3 June

International News Affairs

• India has been ranked 137th in the Global Peace Index 2017
  • Last Year’s Rank :141st
  • Top 10 Countries in the List : 
    • Iceland
    • New Zealand
    • Portugal
    • Austria
    • Denmark
    • Czech Republic
    • Slovenia
    • Canada
    • Switzerland
    • Ireland
  • The UN Security Council has unanimously voted to expand sanctions against North Korea in response to its repeated missile tests this year.
    • The measures impose a travel ban and asset freeze on North Korean officials and state entities that deal with the country’s nuclear program.
  • Japan‘s Navy and Air Force began a 3-day military exercise with two US aircraft carriers in the Sea of Japan adding pressure on North Korea to block its ballistic missile program.
    • The exercise came just two days after the US tested its missile defence capability by intercepting a mock intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean.
  • Danish lawmakers have repealed a 334-year-old blasphemy law that forbids public insults of a religion, such as the burning of holy books.
    • However, remarks and acts that threaten or demean certain groups of people because of their religious beliefs will still be punishable.
    • Important Note : Denmark was the only Scandinavian country with a blasphemy law.

New Appointments

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has appointed Ganesh Kumar as Executive Director (ED) after the voluntary retirement of Chandan Sinha.
• Indian-origin Minister Leo Varadkar has been elected the Prime Minister of Ireland.
  • With this, he became the country’s youngest (38) and first openly gay Prime Minister.
• The United Nations General Assembly today picked Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak to be its next President.
  • Lajcak, who was a contender to succeed Ban Ki-moon as UN Secretary General last year, will succeed Fijian diplomat Peter Thomson.
• Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer has become the 1st Indian to be nominated as a member of the Umpires and Referees Committee (URC) by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
  • He will serve for a term of two years which is further extendable.
• Shashi Shekar Vempati has been appointed as the CEO of Prasar Bharati.
  • He will hold the post for a period of five years.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• Anil Ambani today announced that the merged entity of Reliance Communications and Aircel will be called Aircom.
  • Note  : RCom will hold a 50% stake in the new company.

Recent Committees in News

• Market Regulator Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (SEBI) has formed a Committee on Corporate Governance.
  • The move is aimed at improving the standards of corporate governance of listed companies.
  • The panel has been mandated to submit the report within a period of four months.
  • Head of this Committee: Uday Kotak (MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank).

MOUs & Agreements

• Samsung India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for setting up two new Samsung Technical Schools in Bengaluru and Jamshedpur as well as to renew the partnership for 10 existing schools being run across the country.

Science & Technology

• A Chinese malware named ‘Fireball‘ has hit 25 crore computers worldwide, infecting them with malicious code designed to change the default search engine.
  • The malware further tracks the infected computer’s web traffic on behalf of a Beijing-based digital marketing firm called Rafotech.
  • The malware also has the ability to remotely run any code on the victim’s machine.
• The ‘Stratolaunch‘ aircraft built by Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen to launch rockets into space.
  • This is the world’s biggest aircraft with a wingspan of 385 feet
• NASA is all set to launch the world’s first ever mission devoted for studying neutron stars.
  • NASA will launch the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR(NICER), aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has developed a wireless technology called ‘AmbuSens‘ for remote monitoring of condition of those patients who are ferried in ambulances.

Current Sports Affairs

• Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is going to launch Messi Experience Park, an Amusement park themed around him in China in 2019.