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2016-17”. Through this publication, the Reserve Bank has been disseminating wide-ranging data on the regional economy of India.

This publication follows the ‘one indicator-one table’ approach and in 129 tables it covers sub-national statistics on socio-demographics, state domestic product, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, banking and fiscal indicators across Indian States over a time period ranging from 1951 to 2016-17.

While the Handbook has been updated based on latest available data, its content has been improved by covering additional tables on infrastructure.

Thus, in addition to the existing data series on State-wise availability of power, per capita availability of power, installed capacity of power, and power requirement, this edition has added data on State-wise length of national highways, railway routes, length of roads, and length of state highways, based on information sourced from the respective authorities namely, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and Ministry of Railways; Government of India.

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International Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. India ratifies UN TIR Convention in a bid to Counter China’s OBOR.

India became the 71st country on Monday to join the United Nations TIR Convention, the international customs transit system, to position itself as a regional trading and transit hub.

The TIR system is the international customs transit system with the widest geographical coverage.

As other customs transit procedures, the TIR procedure enables goods to move under customs control across international borders without the payment of the duties and taxes.

TIR Convention is more than a transport agreement and has a strong foreign policy element.

In a world where China`s `One Belt One Road` (OBOR)+ is the dominating project straddling economics and geopolitics, India has no option but to play a better game if it wants to be counted as a serious rising power.

2. Lockheed and Tata sign Pact to make F-16 Planes in India.

Weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. aircraft major Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) signed an agreement to make the F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft in India to meet the IAF’s single-engine jet requirement.

The IAF is about to initiate the process for selection of a single-engine fighter aircraft to replace the Russian MiGs under the Strategic Partnership model of the Defence Procurement Procedure. The announcement from Paris Air Show, where among those present was Ratan Tata, came ahead of Mr. Modi’s meeting with Trump later this month.

“This agreement builds on the already established joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Tata and underscores the relationship and commitment between the two companies,” said N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons.

The Strategic Partnership model has four segments — submarines, single-engine fighter aircraft, helicopters and armoured carriers/main battle tanks — and specifically intends to open up defence manufacturing to the private sector. The deal for 100- plus fighter aircraft is estimated to be worth over ?60,000 crore.

The contenders for the deal are F-16 of Lockheed Martin and Gripen of SAAB. The likely Indian private sector players in the race are TASL and Mahindra group, both of which have a footprint in the aerospace sector.

3.Environmental Impact Survey 2017.

India has been ranked 75th out of 102 countries in a list that ranks the countries in terms of the human impact on environment per person.

The ranking has been done by MoneySuperMarket, a UK-based financial services website.

The ranking has been made based on the impact the citizens have on the environment by taking into account energy consumption, air pollution, waste production, reliance on non-renewable energy, the carbon dioxide emissions per capita, wastewater treatment capacity, municipal solid waste generated and tree cover loss etc. Of all the parameters, the most weight has been given to Carbon dioxide emissions, municipal solid waste and energy consumption.

Top 10 Performers:

Mozambique (1st), Ethiopia (2nd), Zambia (3rd), Latvia (4th), Kenya (5th), Albania (6th), Ghana (7th), Tajikistan (8th), Nepal (9th), Colombia (10th).

Worst Performers:

Trinidad and Tobago (102nd), United States (101st), Sri Lanka (100th), Ireland (99th), Canada (98th), China (97th), Australia (96th), South Africa (95th), Cyprus (94th), Malaysia (93rd).

Mozambique has topped the list as it derives almost all of its energy from green sources.

India, on the other hand, has been placed at 75th place as its renewable energy sources make up only 15.2% of all energy sources used.

The US has been placed second last on the list at the 101st position as the U.S. per capita carbon dioxide emissions are 17 tonnes per capita.

Further, the country generates 2.58 kgs of municipal solid waste per person, and the energy consumption is 312.79 BTU per capita. Also, its reliance on renewable sources are even lower than India at 12.56% India, on the other hand, generates 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita (between 1990 and 2011), 0.34 kgs of municipal solid waste generated per day per person, and energy consumption at 19.75 BTU (British Thermal Unit.) India has been ranked poorly due to its low reliance on renewable energy (15.2%).

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4. International Yoga Day June 21st 2017.

June 21st is annually celebrated as International Yoga Day since the year 2015. This year, the 3rd International Day of Yoga is being observed.

The purpose of the yoga day is to promote yoga and make it as a part of people’s daily routine. The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee has inaugurated a mass yoga demonstration to commemorate the 3rd International Day of Yoga at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

According to UN, this year Yoga Day’s theme is “Yoga for Health“. The theme has been chosen to highlight the fact that yoga can contribute in a holistic way to achieving an equilibrium between mind and body.

To mark the celebrations, massive Yoga practice sessions and demonstrations were being held in several places across the country and the world. This year many organisations are organising events to create a Guinness World Record by forming longest human chains and other Yoga related activities.

In total, around 5,000 events have been scheduled to take place in about 180 countries. Some of the countries in which yoga day are celebrated are China, UK, the US, Bangladesh, South Africa etc.

Indian high commissions around the world have organised many mass yoga demonstrations at various parts of the world. To mark the occasion, the headquarters of the United Nations in New York has been lit up with images of yoga postures.

5. China unveils World’s First Train that runs on Virtual Tracks.

The new trains are non-polluting as they are battery powered. The train is capable of reaching a top speed of 70 kmph and can travel a distance of 25 km by just charging for 10 minutes.

The train which is only about 32 metres long can carry up to 307 passengers. The new trains are fitted with sensors which are capable of detecting the dimensions of the road permitting it to follow the routes without the need for metal rails.

So it can run without the presence of tracks. The new trains will make use of rubber wheels on a plastic core and can be automatically guided without rails.

This new technology has been copyrighted by the Chinese rail corporation. The train will be rolled out for public use in 2018.

It will be launched in the Chinese city of Zhuzhou in a bid to help to deal with traffic in the area. The new train is expected to have a lifespan of around 25 years. The cost of the new train is only a fifth of the price of a traditional subway system.

