Current Affairs Daily Digest – June 05 2020
1. DRDO develops SUMERU PACS
The Defence Research Development Organization has developed the SUMERU PACS, that helps to reduce sweating of Personal Protective Equipment wearers. The DRDO scientists found that the PPE wearers felt very uncomfortable after wearing them for more than 30 minutes. They start sweating and this worsen the situation.
2. Amery Ice Shelf: Increase by 24% by 2021
The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research has predicted that the Amery Ice Shelf is to expand 24% by 2021. The Ice Shelf would expand another 24% by 2026. The NCPOR observations is based on 16 year-long satellite observations. This covered 60,000 sq km of the Amery Ice Shelf.
3. June 5: World Environment Day
Every year the World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5. This year the day is being celebrated under the theme
Theme: Celebrate Biodiversity
This year, in 2020, the day is to be hosted in Colombia in partnership with Germany. The day was hosted by India in 2018. It was then India emphasized on prevention of Plastic pollution. In 2019, the day was hosted by China under the theme “Air Pollution”.
4. India-Australia sign landmark Defence Agreements
Indian PM Modi and the Australian PM Scott Morrison held India’s first virtual bilateral summit. The leaders signed several agreements during their meet and also discussed about the COVID-19 measures being implemented in their respective countries.
5. TULIP internship programme
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development) launched an internship learning programme called “TULIP”. The programme has been launched for fresh engineering graduates. Under the programme, they will get opportunities to work with 4,400 urban local bodies and 100 smart cities in India.
6. World Economic Forum to hold Twin Summit
The World Economic Forum announced that it is to host its next summit in Davos under the theme “The Great Reset”. The forum has named the summit as “A Unique Twin Summit”. The 51st annual summit of the World Economic Forum is to bring together global leaders, civil society and multi stake holders from 400 cities.
7. Astronomers unveil Solar Corona’s magnetic field
The researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute of Technology (IFA) have been studying the solar corona. It is an outermost atmosphere of the sun that expands into interplanetary space.
A new study has been published in Astrophysical Journal on June 3 by IFA graduate student Benjamin Boe that used total solar eclipse observations to measure the shape of the coronal magnetic field along with a higher spatial resolution and over a large area than never before.
8. Australia shows strong support for India’s NSG membership
Australia on June 4 showed its strong support for India’s membership to Nuclear Supplier Groups (NSG). It also restated its backing for India’s candidacy for a permanent seat in a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The support from Australia was mentioned in the joint statement which was released after an online summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
9. PM’s private secretary Rajeev Topno moves to World Bank, Brajendra Navnit to WTO
Senior bureaucrat Rajeev Topno, private secretary to the prime minister, has been appointed as senior advisor to the Executive Director (ED), World Bank, a personnel ministry order said.
Besides him, Brajendra Navnit who served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been appointed as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Geneva, Switzerland.
10. Raveesh Kumar Appointed India’s Next Ambassador To Finland: Government
Seasoned diplomat and former spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry Raveesh Kumar has been appointed as India’s next Ambassador to Finland, the government announced.
Mr Kumar, a 1995-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, served as the spokesperson of the MEA from July 2017 to April 2020 during which he deftly articulated India’s position on a number of sensitive issues including last year’s Balakot air strike, reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir and the controversy surrounding the National Register of Citizens.
11. Facebook signs global licensing deal with music label Saregama
Social media giant Facebook said it has signed a global licensing deal with India’s oldest music label Saregama. The partnership with Facebook comes soon after Swedish audio streaming service Spotify signed a licensing partnership with Saregama for Indian users.
12. Management guru Pritam Singh dies at 78
Acclaimed management guru and Padma Shri awardee, Pritam Singh, died following a cardiac arrest. He was 78.
Served as independent director in several private companies, Singh was a former director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow and Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon and director general at RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group-promoted International Management Institute (IMI) in New Delhi.
