International News Affairs
- The United Nations held its first-ever Ocean Conference to renew member nations’ commitment to combatting rising sea levels, pollution, and harmful fishing practices for the protection of world’s waterways.
- This conference ended with the adoption by consensus of a ’14-point Call for Action’ to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
- The voters of France began voting today in the first round of a parliamentary election.
- The vote to elect the lower house’s 577 members comes a month after the presidential victory of Emmanuel Macron, who requires a majority in the National Assembly to implement reforms he promised during his campaign.
- Aiming to reduce emissions and promote sustainability to help India’s smart city programme, France and the European Union today extended a grant of€3.5 million (nearly ₹25 crore) to India.
- Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad will get the grant as part of the EU’s commitment under the Paris Climate agreement for implementing the ‘Mobilise Your City’ (MYC) initiative.
National News Affairs
- West Bengal’s capital Kolkata will get India’s first underwater metro system, which will pass through the Hooghly river.
- The first tunnel, which has been completed, is built 30 metres below the earth’s surface, near the Howrah Bridge.
- Note : This is the first time in India that a tunnel has been made under a flowing river.
- The government has proposed to the Supreme Court an NEET-like examination to recruit judges to the lower judiciary.
- There were vacancies of 4,452 judges in subordinate courts in India as per the figures released on December 31, 2015.
- Besides the NEET model, the law ministry has also proposed a “centralised examination” that could be held by a “recruitment body”.
Awards & Honours
- Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee will be honored with Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian award.
Science & Technology
- Israel is going to offer manufacturing of Spike hand held ‘fire and forget‘ Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) to India under Make in India.
- This comes as Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, also the Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, will be on a four-day visit to Israel from today.
- US-based aviation company Cirrus Aircraft has launched the world’s smallest and most affordable private jet called ‘Vision Jet‘ for ₹12.62 crore.
- The jet which had been in making for a decade has only one engine and can cruise at 555 kmph.
- It has a maximum operating altitude of 28,000 feet, and takes off from just 620 metres of runway.
Obituary
- Adam West (88), who played Batman in American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC) 1960’s television series, has died of leukaemia.
- The actor also voiced characters from several shows including Rugrats, The Simpsons, Goosebumps, Johnny Bravo and SpongeBob SquarePants among others.
Banking, Business & Economic Affairs
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced that the GST Council has decided to reduce tax levels of 66 items.
- The council has lowered tax rates on insulin from 12% to 5%, packaged food including some fruits and vegetables from 18% to 12%, and agarbatti from 12% to 5%.
- Additionally, tax rate on computer printers has been lowered to 18%.
- India has moved the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the US as it has not yet complied with the rulings of the WTO pertaining to imposition of high import duty on certain Indian steel products.
- In December 2014, the WTO’s appellate body pronounced a ruling against the act of US which is imposing high import duty on certain Indian steel products.
- It had ruled that the imposition of import duty on steel products was inconsistent with various provisions of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Current Sports Affairs
- Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko (20) became the first ever unseeded women’s singles player in the Open Era to win the French Open after defeating Romania’s Simona Halep in the final today.
Careers
- The result of the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2017 were announced today morning.
- At least 1.7 lakh candidates had registered for the exam, which was held on May 21 and conducted by IIT Madras
- Sarvesh Mehtanifrom Panchkula, Haryana, has secured All India Rank 1 with 339 marks out of 366.
- The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) today announced that candidates who bring any gadgets inside the examination hall will be barred from giving the exam in future as well.
It included all electronic gadgets like cellular/mobile phones, any other devices for communication, laptops, bluetooth devices, and calculators in the list of banned gadgets.