6.NASA tests ROSA on Space Station for First Time.

ROSA is an advanced, flexible solar array that rolls out like a tape measure. The ROSA is very much flexible so that it can be adapted to different sizes including very large arrays.

ROSA is expected to provide power for a variety of future spacecraft and satellites. ROSA will be an asset for satellite radio and television, weather forecasting, GPS and other services used on the Earth.

The NASA engineers remotely attached the ROSA to the International Space Station’s robotic Canadarm2. ROSA will remain attached to the Canadarm2 over seven days to test its effectiveness.

Scientists will test the effectiveness of ROSA in the microgravity and extreme temperatures of space. ROSA is smaller and lighter than the traditional panels and has a centre wing build of a flexible material containing photovoltaic cells to convert light into electricity.

The narrow arm extends on both the sides of the wing to provide support, called a high strain composite boom. These booms are like split tubes made of a stiff composite material. The technology of the booms will be a boon for communications and radar antennas and other instruments.

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7. Saudi Arabia: King names Son as new Crown Prince.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as the first in line to the throne is seen by the younger generation as a sign that things are changing in the kingdom.

Before his appointment, Prince Salman was responsible for leading Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Prince Salman who is only 31 years old could lead Saudi Arabia for decades which means the kingdom will have a long period of internal stability.

However, at the same time Mohammed bin Salman’s closeness to US President Donald Trump could increase pressure against Iran, which has the potential to raise tensions in the region.

8. Russian diplomat appointed to lead new UN counter-terror unit.

The United Nations has appointed veteran Russian diplomat Vladimir Voronkov to head a newly-established counter-terrorism division, despite growing tensions between the US and Russia.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced the appointment made by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, one week after the General Assembly voted to create the new coordinating body.

It will oversee the counter-terrorism efforts of 36 UN-funded programmes currently housed under a variety of UN agencies, 12 inter-agency working groups, as well as Interpol, and the World Customs Organisation.

9. 10th Anniversary Celebrations of Indo-Russian Partnership in Science and Technology.

DST concludes a MOU with FASIE to promote Indo-Russian R&D cooperation for start-ups and SME sector.

A MOU on the India-Russia unified technology assessment and accelerated commercialization programme, was concluded in Moscow in 20th June 2017, by the Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST) Professor Ashutosh Sharma and Director General, Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE), Russia Dr. Sergey Polyakov.

The MOU aims at facilitating support enterprises to improve their global competitiveness through international cooperation, innovative activities and technology transfer. The two agencies (DST and FASIE) will link the Indian and Russian organisations and institutions to develop user-friendly and easy mechanisms for assisting companies and research entities to jointly develop technology collaboration and joint projects.

Professor Ashutosh Sharma also met with Dr Alexander Vitalievich Khulnov, Director General, Russian Science Foundation (RSF) in Moscow. They discussed many simple ways for encouraging young scientists to cooperate in areas of mutual interest.

The meeting concluded with an Addendum to the Agreement between DST and RSF on coordinated competition for conducting collaborating research. Both sides would support young achievers (less than 39 years) in a competitive mode for joint collaborative research. Next call for proposals would be made in 2018. Presently 17 joint projects are being supported by DST and RSF jointly.

10. South China Sea Dispute: China launches Research Project to Compile Data on Disputed Region.

China has launched a research project aimed at compiling historical data obtained during earlier expeditions conducted by its teams to the disputed South China Sea since the late 1950s.

11. US Approves Sale of UAV Technology to India.

The United States has cleared the sale of the state-of-the-art Guardian 22 unmanned Guardian drones to India.

The deal to sell UAV drones to India is estimated to be worth $2 to $3 billion. Though the deal has been approved by the State Department, an official announcement regarding the deal is yet to be announced.

The transfer of the state-of-the-art UAV technology to India will be the first significant progress after India’s entry into the exclusive Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and after the US has designated India as a major defence partner.

India became the 35th full member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016. The transfer of Guardian UAV technology is aimed at furthering mutual security interests to protect the Indian Ocean.

12. India to become more Populous than China by 2024.

Despite the drop in universal fertility rates, the UN report expects the world’s total population to hit 9.8 billion by 2050.

As per the report, the world’s population is at present 7.6 billion up from 7.4 billion last year. The increase in population was spurred by the relatively high levels of fertility in developing countries.

With an addition of 82 million people every year, UN expects a continuation of the upward trend in population size. At this rate, the world population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and surpass 11.2 billion in 2100.

As per the report, the concentration of global population growth in the poorest countries is presenting a challenge. The population growth is expected to come from the 47 least developed countries where the fertility rate is around 4.3 births per woman. At this rate, the population in these countries would reach 1.9 billion people in 2050.

It presents a challenge as the world seeks to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which is aimed to end poverty and preserve the planet.

13. Trump`s top aide Kenneth Juster to be America`s new ambassador to India.

Kenneth I Juster, a top aide of US President Donald Trump, is set to be America`s new ambassador to India, the White House said on 23rd June 2017.

62-year-old Juster, who is the Deputy Assistant to the US president for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director of his National Economic Council, would replace Richard Verma if nominated and confirmed by the Senate.

"Ken Juster`s move to Indian Ambassador is because he is extremely qualified for the position," White House deputy spokesperson Lindsay E Walters confirmed to PTI about the news which was first reported by The Washington Post today.

"Ken has a strong and positive relationship with everyone in the White House, including the president," Walters said.

The move has been welcomed by widely respected Ashley Telis, the top India expert in the US.

14. China`s largest power project in Russia starts operation.

YAROSLAVL - A 483-MW gas-steam combined heat and power (CHP) plant built by a China-Russia joint venture has been officially brought online, China`s Huadian Corporation announced Tuesday.

The CHP is the tangible result of the Huadian-Teninskaya joint project, which was launched by China Huadian Hong Kong Co Ltd and Russia`s second regional power company TGC-2 in 2011, with a total investment of $571 million.

