24 June

International  News Affairs

• PM Narendra Modi will become the 1st foreign dignitary to have dinner at the White House with US President Donald Trump. 
  • Modi, who is on a three-day US visit, will have a working dinner with Trump on Monday, after a one-on-one interaction followed by bilateral meetings.
  • Note: Modi is on a three-nation tour to USA, Portugal and Netherlands.
• The Pakistan government has tasked the country’s National Council of Arts with the responsibility to rearrange the musical rendition of its national anthem ‘Qaumi Taranah‘ using a world class orchestra in order to represent cultural diversity.
  • The anthem, which is also called ‘Pak Sarzamin‘, was written by Hafeez Jullundhri in 1952 and was officially adopted in 1954.
• Egypt‘s parliament has approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s proposal to extend the state of emergency in the country for three more months. 
  • An emergency has been declared in Egypt since April after Islamic State-affiliated militant groups began targeting Coptic Christians, following which the government launched a crackdown on the attackers.

National  News affairs

• The urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has today launched ‘City Liveability Index’, the 1st Liveability index which will rank the country’s 116 major cities on the basis of the quality of life.
  • This index will cover cities with a population above one million, including the capital cities.
  • The rankings based on the index would be released in 2018.
• Telangana Cabinet has approved an ordinance which will make online rummy illegal in the state.
  • The ordinance, which will now need Governor E S L Narasimhan’s approval, amends the Gaming Act to include and ban online gambling.

New Appointments

• Palbinder Kaur Shergill has become the 1st turbaned Sikh woman to be appointed a Judgeof Canada’s Supreme Court of British Columbia today.
  • She is going to replace Justice EA Arnold-Bailey, who retired on May 31.
• Anantha P Chandrakasan, an India-born professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been named Dean of the University’s School of Engineering.
• The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Imran Khawaja as its Deputy Chairman.

Science & Technology

• The European Space Agency has approved €1.05-billion Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission that will search for minute ripples in space-time called gravitational waves.
• Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal has launched Weather Portal for Power Sector & Web Portal titled ‘MERIT’ (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency).

BANKING, BUSINESS & ECONOMIC NEWS

• The Indian government has today approved the proposal for setting up a Greenfield airport in Jewar (Greater Noida).
  • This airport is likely to be operational in the next five-six years.
• The United States of America (USA) has approved the sale of 22 Guardian drones India had sought for its navy.
  • The deal, estimated to be worth $2-3 billion, is one of the key defence agreements that the US has approved ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s maiden meeting with President Donald Trump in the US next week.

AWARDS & HONORS

• The United Nations today honoured West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with the highest public service award for her girl empowerment initiative Kanyashree Prakalpa.
• The Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer ‘Sultan‘ won the Best Action Movie award at the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival.
• Nisha Dutt, Chief Executive Officer of Intellecap has received the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award at The 7th Asian Awards in London.
  • With this, she became the 1st Indian woman leader to have been honoured with this award.