International News Affairs
- Today (25th June) is the Day of the Seafarer.
- Seafarer means “person who travels by sea”
- This day is observed as an expression of thanks to the seafarers for their contribution to the economy and civil society of the world.
- The observance of the day also acknowledges the risks and personal costs endured by seafarers while being in their jobs.
- Day of the Seafarer (DotS) Theme 2017: “Seafarers Matter”.
- PM Narendra Modi presented the Overseas Citizen of India card to Portugal’s Indian-origin PM Antonio Costa during his visit to Lisbon yesterday.
- Important Note: During a visit to India in January, Costa was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the President.
- Pakistan has issued its 1st third-gender passportto a transgender activist.
MOUs & Agreements
- India and Portugal have signed 11 agreementsafter in-depth talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa.
- Note: This is the first-ever bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal.
- Both countries agreed to set up a joint Science and Technology fund of four million euros.
- The agreements signed by them are :
- MoU on Nano Technology
- MoU on Biotechnology
- MoU on Collaborative Research
- MoU on Public Administration & Governance Reforms
- MoU on Cultural Cooperation
- MoU on Youth & Sports
- MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & Indian Chamber of Commerce
- MoU on Cooperation in the fields of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- MoU for the creation of an India Portugal Space Alliance for advancing collaborative research.
- Protocol amending the Double Taxation Aviodance Agreement
- MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & AICEP Portugal Global
National Current News
- For the first time in the history of Manipur, Chief Minister Biren Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has launched a toll-free 24/7 helpline number ‘181‘ for women.
- This helpline will help fight and reduce crime against women in the state.
Science & Technology
- China has developed world’s most powerful magnetic detectorwhich can find hidden metallic objects, including minerals and submarines.
- The device is different from conventional designs because it uses a large number of probes and a superconductive computer chip cooled by liquid nitrogen which increases its signal sensitivity, reports said.
Current Sports Affairs
- India’s Kidambi Srikanth has won the Australian Open Superseries title today by beating Rio Olympics champion China’s Chen Long.
- This is the second consecutive Superseries title for world number 11 Srikanth, who won the Indonesia Open last week.
- This is Srikanth’s first win over Long, having lost to the world number six in all of their five earlier meetings.
- Haryana’s Anish Bhanwala set a junior world record to win the Gold medal in the 25-metre standard pistol at the ISSF Junior Shooting World Championship in Germany today.
- The 15-year-old registered a score of 579, going past the previous record of 574 set in 2002.
- Note : India also bagged the team silver, moving to second place in the medals tally.
- The World Taekwondo Federation has changed its name to World Taekwondo after its acronym ‘WTF’ was found to have “negative connotations”.
- India opened their ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 campaign with a 35-run win over hosts England in a match which saw Indian captain Mithali Raj break two world records.
- Raj scored her career’s 47th fifty, overtaking England’s Charlotte Edwards to record most fifties in women’s ODI cricket.
- Raj also became the only woman player to score seven consecutive ODI fifties.