As China`s largest electricity project in Russia, the project was designed to generate 3.02 billion KWH of electric energy and 814,000 Giga of heating supply annually.

"The completion of the Huadian-Teninskaya project is of great significance to the Yaroslavl Province. It will improve the living quality of local citizens," acting governor of the Yaroslavl Province Dmitry Mironov said during the operating ceremony held on the project site.

15. UNESCO: Paris Agreement Only Way to Save Coral Reefs.

A report by UNESCO has concluded that cutting down emissions and delivering the Paris Climate agreement to be the only ways out to save coral reefs the world over.

This is the first global assessment of the impact of climate change on world heritage listed coral reefs. The assessment studies the impact of climate change on 29 world Heritage-listed coral reefs.

The assessment has found that local responses are no longer sufficient. The report has found that global warming caused by an increase in frequency, intensity, and duration of heat-stress events has massive consequences for the 29 world heritage sites.

The report has warned that world’s coral reefs will die out completely by mid-century unless carbon emissions are reduced. The consequences could also be severe for millions of people worldwide. It is estimated that at least 25 coral reefs are set to experience twice-per-decade severe bleaching events by 2040.

As per the report in the last three years, 25 out of 29 coral reefs which comprise three-fourths of the world’s reef systems has experienced severe bleaching events which are labelled as the worst-ever sequence of bleachings to date.

According to the report, by 2100 most of the coral reef system would die unless carbon emissions are reduced.

Science & Technology Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Clears Safety Tests.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft – designed to take astronauts to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars – has successfully completed a series of tests for its critical safety systems.

Researchers tested the abort motor for Orion’s launch abort system on June 15, firing the 17-foot tall motor for five seconds.

The motor was fastened to a vertical test stand with its nozzles pointed toward the sky for the test. It produced enough thrust to lift 66 large SUVs off the ground and helps qualify the system for future missions with astronauts.

“The launch abort system is an important part of making sure our crew members stay safe on the launch pad and on their way to space,” said Robert Decoursey, manager for Orion’s launch abort system.

“It takes us another step closer to proving the safety of our spacecraft as we prepare for missions beyond the moon,” Decoursey said.

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2. China planning to send mini-ecosystems to Moon.

In a first, China is planning to send mini-ecosystems – containing potato seeds and silkworm eggs – to the Moon next year, in an attempt to study how the organisms develop on the lunar surface.

The 3-kilogramme mini-ecosystem, developed by research teams led by Chongqing University in China, will be sent to the Moon by the Chang’e 4 scheduled to launch in 2018, authorities announced at the Global Space Exploration Conference.

An 18-centimetre-tall cylinder will carry potato seeds and silkworm eggs to be incubated.

The silkworms will hatch and create carbon dioxide, while the potato plants will generate oxygen, Zhang Yuanxun, who designed the ecosystem, was quoted as saying by ‘Global Times’.

3. Mobile App “Celebrating Yoga” Launched.

Minister for Science & Technology Dr. Harshvardhan has launched a Mobile App “Celebrating Yoga”. The Mobile App has been developed by Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology on the occasion of International Yoga Day 2017.

The aim of the app is to popularise Yoga and encourage people to practice yoga for a scientifically healthy living.

In 2015, the Department of Science & Technology (DST) had also launched a research programme “Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SATYAM)” under its Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI).

4. ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission completes 1000 Earth Days in Orbit.

The country’s low-cost Mars spacecraft completed 1,000 Earth days in its orbit on Monday, well beyond its designed mission life of six months or 180 days.

“The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) completes 1,000 earth days in its orbit, today (19 June 2017) well beyond its designed mission life of six months,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

It said 1,000 earth days correspond to 973.24 Mars Sols (Martian Solar day) and the MOM completed 388 orbits. The satellite is in good health and continues to work as expected, it said, adding that scientific analysis of the data received from the spacecraft is in progress.

India had on 24 September 2014 successfully placed the spacecraft in the orbit around the Mars in its very first attempt, joining an elite club of countries with expertise in space technology. The ISRO had launched the spacecraft on its nine-month- long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on 5 November 2013 and it had escaped the Earth’s gravitational field on 1 December 2013.

Citing surplus fuel as the reason, the ISRO had in March 2015 first announced that the spacecraft’s life was extended by another six months. Later in June 2015, its chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar had said it has enough fuel for it to last “many years”.

The Rs450-crore MOM was launched to study the Martian surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, an indicator of life on the Red Planet. The spacecraft has five scientific instruments—Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS).

The Mars Colour Camera, one of the scientific payloads onboard MOM, has produced more than 715 images so far, the ISRO said. During the mission, the spacecraft has gone through a communication ‘blackout’ as a result of solar conjunction from 2 June 2015 to 2 July 2015.

It experienced the ‘whiteout’ geometry (when the Earth is between the Sun and the Mars and too much solar radiation may make it impossible to communicate with the Earth) during 18 May to 30 May 2016. An orbital manoeuvre was also performed on the MOM spacecraft to avoid the impending long eclipse duration for the satellite.

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5. Energy Conservation Building Code 2017 Launched.

The Energy Conservation Building Code 2017 (ECBC 2017) has been developed by Ministry of Power and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) with technical support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the U.S.-India bilateral Partnership to Advance Clean Energy – Deployment Technical Assistance (PACE-D TA) Program.

The code provides present as well as futuristic advancements in building technology to cut down building energy consumption and promote low-carbon growth.

The code sets clear criteria for builders, designers and architects to integrate renewable energy sources in building design through the inclusion of passive design strategies.

ECBC 2017 aims to optimise energy savings with the comfort levels for occupants. The code aims to achieve energy neutrality in commercial buildings.

Apart from the current and futuristic advancements in building technology, the new code takes into account market changes, and energy demand scenario of the country.

The code has been set in such a way that it will set a benchmark for Indian buildings to be amongst some of the most efficient globally. To be ECBC-compliant, the new buildings should be able to demonstrate minimum energy savings of 25%. Energy savings of 35% and 50% will enable the buildings to achieve higher grades like ECBC Plus or Super ECBC status respectively.

