Current Affairs Daily Updates: 30th June 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Shamma Jain
appointed Indian envoy to Greece
- Senior diplomat Shamma Jain was
appointed as India's ambassador to Greece.
- A 1983-batch Indian Foreign
Service officer, Jain is currently serving as Indian envoy to Panama.
- Jain succeeds M Manimekalai as
Indian envoy in Greece.
- She had earlier served as
ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Hyderabad-based
TS Vineeth Bhatt conferred with the 'best astrologer of world' award
- Astrologer and numerologist TS
Vineeth Bhatt has been conferred with the 'Best astrologer of the world'
award at the 'Russian-Indian economic dialogue' round-table meet held in
Moscow.
- Bhatt, 37, is from Kerala and
lives in Bowenpally. Three generations of his family have been practising
astrology.
- He is a personal astrologer to
ministers, ambassadors, senators across the globe.
Adi Godrej,
Andrew Liveris won USIBC Global Leadership Awards
- Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej
and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveries won the Global Leadership Awards of
the United States-India Business Council (USIBC)for their role in
integrating India into the global supply chain.
- Both were honoured for creating
inclusive business environments, integrating India into the global supply
chain and advancing core values such as manufacturing, innovation and
scale in tough market conditions.
BANKING AFFAIRS
ADB commits
10 billion to support development of States in India
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
committed USD 10 billion to support infrastructure building and to cater
to the immediate development needs of less-developed States in India.
- The ADB President agreed 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 is multilateral lending
agency based in Manila, the Philippines established on 19 December 1996.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
India
becomes 1st country to give to UN Tax Fund with $100000 contribution
- India has contributed $100,000
to a United Nations fund to help developing countries actively participate
in the discussion of tax issues, becoming the first country to make the
contribution.
- The UN Tax Committee a
subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC) provided
guidance on current issues such as double taxation treaties, transfer
pricing (profit shifting) taxation of the extractive industries and
taxation of services.
BHEL signs
pact with Japanese firm for manufacturing coaches for Metro Trains
- Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
(BHEL) made an agreement with Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI) of Japan
for manufacturing of stainless steel coaches and bogies for metros.
- Kawasaki Heavy Industries
manufactures heavy equipment/products and its Rolling Stock Company has
supplied EMU (Metro/Commuter) train sets to various countries like US,
Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong.
- This technology collaboration
agreement will be helpful to establishing design, engineering and
manufacturing facilities at BHEL.
IMPORTANT DAYS OBSERVED
National
Statistics Day: 29 June
- In recognition of the notable
contributions made by Late Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in the
fields of statistics, statistical system and economic planning, Government
of India in 2007, designated 29thJune the birth anniversary of Prof.
Mahalanobis. as the “Statistics Day” in the category of Special Days to be
celebrated every year at the National level.
- The objective of celebration of
this Day is to create public awareness about the importance of statistics
in socio-economic planning and policy formulation, to acknowledge the
contribution of Prof. Mahalanobis and to pay homage to him.
- ‘Administrative Statistics’ is
this year’s theme for the Statistics Day.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
SIERRA ODC
building in Coimbatore receives World’s Second Highest Green Rating
- SIERRA ODC building is
recognised as the world’s second highest ranking Green Building.
- It 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.
- Green Buildings are designed and
operated to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human
health and the natural environment.
- The green buildings efficiently
use energy, water, and other resources, protects occupant health, improves
employee productivity, and reduces waste, pollution and environmental
degradation.
British
Prime Minister Theresa may wins confidence vote in Parliament
- British Prime Minister Theresa
may win the confidence vote in the Parliament getting her first major test
as the Prime Minister of a Minority Government in the United Kingdom (UK).
- The announcement led the
opposition party leader to withdraw an amendment to the Queen's Speech
demanding the state-run National Health Service (NHS) in England stop
charging women coming from the province, where abortion is illegal except
when the life of the mother is in danger.
China Is
Building The World's 1st Vertical 'Forest City'
- China is building a forest city
covered in tree to act like one giant air filter.
- The complex will span about a
kilometre along the Liujiang River, with office buildings, apartments,
schools, and hotels, all engulfed by around 40,000 trees and more than a
million plants.
