Current Affairs Daily Updates: 1st and 2nd June 2017

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Current Affairs Daily Updates: 1st and 2nd June 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Ramachandra Guha resigns as BCCI Administrator
  • Ramachandra Guha, appointed by the Supreme Court as one of the four administrators of The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) resigned from the post due to personal reasons.
  • Historian Ramachandra Guha was a member of the Committee of Administrators (COA).
  • Vikram Limaye, Managing Director of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), and former Indian women cricket captain Diana Edulji were the other administrators appointed by the Supreme Court.
Dhanraj Choudhary re-elected as Board of Director of ITTF
  • India's Dhanraj Choudhary represents Asia in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) re-elected as a Board of Director (BoD) for another four years along with other continental representatives.
  • Choudhary, who is the former secretary-general of the Table Tennis Federation of India.
Tapan Ray to take over as new Economic Affairs Secretary
  • Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das got retired from his post who is associated with the Government of India for almost 37 years.
  • He will be succeeded by Tapan Ray, who will take the additional charges as the new Economic Affairs Secretary.
Nirupama Rao appointed as Public Policy Fellow to US ThinkTank
  • Nirupama Rao appointed as the Public Policy Fellow at a top American think tank based in Washington.
  • Nirupama was the former Indian Ambassador to the United States.
  • Under this program, she would be spending three months in residence at the Wilson Centre, which is a key non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues, beginning in June 2017.
Reserve Bank of India appoints Ganesh Kumar as Executive Director
  • Reserve Bank of India appointed S. Ganesh Kumar asExecutive Director.
  • Ganesh Kumar will look after Department of Information Technology, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems and Department of External Investments and Operations.
  • His appointment is consequent upon voluntary retirement of Chandan Sinha.
  • The central bank currently has 11 Executive Directors.
  • Ganesh Kumar was Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Information Technology in the Reserve Bank.
UN General Assembly elects Slovakia's Miroslav Lajcak as Next President
  • The UN General Assembly elected Slovak foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak to be the next president of the 193-member powerful body. 
  • Lajcak was elected as President of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly at a special session.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Ananya Vinay wins the 2017 US Scripps National Spelling Bee
  • A 12-year-old Californian student, Ananya Vinay, won the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee competition.
  • She is awarded the cash prize of $40, 000.
  • The competition was held in Washington’s Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.
NAAC receives Asia Pacific Quality Network Award 2017
  • National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of India received prestigious International Award of Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN) titled “APQN Quality Award 2017 for International Co-operation in Quality Assurance.”
  • The award was received by NAAC Adviser Dr. Jagannath Patil in a special ceremony held in Moscow, recently.
  • APQN Quality Award is among the most prestigious International Awards in quality assurance of higher education. The NAAC and its faculty have worked with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on various projects, events, publications.
BANKING AFFAIRS
Asian Development Bank and Punjab National Bank signs $100 million loan to finance solar rooftop projects
  • The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed a $100 million loan to be guaranteed by the Government of India to finance large solar rooftop systems on industrial and commercial buildings throughout India.
  • Solar Rooftop Investment Program (SRIP) approved by ADB in the year 2016.
  • India's solar rooftop market is expanding fast with an estimated total capacity potential of 124Giga Watts (GW) aiming to increase the country's solar rooftop capacity by 40 GW in 2022.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
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.
India signs Loan Agreement of 36 million dollar with World Bank
  • India has signed a loan agreement of 36 million dollars with the World Bank for Himachal Pradesh Public Financial Management Capacity Building Programme.
  • The objective of the project is to improve the efficiency of Public Expenditure Management and Tax Administration in Himachal Pradesh.
  • The programme worth is about 45 million dollars, of which 36 million dollars will be financed by the Bank, and the remaining amount will be funded out of State Budget.
  • The programme duration is 5 years.
India Loses its Fast Growing Economy Tag to China
  • As per the data released by the Ministry of Statistics, Indiaregistered 7.1% growth in the financial year 2016-17, which is slower than the 8% registered in 2015-16.
  • India registered a Gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.1% compared with China’s 6.9% in the same period.
  • India lost its fastest-growing major economy tag in the fourth quarter of the year 2016-17.
IMPORTANT DAYS OBSERVED
June 1st: World Milk Day
  • World Milk Day is an initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to celebrate the contribution of the dairy industry around the globe on 1st June every year.
  • The tagline added this year as a Raise a glass for milk.
  • The Day provides an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicise activities connected with milk and the milk industry.
  • This date was chosen because a number of countries were already celebrating a national milk day on or around this time.
  • The first World Milk Day was held in 2001.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
China launches cybersecurity law
  • China launched cybersecurity law to ensure its national security, amid criticism from foreign companies.
  • According to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). the law is designed to safeguard China's cyberspace sovereignty, national security, public interest, as well as the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organisations.