The adoption of ECBC 2017 is expected to achieve a 50% reduction in energy use by 2030 which will translate into energy savings of about 300 Billion Units by 2030.

It will result in expenditure savings of Rs 35,000 crore and reduction of 250 million tonnes of CO2.

6.ISRO’s PSLV-C38 carrying 31 satellites, lifts off from Sriharikota.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) workhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-38) blasted off from the spaceport carrying the Cartosat-2 series satellite a dedicated satellite for the defense forces along with 30 co-passenger satellites.

The 30 satellites will together weigh 243 kg and the total weight of all the 31 satellites, including Cartosat, is about 955 kilograms.

The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 nano satellites from 14 countries namely Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the US as well as one Indian nanosatellite.

7. India’s Contribution to Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) Project.

Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) is the world’s biggest telescope which would facilitate astronomers to observe the intricacies of the universe from earth.

Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) is a multi- million dollar project being developed by an international consortium of Five countries including India. The other four countries are Canada, China, Japan and the U.S. In July 2013, five countries participating in the project had inked Master Partnership Agreement (MPA) for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

The ambitious next-generation telescope would be built at a cost of USD 1.47 billion. India will spend Rs 1,300 crore on the project. India’s contribution to the project will be more in terms of hardware than money.

The telescope which was expected to be started at Mauna Kea, Hawaii was stalled following protests by locals. The project site is still being finalised by the consortium of countries involved in the project.

Hanle in Ladakh is one among the new sites that are being explored for the construction of the telescope. The telescope is expected to be ready by 2020. The telescope when ready would offer astronomers with unparalleled power to observe the universe.

8. NASA launches World’s Lightest Satellite designed by Indian Student.

NASA has launched world’s lightest satellite weighing only 64 grams designed by 18-year-old boy Rifath Sharook from Tamil Nadu. The tiny satellite has been named as KalamSat after the former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

The tiny satellite was launched into space on a sounding rocket from NASA’s facility in Wallops Island.

KalamSat is a 3-D printed satellite. This is the first time that 3-D printing technology is used to make satellites. To participate in NASA’s contest Cubes in Space in partnership with the global education company, I Doodle Learning, Sharook and his team had designed a 1 kg CubeSat.

But as the CubSat was costly the group made a smaller version for the contest and came up with ‘KalamSat’. By using the concept called BalloonSats, the group created a Near Space Launch Vehicle (NSLV) to launch KalamSat.

BalloonSats are designed to carry lightweight experiments into near-space. The tiny satellite weighs only 64 grams which is lighter than a smartphone. The satellite has been made of reinforced carbon fibre polymer.

International Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

1. First air freight corridor between India, Afghanistan to get operationalise soon.

India on Friday announced that the first cargo flight in the Afghanistan-India air corridor will get operationalised over the next couple of days.

"During the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani`s visit to India last year, we had discussions on establishing an air freight corridor between the two countries and we are happy to announce that first flight is likely to operate in the weekend or early next week. We are working out the details of the first flight," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The cargo service will help increase trade between both the countries, Baglay said,"The flight will take Indian products to Afghanistan and will bring Afghan products to India. The first flight will be from Delhi to Kabul and will start this weekend or next week."

The India- Afghanistan air corridor project was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.

The cargo service will aim to improve landlocked Afghanistan`s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its dry fruits and carpet industries.

2. Black Money: Automatic Information Sharing with Switzerland from 2019.

Switzerland has ratified automatic exchange of financial account information with India and 40 other countries.

This will facilitate Switzerland to share information about suspected black money with India and other 40 nations. According to the Swiss Federal Council, the implementation of the exchange sharing agreement has been planned for 2018 and hence the first set of data is likely to be exchanged in 2019.

The Swiss Federal Council is a top governing body of Switzerland.

The exact date of automatic information exchange would be notified by the Swiss Federal Council soon as there were no procedural delays for the implementation.

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Science & Technology Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

1. James Webb Space Telescope & its First Targets.

Finding signs of life on the earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system and on Saturn’s moon Enceladus are among the science targets that NASA‘s James Webb space telescope has following its launch and commissioning, mission officials have announced.

These specific observations are part of a program of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO), which provides dedicated time to the scientists that helped design and build the telescope’s four instruments.

“From the very first galaxies after the Big Bang, to searching for chemical fingerprints of life on Enceladus, Europa, and exoplanets like TRAPPIST-1e, Webb will be looking at some incredible things in our universe,” said Eric Smith, James Webb Space Telescope Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“With over 2,100 initial observations planned, there is no limit to what we might discover with this incredible telescope,” Smith said.

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Sport Current Affairs June 4th Week 2017

1. K Srikanth wins Indonesian Open.

India’s Kidambi Srikanth has lifted the Indonesia Open Super Series badminton title at Jakarta by defeating Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai in straight sets 21-11, 21-19. For Srikanth who is currently World No. 22 this is a big title win. It is Srikanth’s third Super Series title after 2014 China Open and 2015 India Open.

Indonesian Open Super Series is an annual badminton tournament organised by Persatuan Bulutangkis Seluruh Indonesia (PBSI). The tournament was first conducted in 1982. It has become part of the BWF Superseries in 2007 and earned the Superseries Premier Status in 2011.

2. Anil Kumble Resigns as head coach of indian cricket team.

Anil Kumble’s resignation as the Indian cricket team’s head coach has caused a void for the Virat Kohli-led side. The spin great’s statement that his relation with the skipper had become ‘untenable’ has only complicated matters for Indian cricket.

Nevertheless, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sought applications for the post of the next head coach of the national team nearly a month ago.

Although Vinod Rai, the head of the Committee of Administrators, had endorsed an extension for Kumble until the upcoming tour of West Indies, the latter didn’t seem interested in the offer. With Dr Maturi Venkat Sridhar, the general manager of Cricket Operations to supervise the team management for the upcoming tour of West Indies, HT looks at the chances of the top five candidates who’ve reportedly submitted an application, for the coveted job.