- The aim is to have the green
towers soak up the air pollution in the area and produce clean oxygen,
encouraging the growth of other local flora in the process.
UNSC
approves resolution reducing joint UN-AU peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur
- The UN Security Council (UNSC)
approved a resolution by reducing the joint United Nations-African Union
peacekeeping force in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.
- The British-drafted resolution
will reduce the number of peacekeepers by 44 per cent and International
police by about 27 per cent in the Darfur mission.
- The UN-AU force was established
in 2007 with a mandate to help protect civilians in Darfur.
United
States to sell C-17 Globemaster Transport Aircraft to India
- The United States of America
(USA) decided to sell one C-17 transport aircraft 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.
- The Boeing C-17A Globemaster III
military airlift aircraft is one of the most flexible cargo aircraft of
the US Air Force fleet.
United
States issues New Visa Criteria for Six Muslim Countries
- United States of America issues
new visa Criteria for visa applicants from six Muslim countries.
- The countries were Iraq, Iran,
Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.
- 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 United States of America.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Delhi
Development Authority (DDA) to launch new housing scheme with 12,000 flats
- The Delhi Development Authority
(DDA) new housing scheme with 12,000 flats on offer will be launched.
- For the LIG (Lower Income Group)
category, the registration fee will be Rs1 lakh while for Middle Income
Group and High Income Group flats, Rs2 lakh will be charged.
- It has tied up with 10 banks for
the sale of application forms and scheme-related transactions. The banks
are Axis Bank, Yes Bank, IDBI, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank, SBI, Kotak
Mahindra, HDFC, ICICI and Canara Bank.
Union
Government launches new Hydrocarbon licensing regime
- Union Petroleum Minister
Dharmendra Pradhan introduced a new oil and gas block licensing policy
that is expected to open up 2.8 million square kilometres of sedimentary
basins to exploration and production activities.
- The inauguration of the
Government’s Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) and the National Data
Repository.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates filling of Aji Dam at Rajkot by Narmada
water
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi
inaugurates filing of Aji dam with Narmada waters under Sauni Yojana.
- He launched Smart Rajkot
Hackathon where the urban local body will engage with young students to
find innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of various Government
departments.
Andhra
Pradesh CM Chandrababu launches MSME Corporation with Rs 100 crores
- Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister CM
Chandrababu launches the establishment of Micro, Small, Medium
Entrepreneurs (MSME) Development Corporation at Vijayawada with a fund of
Rs.100 crore on the occasion of International MSME Day.
- MSME Bhavan would be constructed
in all the 175 Assembly constituencies and Industrial Promotion Councils
are being set up, headed by a Minister, in all the districts.
- MSME parks would be developed in
100 to 150 acres of land in various districts.
Dr Jitendra
Singh launches new training programme ‘COMMIT’ for State Government officials
- Minister of State for
Development of North Eastern Region Dr Jitendra Singh Personnel, Public
Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space launched a new training
programme Comprehensive
- Online Modified Modules on
Induction Training (COMMIT) for State Government officials.
- The main objective of this
training programme is to improve the public service delivery mechanism and
provide citizen-centric administration through capacity building of
officials who interact with the citizens on a day-today basis.
- It is cost effective and has the
potential to cover about 3.3 lakh officials annually, compared to 10,000
officials under existing 12-Day Induction Training Programme (ITP).
National
Legal Services Authority launched Web Application for Legal Services to
Prisoners
- National Legal Services
Authority (NALSA) launched a web application for free Legal Services to
Prisoners at the conference held at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.
- The Legal Services Management
System is developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- 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.
SPORTS AFFAIRS
Kidambi Srikanth climbs up three spots to re-enter
top-10 of badminton rankings
- India’s ace shuttler Kidambi
Srikanth broke back into the top-10 at eighth in the latest world rankings
released yesterday.
- The 24-year-old from Guntur, who
clinched successive titles at Indonesian Open and Australian Open, now has
58,583 points in his kitty.
- Among other Indian male
shuttlers, B Sai Praneeth has moved up a position to be 15th, while Ajay
Jayaram lost a spot to be 16th.
- HS Prannoy also dropped two
places to be 23rd.