India, Pakistan to become full SCO members at Astana summit
  • India and Pakistan’s entered to the China-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Astana, Kazakhstan.
  • The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) granted full membership status to Pakistan and India during its Ufa summit held in Russia in 2015.
  • SCO is the political and security grouping headquartered in Beijing.
  • The Astana Summit will be held on 8-9 June.
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 World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board.
India, Russia sign St Petersburg Declaration to enchance Co – Operation
  • India and Russia signed Saint Petersburg Declaration as a roadmap to enhance co - operation after the 18th Annual Bilateral Summit.
  • The Declaration was signed following the annual bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
  • Both the countries had agreed to interact closely with various fields including economy, manufacturing, energy.
India and Russia signed an agreement for the two new reactors for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP)
  • India and Russia signed an agreement for the two new reactors at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) on the sidelines of the annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
  • The fifth and the sixth unit of India’s largest nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu will cost about Rs 50,000 crore to build with half of it being funded by Russia as a loan.
  • The KKNPP was the outcome of an inter-governmental agreement between the Soviet Union and India in 1988.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Telangana Government launches T-Wallet
  • The Telangana state government will be launching its T-Wallet as an “anytime anywhere digital payment option for everyone”.
  • The state government also got clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to launch the e-payment facility.
  • The T-Wallet will charge a nominal cost for private transactions and charges will not be applicable for paying electricity bills, water bills, property taxes.
Arun Jaitley inaugurates Telangana Solar Plant
  • Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated a grid-connected solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory in Telangana’s Medak district.
  • The solar power plant at Medak set up at a cost of Rs 105 crore by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEML) with the commissioning of 9 Mega Watt windmill project at Dammit.
  • The ‘best performance’ award in exports for 2014-15 was given to Goa Shipyard Limited while the award for 2015-16 was conferred on Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru.
Union Minister Inaugurated MITS Mega Food Park at Rayagada, Odisha.
  • Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated The first Mega Food Park at Rayagada in the state of Odisha.
  • Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster-based approach.
  • MITS Mega Food Park has been set up in 50.05 acres of land at the cost of Rs. 80.17crores.
  • This is the 7th Mega Food Park operationalized in the last 3 years by the present government.
Commerce Secretary launched Online APAR for Indian Trade Service
  • The government launched ‘SPARROW ITS’ (Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window). The purpose of above service is to enable the Indian Trade Service (ITS) officers to fill their Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) online for the year 2016 -17 onwards.
  • The SPARROW ITS launched by Rita Teotia, Commerce Secretary in accordance with the Government of India’s policy to introduce online APAR for Group ‘A’ services.
  • Then officer present self-examination in online through Digitally Signed Signature (DSC) or through E sign.
Arun Jaitley announced Second Scorpene Class Submarine Ready for Sea Trials
  • Defence Minister Arun Jaitley announced the second Scorpene-class submarine is ready for surface sea trial.
  • INS Khanderi, the second Scorpene class submarine has been built at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
  • It is named Khanderi, after the Island fort of Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji which played had a vital role in ensuring their supremacy at sea in late 17th century.
  • It is the second of the six submarines being built at MDL in collaboration with France’s DCNS as part of Project 75 of Indian Navy.
Union Minister launched INAM-Pro +The Web Platform for Sale and Purchase of Construction Material and Service
  • The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari launched INAM-Pro + in New Delhi.
  • INAM-Pro+ is an upgraded version of INAM-Pro, the web portal designed by National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL)
  • It is a web-based application for Infrastructure and Material Providers.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS
Microsoft co-founder built the world’s largest plane to launch rockets into space
  • Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen announced publicly the world's largest aircraft with a 385-foot wingspan, capable of launching rockets.
  • It took six years to build the aircraft called 'Stratolaunch' capable of carrying up to 250 tonnes of cargo.
  • The idea used in the spaceship is similar to the First used space aircraft Space Ship one.
Ministry of Earth Sciences to launch ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ by January 2018
  • The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) planned to launch ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ by January 2018.
  • ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ will improve India’s position in ocean research field.
  • India designated an area of 75,000 square km for deep sea exploration. This area has an estimated resource of about 100 million tonnes of strategic metals such Copper, Nickel, Cobalt besides Manganese and Iron.
Japan launches new satellite to improve Global Positioning System
  • Japan launched a new satellite to improve the to help build a high precision geolocation system.
  • Japan launched an H-2A rocket which carries the satellite called "Michibiki No.2" from a space center in Tanegashima, Southern Japan.
  • It aims to build its version with four satellites focusing on the country and wider region.
Prithvi-II Ballistic Missile Successfully Test Fired In Chandipur
  • India successfully test-fired Prithvi-II ballistic missile of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha's Balasore.
  • The surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher.
  • The Prithvi-II missile is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads and is thrust by liquid propulsion twin engines.