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3. IOC and Intel announce worldwide top partnership through to 2024.

As a worldwide top partner, intel will work with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reimagine the future of the olympic games with new levels of fan interaction through leading-edge technology.

Key Points:

Intel and the IOC are partnering to bring Intel’s leading technology to enhance the Olympic Games through to 2024.
Intel will focus primarily on infusing its 5G platforms, VR, 3D and 360 content development platforms, artificial intelligence platforms and drones, along with other silicon solutions to enhance the Olympic Games.
Intel will work across the Olympic Movement and with other Olympic partners to integrate technology into many facets of the Olympic Games.

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Person Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

1. Virat Kohli Creates Record by becoming Fastest Batsman to Score 8000 runs in ODIs.

India’s Skipper Virat Kohli has created a record by becoming the quickest batsman to score 8000 runs in one-day international cricket beating South Africa’s AB de Villier’s record by seven fewer innings. Virat Kohli has managed to cross the 8000 run mark in his 175th innings during India’s match against Bangladesh in ICC Champion’s Trophy semi-final in Birmingham.

Earlier record holder was South African captain AB de Villiers who crossed the 8000 run mark in 182 innings.

Earlier this year, South Africa’s Hashim Amla had broken Virat Kohli’s previous record of being the fastest batsman to score 7000 runs in ODIs. While Virat Kohli scored 7000 runs in 166 innings, Hashim Amla took only150 innings to get there. Hashim Amla is also the fastest batsman to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 runs.

Top 5 fastest 8000 run scorers in ODIs:

Virat Kohli (175 innings), AB de Villiers (182 innings), Sourav Ganguly (200 innings), Sachin Tendulkar (210 innings), Brian Lara (211 innings).

2.Neeru Chadha becomes First Indian Women to be elected to International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas.

Law expert Neeru Chadha has been elected to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS). With this election, she has become the first Indian women to win a crucial election to a top UN judicial body that deals with disputes related to the law of the sea. Neeru has become the first Indian woman to be appointed as a judge at the ITLOS.

ITLOS comprises of 21 independent members who are elected based upon their reputation for being a person with integrity. The person should also have necessary competence in the field of the law of the sea Neeru has also earned a distinction of becoming the second Indian woman to occupy a top position at the United Nations after Lakshmi Pandit who served as the President of the United Nations General Assembly.

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3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates Kochi Metro.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday flagged off the Kochi Metro, Kerala’s first Metro rail, and took an inaugural ride onboard the train with dignitaries, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan.

Governor P Sathasivam, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gouba, Kerala Chief Secretary Nalini Netto and Kerala Metro chief Elias George were also present.

4. Sushma Swaraj inaugurates KIP for young overseas Indians.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated Know India Programme, KIP, for young overseas Indians at a function in New Delhi yesterday. Mrs Swaraj said, the programme is aimed at promoting awareness on different facets of life in India and the progress made by the country in various fields such as economic and education.

The Know India Programme is a three-week orientation programme for the Indian diaspora. It provides a unique forum for students and young professionals of Indian origin to visit India, share their views, expectations and experiences and develop closer bonds with the contemporary India.

On the occasion, the External Affairs Minister announced opening of new 149 post office passport seva kendras in the country soon. Mrs Swaraj said this will take the total number of such Kendras to 251. She also said that government is making all out efforts that a person should not travel more than 50 kilometres to get his/her passport.

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National Current Affairs June 1st Week 2017

1.Single button from a control room in State capital will activate siren across 122 towers by July.

From July, Odisha can warn the population residing along its 480km long coastline by pressing one single button from a control room in the State capital in the event of the occurrence of natural disasters like a cyclone or tsunami.

The government is all set to commission the ambitious Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) that would enable loud sirens, going off simultaneously from towers at 122 locations by July.

Odisha is the first state in India that has developed an automatic public address system that can be activated along its entire coastline.

Key Factors:

ü The warning can be circulated just by the press of a button from the control room in the State capital in the event of occurrence of natural disasters.

ü It would trigger loud sirens simultaneously from 122 towers at various locations across the state, including tourist destinations, fish landing centres and coastal habitations.

ü The sound eliminating from the towers can be heard in localities up to a radius of 1.5 km.

ü The towers will be installed in 22 blocks under six coastal districts such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri and Ganjam.

ü The EWDS comprises of Satellite-Based Mobile Data Voice Terminals (SBMDVT), Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), Mass Messaging System (MMS) and Universal Communication Interface (UCI) for inter-operability among different communication technologies.

ü The project at an estimated cost of Rs 82 crore will be implemented with assistance from the World Bank.

ü The EWDS will help the people to move to safer places before government agencies commenced evacuation.

Reportedly, Andhra Pradesh is also developing such a system to alert the people in case of natural calamities.

2. Vizianagaram wins MGNREGA Award.

Vizianagaram wins MGNREGA award The Ministry of Rural Development has selected Vizianagaram as one among the 17 districts for MGNREGA annual award.

The award will be given to Vizianagaram for its effective implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during the time period 2015-16.

The district programme coordinator and District Collector would be presented the award at the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Sammelan to be held in New Delhi.

The district has been chosen after the field verification carried out by the selection committee.

The district was known to have generated works for 3,61,668 households in 2015-16 and disbursed INR 483.42 crore as wages to the workers with an average wage of INR 106.

The works carried out under NREGA in the district include 5,000 farm ponds, 240 rain water harvesting structures, and 440 water shed works, and de-siltation of 3,427 minor irrigation tanks. Vizianagaram is a district in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

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Science & Technology Current Affairs 2nd Week of June

1.The GSLV MK III a three-stage heavy vehicle developed by ISRO. It is having a core liquid booster, a cryogenic upper stage and two solid strap-ons.

GSLV Mark III Dimensions:

Height : 43.43 m

Vehicle Diameter : 4.0 m

Heat Shield (Payload Fairing) Diameter : 5.0 m

Number of Stages : 3

Lift Off Mass : 640 tonnes

GSLV Mk III is used carry 4 tons of satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit-(GTO) or 10 tons of Low Earth Orbit-(LEO). i.e., GSLV Mk III capacity is double than the GSLV Mk II.

