Current Affairs Weekly Updates – JUNE Week I

In Current Affairs 2017
June 8, 2017

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AWARDS AND HONOURS

NAME OF THE AWARD	AWARD WINNER	KEY POINTS TO NOTE
APQN Quality Award 2017	National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)	Prestigious International Award of Asia Pacific Quality Network (APQN)
Bharat Gaurav Award	Madhur Bhandarkar	Award by NRI community of US
MGNREGA national award	Vizianagaram, Andra Pradesh
Kalinga Literary Festival	Anand Neelakantan Haraprasad Das Paramita Satpathy	Kalinga Literary Festival was conceptualized in 2013 and launched in 2014 to celebrate the Classical Language Status of Odia language

APPOINTMENTS

NAME	DEPT/FIELD
Miroslav lajack	UN Genaral Assembly President
Vinay Dube	Jet Airways CEO
Nirupama Rao	Public Policy Fellow to US Think Tank
Aleksandar Vucic	President of Serbia
Ganesh Kumar	Executive Director of RBI
Sanjiv Singh	Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation
Sher Bahadur Deuba	Prime Minister of Nepal
Hoshiar Singh	Chief of copyrights office
Christopher Wray	New FBI director of USA
Param Jit Mann	Ambassador of Indian to Republic Slovenia
Leo Varadkar	Prime Minister of Ireland
Shashi Shekar Vempati	Prasar Bharati CEO
Tapan Ray	Economic Affairs Secretary

INDIAN AFFAIRS

The first Mega Food Park in the state of Odisha M/s MITS Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. at Rayagada has been inaugurated today the 1st June.
The Kochi Metro will begin operations on a stretch between Aluva and Palarivattom stations, nearly half the total length planned.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated a grid-connected solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory in Telangana’s Medak.
India was ranked as low as 141 out of 163 countries researched on a Global Peace Index.
Railways have decided to provide the ‘buy tickets now and pay later’ service for any Express trains.
The Kochi Metro will begin operations on a stretch between Aluva and Palarivattom stations, nearly half the total length planned.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated a grid-connected solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory in Telangana’s Medak.
Authorities have made Aadhaar card mandatory for students of government and government-aided schools in Uttar Pradesh for availing mid-day meal from June 30.
Railways have decided to provide the ‘buy tickets now and pay later’ service for any Express trains, an IRCTC official.
The Telangana Government has launched a digital wallet, named T-Wallet, which doesn’t charge transaction fee from consumers.
The Indian Human Microbiome Project has been launched in the north eastern region to provide a fertile ground for discovery of new drugs and pharmaceuticals.
Varanasi will get the country’s first ‘freight village’ spread over around 100 acres.
Odisha can warn the vast population residing along its 480 km-long coast by pressing a single button from a control room in the State capital in the event of the occurrence of natural disasters like a tsunami or a cyclone.
The GST Council has cleared the pending rules, including transition provisions and returns, with all the states agreeing to July 1 roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.
Minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari has launched INAM PRO+—an e-commerce platform for construction and infrastructure raw material for government and private procurement.
Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul has launched the Vidya-Veerta Abhiyan in the state by presenting Vice Chancellors of universities with the portraits of Param Vir Chakra recipients.
An agreement for IBRD Credit of USD 39.2 Million from World Bank for the project “Assam Citizen Centric Service Delivery” was signed.
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will inaugurate a two-day national level conference on “Capacity Building of SDRF-2017”.
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.
An MoU was signed between National Skill Development Corporation and Bird Academy on the 1st of June 2017 in New Delhi, with regards to skilling of unemployed youth in the aviation and aerospace Sector.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday has launched three new apps to help customer’s rate quality of services, speed and performance
TATA Projects has announced the launch of Green Thumb, an initiative to enhance the green cover.
Writer-activist Arundhati Roy is all set to publish her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

