Current Affairs Daily Updates: 14th June 2017

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Current Affairs Daily Updates: 14th June 2017
APPOINTMENTS
IRDAI appoints RK Sharma as administrator for Sahara India Life Insurance
  • The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) appointed the RK Sharma as administrator of theSahara India Life Insurance Company.
  • The administrator needs to ensure the servicing of the policyholders and managing the affairs of the insurer in a smooth and feasible manner.
  • IRDA officially declared that the Policyholders of M/s Sahara India Life Insurance Co. Ltd. are hereby informed that the affairs of the insurer shall be managed by the Administrator.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
NASA confers Exceptional Public Service Medal to Michael A'Hearn posthumously
  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) posthumously awarded the Exceptional Public Service Medal to Michael A’Hearn.
  • A’Hearn died at the age of 76.
  • The NASA Medal is for the fundamental work on comets and small bodies of the solar system, leadership in space missions, and ensuring public access to data from NASA missions and related projects.
Nalanda model of water conservation chosen for National Award
  • A model of water conservation adopted successfully by the authorities in Nalanda district of south central Bihar, has been selected for the national award for excellence in the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee programme (MGNREGP), by the ministry of rural development.
  • The award for excellence will be conferred on ‘Project Jal Sanchay’, the water conservation model developed in chief minister Nitish Kumar’s native district.
BANKING AFFAIRS
IDBI Bank only PSB to get ‘high’ rating for code compliance
  • According to the Code Compliance Rating of banks done by the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) 2017, only one (unchanged from the previous survey conducted in 2015) out of 26 public sector banks and eight (nine in the previous survey) out of 17 private sector banks got ‘high’ rating for their adherence to code compliance.
  • IDBI Bank was the only public sector bank that got ‘high (H)’(85 and above score out of 100) rating in two successive surveys.
  • The eight private sector banks that got ‘high’ rating are — Axis Bank, DCB Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank and YES Bank.
  • The three foreign banks — Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank — that were surveyed got ‘high’ ranking.
  • The code compliance rating, may be considered an indicator of the level of implementation of important code provisions at the grassroot level of a bank.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
SEBI permits options trading in commodity futures
  • The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed options trading on futures contract of commodities.
  • SEBI has put in place strict eligibility criteria for the commodity exchanges to start trading in options contract of commodities.
  • The average daily turnover of an underlying futures contract of such commodities in the previous 12 months should be minimum Rs 200 crore for agricultural and agri-processed commodities, and Rs1,000 crore for other commodities.
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Ex Uttarakhand CM Pokhriyal authors book on Vajpayee ‘Yug Purush, Bharat Ratna, Atal Ji’
  • Former Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank, book titled ‘ Yug Purush, Bharat Ratna, Atal Ji’. will be offically released.
  • The first copy of the book on the social and political life of Vajpayee was presented to our President Pranab Mukherjee.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Indian Warships reach Australia to take part in Bilateral Maritime Exercise AUSINDEX-17
  • Indian warships reached Australia’s port city of Freemantle to take part in a week-long naval exercise off the Western Australian coast.
  • AUSINDEX-17 is the second overall bilateral drill between Indian Navy and Royal Australian Navy.
  • Exercise Australia-India (AUSINDEX) was first conducted off the East Coast of India in September 2015.
  • Indian warships INS Kamorta, the INS Shivalik (first stealth warship built in India), and oiler INS Jyoti, will take part in the exercise.
G7 environment ministers meeting 2017 held in Bologna, Italy
  • Group of Seven (G7) Environment Ministers Meeting was held in Bologna, Italy.
  • The meeting was attended by the Environment Ministers of the seven countries (US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) and the Commissioners of the European Union for Environment and Climate.
  • '5 year Bologna Roadmap’ was adopted at the meeting, which focuses on important issues such as resource efficiency indicators, citizen involvement, awareness on food waste and economic analysis of the efficient use of resources.
India to be Co-Partner Country in ANUGA 2017
  • Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal addressed a Joint Press Conference with the organizers of ANUGA - an international business platform for Food Industry to be held in Cologne, Germany.
  • She also signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Participation in the ANUGA Exhibition with Ms Katharina C Hamma, Chief Operating Officer, Koelnmesse GmBH (Organizers of ANUGA).
  • Minister of Food Processing Industries said that it was an honour for India to be a co-partner country in such a prestigious international event.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Sikkim Government signs MoU with British Council
  • The Human Resource Development department of Sikkim government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council.