The two strap-on motors of GSLV Mk III are located on either side of its core liquid booster. Designed as ‘S200’, and each carrier 205 tons of composite solid propellant and their ignition result in vehicle left-off. S200s function for 140 seconds. During strap-ons functioning phase, the two clustered Vikas liquid Engines of L110 liquid core booster will ignite 114 sec after lift -off to further augment the thrust of the vehicle. These two engines continue to function after the separation of the strap-ons at about 140 seconds after lift -off.

The first experimental flight of LVM3, the LVM3-X/CARE mission lifted off from Sriharikota on December 18, 2014 and successfully tested the atmospheric phase of flight. Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment was also carried out in this flight. The module reentered, deployed its parachutes as planned and splashed down in the Bay of Bengal.

The first developmental flight of GSLV Mk III, the GSLV-Mk III-D1 successfully placed GSAT-19 satellite to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on June 05, 2017 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

Technical Specifications:

Payload to GTO: 4,000 kg

GSLV Mk III will be capable of placing the 4 tonne class satellites of the GSAT series into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits.

Payload to LEO: 8,000 kg

The powerful cryogenic stage of GSLV Mk III enables it to place heavy payloads into Low Earth Orbits of 600 km altitude.

Cryogenic Upper Stage : C25

The C25 is powered by CE-20, India`s largest cryogenic engine, designed and developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre.

Cryo Stage Height : 13.5 m

Cryo Stage Diameter : 4.0 m

Engine : CE-20

Fuel : 28 tonnes of LOX + LH2

Solid Rocket Boosters : S200

GSLV Mk III uses two S200 solid rocket boosters to provide the huge amount of thrust required for lift off. The S200 was developed at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

Booster Height : 25 m

Booster Diameter : 3.2 m

Fuel : 205 tonnes of HTPB (nominal)

Core Stage : L110 Liquid Stage

The L110 liquid stage is powered by two Vikas engines designed and developed at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre.

Stage Height : 21 m

Stage Diameter : 4 m

Engine : 2 x Vikas

Fuel : 110 tonnes of UDMH + N2O4

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Economy Current Affairs 3rd Week of June 2017

1. RBI Release New Rs. 500 Currency Notes.

Reserve Bank of India announced that it will release new Rs. 500 currency notes. These new currency notes having similar to the recently released Rs. 500 currency notes.

Latest Changes on New Rs. 500 Notes

Some of the minute changes made in the new Rs. 500 currency notes as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines. Such as,

The new Rs. 500 Currency Banknotes will have inset letter “A” in the both of the number panels.

It will bear the printing year as 2017 on reserve side.

The new currency note will have the signature of RBI Governor Dr. Urjit R.Patel.

The old Rs. 500 Notes released in the wake of demonestisation would continue to remain as legal tender.

The banknotes also having Swachh Bharat logo printed on the backside of the banknote.

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Sports Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

ISSF World Cup: Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu Won Gold Medal.

The Indian Shooters and Heena Sidhu are both won the gold medal in the mixed team 10m air pistol even of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) world cup held at Gabala in Azerbaijan.

Any way jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu narrowly missed out making ot the finals of the individual men’s and women’s 10m air pistal event. Jitu Rai completed 12^th and Heena Sidhu completed 9^th in their qualification rounds. Criteria is only top 8 are eligible to compete in the finals. Significantly, mixed team events have been approved as medal event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This is the 2^nd world cup medal together.

Around 430 athletes from 45 nations are participating in the Global World Cup to qualify for the ISSF World Cup Finals WCF).

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National Current Affairs June 3rd Week 2017

1.Uttar Pradesh ranks First in Number of Child Labourers.

CRY report on child labour released recently according to those reports, 8 lakh and more than 8 lakh children are in between the ages of 5 and 6 years in India are engaged in child labour.

The organization, Child Right and You(CRY) is an NGO Working towards the unliftment of underprivileged children. The CRY organization was got established in the year 1979 by the honorable Rippan Kapur.

Over five lakh children in India do not attending the school according to the survey of recent reports. A majority of them are involved in family based work.

Uttar Pradesh occupied fist rank in the number of child laboursers. Nearly there are 2,50,672 children in UP and two more states are occupied by 2^nd and 3^rd ranks. Those are Bihar having nearly 1,28,087 child labours and Maharastra having 82,847 child labours.

Some of the reports as identified that majorly unemployment and high level of poverty and another thing is lack of adequate social security net are the factor to forcing the children to the work and they become child labours. These children are often forced to migrate with their parents and assist in family occupations such as working in brick kilns.

The ICDS namely Integrated Child Development Scheme suffers with many limitations and is now covering only 50% of the child labours.

In last 10 years between 2001-1, the working children In the age group of 10 to 14 years a reduction of 30% but the child labours in the age group of years 5 to 9 have seen an increase of 37% from 2001.

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2. Bihar`s Project Jal Sanchay Chosen for National Award.

Project Jal Sanchay is a water conservation model project in Bihar state. It is successfully adopted in nalanda district in south central bihar. It has been chosen for the national award for the excellence in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme-MGNREGP by the Ministry of Rural Development. The award may conferred in the date of June 19^th 2017 at a function held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

Nalanda district in bihar is one of the agriculture-oriented district remained affected by drought-like conditions that hampered the farming activities in the district. Though the district receives flash floods during the monsoon, the water runoff in the district was very high. Because of this reason entire water got washed away in a span of 15 to 20 days.

To overcome under these circumstances, project jal sanchay was launched under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme-MGNREGP ot offset the water crisis in the district.

The main principle under this project is check dams and tradidtional Aahar Pane irrigation systems were constructed. In addition to that traditional water bodies were desilted and renovated. The team campains about the usefulness of rainwater harvestin were also carried out.

This project mixed up with traditional technologyes and modern days techniques and got evolved into a holistic program to conserve water.