CABINET APPROVALS

The Union Cabinet has approved the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) and Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) for export credit of USD 9 billion for infrastructural development in India and for the supply of goods and services as part of projects in third countries.
The Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval to the Agreement between India and Cyprus on Merchant Shipping, which was signed in April 2017.
The Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), India and Direction Nationale De Industries (MLINDI), Republic of Mali on Standardization and Conformity Assessment.
The Union Cabinet has given its approval to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in relation to Mutual Co-operation.
The Union Cabinet has approved the initial public offer (IPO) of Indian Renewable Development Agency (IREDA) to issue 13.9 crore fresh equity shares of Rs 10 each to the public on a book-building basis.

BANKING AND FINANCE

State Bank of India and the World Bank announced that they had financed 100 MW of rooftop solar projects worth Rs.400 crore in India.
An agreement for IBRD Credit of USD 36 Million from World Bank for “Himachal Pradesh Public Financial Management Capacity Building Program” was signed in New Delhi
The Reserve Bank has left lending rates unchanged citing risks to inflation due to spurt in farm loan waivers by states but raised lending capacity of banks to support economic growth.

BUSINESS NEWS

Anil Ambani owned Reliance Communications has finally revealed that the new RCom- Aircel merged entity will be called Aircom after the completion of the proposed deal.
Bharti Airtel has said the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the proposed merger of elenor India with the company.

ECONOMY NEWS

Italy’s economy grew 0.4 per cent in January to March from the previous three months – twice as much as initially estimated and the fastest since the last quarter of 2010.
India’s economic growth slowed for the fourth consecutive quarter in the three months that ended in March, losing out the fastest-growing economy tag to China.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The 70th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland.Member states also agreed on a five-year action plan that will initiate collaboration between World Health Organisation (WHO) the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in tackling shortfalls in global health and social workforce.
The Paris climate agreement gives undue advantage to India and China at the cost of the Unite States’ interests, President Donald Trump, announcing America’s withdrawal from the pact.
India and Russia have signed the pact for setting up the last two units of the Kundankulam nuclear power plant with Moscow’s help in Tamil Nadu after overcoming initial hurdles to finalise the strategic deal.
Montenegro became the 29th member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Scientists using data from NASA’s lunar orbiter have identified bright areas in craters near the Moon’s south pole that are cold enough to have frost present on the surface.
India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile, from a test range in Odisha as part of a user trial by the Army.
NASA has named the first mission to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun’s atmosphere in honor of Prof. Eugene Parker, a pioneering physicist at the University of Chicago.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket recovered at sea from its maiden flight last year blasted off again from Florida in the first successful launch of a recycled orbital-class booster, then capped the feat with another return landing on an ocean platform.
China has successfully tested a solid-fuel variable flow ramjet engine which could enhance the real combat ability of the country’s stealth aircraft and boost firing range of missiles.
The GSLV MKIII-D1 rocket will carry the GSAT-19 communication satellite into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

SPORTS

WINNER	TITLE	SPORT/ VENUE
Krishnan Sasikiran	Capablanca memorial chess Champion	Varadero, Cuba.
Sai Praneeth	Thailand Open men’s singles title	Hyderabad

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on its 91st anniversary renamed the West Indies cricket team. Now, the Caribbean side will be known as ‘WINDIES’.

OBITUARY

NAME OF THE PERSON	FIELD
‘Kavikko’ Abdul Rahman	Tamil Poet
Parvathamma Rajkumar	Kannada film producer
Juan Goytisolo	Spanish writer
Era Sezhiyan	Veteran Indian Parliamentarian
T.S.V Hari	Veteran journalist

IMPORTANT DAYS

DATE OBSERVED	DAY OBSERVED	Theme / Purpose
June 1	Global day of Parents	To appreciate all parents
June 1	World Milk Day	Raise a Glass for Milk
June 4	International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression	This day affirms the UN’s commitment to protect the rights of children.
June 5	World Environment Day	Connecting People to Nature