  • The main aim of signing the MoU is to improve the educational structure of the schools of Sikkim.
  • The program includes capacity building in teaching, learning and research pedagogy of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Social Science teachers from undergraduate colleges and universities in Sikkim by UK higher education experts along with internship of young faculties at relevant UK Universities.
India’s first canal top solar PV system at NTPC Mouda
  • State-run power giant National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) developed India's first 150 kW canal top solar PV System on cooling water (CW) channel inside power station premises at its 2,320 MW, Mouda Thermal Power Project, near Nagpur in Maharashtra.
  • Solar PV system makes use of side walls of CW channels as load bearing structure thereby significantly decreasing the cost of the civil and mounting structure.
  • It also has several other unique advantages such as land and water conservation due to reduced evaporation, increased PV generation due to cooling and reduction in the dirt, leaves thereby reducing chemicals for water treatment.
  • The mobile based application uses WiFi sensors to track users in the vicinity on a commercial space, log footfalls and also out promotional offers to their app users.
With 2.5 lakh Child labourers, Uttar Pradesh ranks first
  • According to a CRY report, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of 2,50,672 children engaged in labour, followed by Bihar with 1,28,087 children and Maharashtra where the number stands at 82,847.
  • While the decade 2001-2011 saw an overall 30% reduction (about 3.2 million) in working children in the age-group of 10-14 years, number of working children within 5-9 years increased by 0.68 million, an increase of 37% from 2001.
Ministry of Railways launches Mission Retro-Fitment
  • The Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu launched MissionRetro-Fitment to enhance the passenger experience by upgrading the existing fleet of coaches.
  • 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 the following features will be World class ambiance, Enhanced Passenger Safety, Caring for the Environment, Enhanced Passenger convenience.
  • This is one of the largest retro fitment projects in the world as Indian Railways 40,000 coaches will be refurbished and retrofitted in the next five years.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu presents 100 volumes of collected works of Mahatma Gandhi
  • Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu presented 100 volumes ofcollected works of Mahatma Gandhi to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for the Parliament Library.
  • The written works of national movement evoked a sense of popular participation, feeling of oneness and unity for the nation.
  • Gandhi's writings played an instrumental role in weaving the freedom movement together with the morals of truth and non-violence.
Government imposes anti dumping duty on Chinese ceramic items
  • India has imposed an anti-dumping duty on import of ceramic table and kitchenware items from China.
  • The anti-dumping duty imposed shall be levied for a period not exceeding six months (unless revoked, amended or superseded earlier).
  • The main reason of dumping is that the ceramic tableware and kitchenware are being exported from China to India below its normal value.
  • The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) in its findings recommended imposition of a provisional anti-dumping duty in order to remove the injury to the domestic industry.
Telangana launches PashuBazar website for online cattle sale
  • The Telangana government launched a website purchase of cattle through pashubazar.telangana.gov.in website will help farmers as the cattle need not be brought to shandies every time and farmers can save on transportation cost on cattle.
  • The Pashu Bazaar platform was developed to help farmers to sell their animals without physically taking them to weekly markets.
  • Special Chief Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Suresh Chanda launched the website developed with National Informatics Centre's (NIC) support.
India contract two key ILO conventions on Child Labour
  • According to a statement issued by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland India contract two key ILO conventions on child Labour.
  • The Government of India deposited with the International Labour Office the instruments of ratification of the two fundamental ILO Conventions concerning the elimination of child labor, the Minimum Age Convention (No 138) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No 182).
  • The prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, forced labor and trafficking; the use of children in armed conflict; the use of a child for prostitution, pornography and in illicit activities (such as drug trafficking); and hazardous work.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS
DRDO Successfully Test-fires anti-Tank Nag Missile
  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test fired anti-tank ‘Nag’ missile in Rajasthan.
  • The helicopter launched version known as Helicopter-Launched NAG (HELINA)
  • The test was conducted by Scientists of the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Missile Complex at Hyderabad, Defence Laboratory at Jodhpur, High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) at Pune and Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) at Pune.
  • 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 program (IGMDP).
SPORTS AFFAIRS
Virat Kohli reclaims World No.1 ODI batting rankings
  • According to the latest MRF Tyres International Cricket Council (ICC) One-day International (ODI) Player Rankings, Indian captain Virat Kohli reclaimed the world number one position.
  • Josh Hazlewood of Australia achieved the top spot in the bowlers’ rankings.
  • Kohli overtook Australia’s David Warner, who was at the second position at the start of the one-day tournament.