As a result of the implementation of the project , availability of water got improved drastically which positively impacted the farm production in the district.

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3. The government has made Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts as well as for carrying out financial transactions above of Rs 50,000. In addition, the government has asked all the existing account holders to link Aadhaar numbers to their bank accounts by December 31, 2017. Failure to comply with this guideline will make the account invalid. Further, the notification issued amending the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, will require quoting of Aadhaar card mandatory along with PAN by individuals, companies and partnership firms for all financial transactions of 50,000 or above. Before the notification, the PMLA Rules made it mandatory to submit PAN number or Form 60 to banks while opening accounts for high-value transactions.

Section 139AA(1) of the I-T Act,1961, as introduced by the Finance Act, 2017, makes it mandatory quoting of Aadhaar/Enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form while filing income tax returns with effect from July 1, 2017.

Section 139AA(2) of the I-T Act provides that persons with PAN card as on the 1st day of July 2017, and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar should intimate his Aadhaar and in the case of non-intimation of Aadhaar, the PAN allotted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid.

4. IOC, BPCL, HPCL Sign Agreement to set World’s Largest Refinery.

The Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has have signed the joint venture agreement to jointly set up the world’s largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

Key Highlights:

ü Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will hold 50% stake and the Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will each hold a stake of 25% each in the new complex.

ü The refinery is expected to be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 3 lakh crore. The new complex is expected to be completed by 2022. The new complex will have a 60 million tonnes refining capacity. The complex would come up at Babulwadi, Rajapur in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra located very close to the West coast. Being on the West coast will be helpful in easily sourcing the crude oil from the Middle-East, Africa and South America.

ü The refinery complex will have three crude units of 20 million tonnes each. The refinery will produce petrol, diesel, LPG, ATF and feedstock for making petrochemical.

ü The refinery complex will have an accompanying mega petrochemical plant which will include an aromatic complex, naphtha cracker and polymer complex.

5.DRDO Successfully Test-fires anti-Tank Nag Missile.

The anti-tank Nag missile is one of the five missile systems developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under the integrated guided missile development programme (IGMDP). The four other missiles developed under this programme include Agni, Akash, Trishul and Prithvi.

The Nag missile is a third generation anti-tank guided missile which works on “fire and forget” principle. The anti-tank Nag missile has been equipped with the highly advanced Imaging Infrared Radar (IRR) seeker along with integrated avionics.

This technology is possessed by very few nations. It also possess advanced passive homing guidance system. The missile has been designed mainly to destroy modern main battle tanks and other heavily armoured targets.

Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The helicopter launched version known as helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA) can be fired from Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) and HAL Rudra attack helicopter.

The land-based version of the missile is at present available for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA).

6. Ministry of Railways launches Mission Retro-Fitment.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu has launched Mission Retro-Fitment to enhance the passenger experience by upgrading the existing fleet of coaches.

Key Highlights:

Mission Retro-Fitment is an ambitious program of the ministry or railways to upgrade the level of furnishing & amenities in the coaches of Indian Railways. The refurbished coaches will have better furnishing, aesthetics & amenities and better safety features which are aimed at providing a safe and comfortable travel to the railway passengers.

Under Mission Retro-Fitment, 40,000 coaches will be refurbished and retrofitted in the next five years. The mission aims to induct about 40,000 coaches with upgraded interiors by 2022-23. The mission will be one of the largest retro fitment projects in the world.

The mission will be carried out without affecting the traffic operation. It is estimated that cost of refurbishing per coach to be approximately Rs 30 lakhs.

National Current Affairs June 2nd Week 2017

1.AP CM lays foundation stone for Polavaram coffer dam.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone on Thursday morning for the construction of coffer dam at the Polavaram project site in West Godavari district. The mega project, being built on the Godavari as a national project, reached a critical stage with the commencement of work on coffer dam on June 8th 2017.

The Chief Minister unveiled a pylon to mark the construction of coffer dam and spill channel iconic bridge to attract tourists.

He said the work on the project had been expedited and the coffer dam would be completed in a year`s time and water would be released into the canals by next June even before the completion of the main dam. He inspected the works on the spillway, the diaphragm wall and the construction of 48 crest gates and expressed confidence that the project would be completed on schedule.

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2.Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital.

NITI Aayog under the SATH initiative plans to identify and build three future ‘role model’ states for health systems. After identification of three states, NITI Aayog will work in close collaboration with the state machinery of these three states. It will help in designing a robust roadmap, develop a program governance structure, establish monitoring and tracking mechanisms, and provide support to the state institutions to achieve the end objectives.

SATH program will be implemented by NITI Aayog along with McKinsey & Company and IPE Global consortium.

Selection of States For selecting three model states, NITI Aayog spelled out three-stage process, namely, expression of interest, presentations by the states and assessment of commitment to health sector reforms. Subsequently, 16 states expressed interest in the initiative out of which 14 states presented their project proposals-Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. From these four states, NITI Aayog has shortlisted 5 states. After subsequent screening and evaluations, three states will be selected. Parameters such as MMR, IMR, incidence of malaria will be considered for determining potential impact, and metrics such as density of doctors and nurses, compliance to IPHS norms will be used to determine likelihood of success. The program will be launched after signing of MoUs with these three selected states.

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3.Government to implement India`s first Rural LED Street Lighting Project in Andhra Pradesh

Union Government launched 10 lakh LED street lights to be installed in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in State namely Guntur, Prakasham, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur & Chittoor in the first phase.

This is the first project for rural LED street lighting in the country under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Project (SLNP).

The entire upfront capital cost of this project is being funded by French Development Agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

As per the 18th Electric Power Survey of Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the estimated energy consumption in Indian public lighting sector is 8478 Mega Kilo Watt in 2012-13 and is constantly growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7 percent.

4.Indian Railways introduces Buy Now, Pay Later service for Ticket bookings.

The Indian Railways introduced `Buy Now, Pay Later` service for passengers to book tickets online first and make payment for the reservations within a window of 15 days.

