IPCI Info

23 June

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23 Jun

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Affairs

  • Today (23rd June) is International Olympic Day.
    • This day was introduced in 1948 to commemorate the birth of the modern Olympic Games on 23 June 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris.
    • The goal of this day is to promote participation in sport across the globe regardless of age, gender or athletic ability.
  • Today (23rd June) is the World Public Service Day.
    • This day is dedicated by the United Nations to “celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community”.
    • Since 2003, this day is marked with UN Public Service Awards Ceremony wherein works of public servants are recognised and they are awarded for their contributions in the field.
    • Theme of World Public Service Day 2017 :  ‘The Future is Now’
  • Today (23rd June) is International Widows Day.
    • This day is a United Nations ratified day of action to address the “poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents in many countries”.
    • This day was established by The Loomba Foundation to raise awareness of the issue of widowhood.
    • The significance of 23 June is that it was on that day in 1954 that Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, mother of the foundation’s founder, Lord Loomba, became a widow.
    • Theme of International Widows Day 2017 : “Empowering Women for Greater Achievements”
  • UK PM Theresa May has told European Union leaders that any EU citizen living in UK for five years will be given “UK settled status” after Brexit.
    • The new immigration status would grant EU citizens the right to stay in the UK and get health, education and other benefits.
  • Saudi Arabia has recently introduced a ‘family tax’ of 100 riyals (₹1,700 approx) on immigrants living there.
    • Expats employed in Saudi are required to pay the fee per dependent per month in advance.
    • The move which will be effective from July 1 is expected to put a financial strain on 41 lakh Indians living there, reports said.

National news Affairs

  • External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today announced that all passports from now on will be in English and Hindi languages as against the existing passports which are only in English.
    • Swaraj also announced a 10% reduction in passport fee for applicants who are under 8 years of age and for those over 60 years of age.
  • As part of its ‘Power for All’ scheme, the Uttar Pradesh government will be providing free electricity connections to all urban Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
  • The government today released a new list of 30 cities to be developed as smart cities under the Smart City Mission.
    • Kerala’s Trivandrum has topped the list, while Chhattisgarh’s Naya Raipur and Gujarat’s Rajkot bagged the second and third spots.
    • This new list has four cities from Tamil Nadu (Tiruppur, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tiruchirappalli) and three each from Uttar Pradesh (Jhansi, Allahabad and Aligarh) and Gujarat (Rajkot, Gandhinagar and Dahod).
  • The central government is going to increase the speed limit on highways and expressways up to 120 kilometres per hour across India.
    • Currently, all national highways in the country have a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour, except the Yamuna Expressway that has a 100 kilometres per hour speed limit.
  • Department of Science and Technology has launched VAJRA (Visiting Advance Joint Research) Faculty scheme.
    • This scheme enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India.

 

Science & Technology

  • India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in its 40th flight today successfully launched 31 satellites in one gointo a 505 km polar Sun-Synchronous Orbit.
    • The ISRO-made rocket carried a 712-kg Cartosat-2 series Earth-observing satellite and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing 243 kg.
    • The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 nano satellites from 14 countries and one from India.
  • NASA today launched satellite ‘KalamSat‘ which is developed by Indian teenagers hailing from Tamil Nadu.
    • Made of reinforced carbon fibre polymer, the 64-gram satellite named after former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam is the smallest and lightest satellite in the world.
    • Note: It is the first time that NASA has carried out an Indian students’ experiment.
  • The United States has cleared the sale of the state-of-the-art Guardian 22 unmanned Guardian drones to India.
    • The deal to sell UAV drones to India is estimated to be worth $2 to $3 billion.

 

Current Sports Affairs

  • Former powerlifter Kavita Devi will become the first Indian woman wrestler in WWE, after getting selected for the company’s first-ever tournament for women, Mae Young Classi
    • Kavita, who trained at The Great Khali’s wrestling academy in Punjab, appeared at the WWE Dubai tryout this year where she was selected.
    • She will compete at the 32-competitor event in Florida next month.