The facility, which allows passengers to travel after five days of booking the ticket, is available for confirmed, waitlisted, and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) berths.

The new Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) feature is being enabled in partnership with the Mumbai-based ePaylater company.

5. Pension for single-women launched in Telangana.

The Telangana government was the only government in the country to launch welfare schemes such as pension for single women for the betterment of society, said Minister for Finance and Civil Supplies Eatala Rajender.

Distributing pension to single women at a programme in Karimnagar town on Sunday, Mr. Rajender said the government was proving pension to senior citizens, widows, disabled persons, and beedi workers. Following petitions on the plight of single women deserted by their husbands and relatives, the government decided to distribute pension of 1,000 per month to such women on humanitarian grounds.

Stating that the earlier government had spent only 800 crore on pension to 29 lakh beneficiaries, he said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was providing pension to 38 lakh persons spending 5,600 crore per annum. The government had also increased the Kalyana Laxmi and Shaadi Mubarak scheme amount from 50,116 to 75,116.

6. Soon Women to get Combat Role in Indian Army.

women are to be recruited for positions in military police. At present, women are employed in select areas such as medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army but are not offered combat roles due to operational concerns and logistical issues.

As of now, only a few countries such as Germany, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, Sweden and Israel have allowed women in combat roles.

The role of military police are as follows:

Policing the cantonments and Army establishments.
To prevent breach of rules and regulations by soldiers.
Maintain the movement of soldiers and logistics during peace and war.
Handling prisoners of war and Aid the civil police whenever required.

International Current Affairs June 2nd Week 2017

1.North Korea fires salvo of surface-to-ship missiles.

North Korea launched several projectiles believed to be short-range surface-to-ship cruise missiles from its east coast on 8th June 2017, according to South Korea`s military.

"North Korea fired multiple unidentified projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship missiles, this morning from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon Province," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The JCS said the South Korean military has beefed up surveillance and vigilance against the possibility of additional provocations, maintaining full preparedness. The statement said the launches were immediately reported to South Korean President Moon Jae-in but gave no further details.

The missiles fired Thursday traveled around 120 miles, according to the South Korean military. The latest provocation came less than a week after United Nations Security Council passed a new resolution expanding sanctions against the country as punishment for its missile tests.

North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests over three consecutive weekends in May going back to Mother`s Day, but last weekend there were no launches.

The remote country is on pace to break its record setting 2016 missile test-launch record.

The latest missile tests come as South Korea suspended its use of the American-based missile defense system THAAD.

1.Rohan Bopanna wins french open mixed doubles title.

Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski produced a fighting performance to beat their German-Colombian opponents Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah in the final to clinch their maiden French Open mixed doubles title in Paris on Thursday.

Seeded seventh, Bopanna and Dabrowski took an hour and six minutes to win, saving two match points, as they overcame the unseeded Groenefeld and Farah 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 on Philippe-Chatrier Court.

Bopanna has become only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam crown, after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza. Indians have accounted for 20 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. Two of those victories belong solely to India with Sania Mirza partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.

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2.IOC Approves New Events for Tokyo Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved new events for the 2020 Tokyo Games, including a number of mixed-gender competitions announced o.

The IOC`s Executive Board made the decision at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

"The fascinating new events that we approved today, together with the five new sports that were added to the Tokyo 2020 programme last year, represent a step-change in the Olympic programme. I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will be more youthful, more urban and will include more women," said IOC President Thomas Bach.

The additions include a mixed team event for judo. Each team will consist of 3 men and 3 women, all representing different weight classes. Team events have already taken place at the judo world championships, but never on a mixed-gender basis.

Table Tennis will also get a mixed doubles competition. The event was featured in the recent world championships in Germany. A Japanese pair won gold.

Three-on-three basketball is an example of the IOC`s focus on youth and urban sports. The 10-minute match on a half-sized court is known for its speed.

The International Basketball Federation adopted it as an official discipline with common rules in 2007, to make it popular around the world. The IOC has recommended awarding the hosting rights for both the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time.

In Tokyo, the number of mixed events will double from nine in Rio 2016 to 18. All new events will make use of existing venues.

Los Angeles and Paris are bidding to host the 2024 Summer Games. Bach expressed hope that the two cities will both be awarded the hosting rights in a dual allocation.

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4.Four Arab nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar as Gulf rift deepens.

Four Arab nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, further deepening a rift between these nations and that country for its support to Islamist groups.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced that they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Later, Yemen`s internationally recognised government also cut ties with Qatar.

5. Sher Bahadur Deuba elected Nepal`s Prime Minister for the 4th time

Mr. Deuba served as the prime minister from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005.

Prachanda resigned in May under a power-sharing deal with the Nepali Congress leader.

He secured 388 votes in his favour and 170 votes against him. A total of 558 were cast during the voting. He needed 297 votes in the 593-strong Parliament to prove his majority.

The Nepali Congress leader has become the 40th Prime Minister of Nepal. The post of Prime Minister fell vacant after Maoist leader Prachanda resigned last month under a power sharing deal with the Nepali Congress leader.

6. Second MI Ministerial to be Held 7-8 June 2017 in Beijing:

On 7–8 June 2017, the second Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-2) will take place in Beijing, China.

MI-2 will bring together energy ministers and other representatives from MI member countries to share knowledge and collaborate on priorities for clean energy innovation.

This event will include ministerial working sessions, opportunities for high-profile announcements, Innovation Challenge discussions, and a series of side events.

MI-2 will be co-located with the eighth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8). While MI focuses on breakthrough research and development for the new technologies of tomorrow, the Clean Energy Ministerial focuses on scaling the deployment of clean energy technologies and solutions that are available today.

Person Current Affairs 2nd Week of June 2017

Hoshiar Singh appointed as Chief of Copyrights Office

Hoshiar Singh a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Telecom Service appointed as Registrar of Copyrights.

His period of five years as per the recent order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

The Copyright Office is under the immediate control of a Registrar of Copyrights, who acts under the superintendence and directions of the Central Government.

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