International NEWS Affairs

• Britain and France have announced a new joint campaign to stop the internet from being a safe space for terrorists as they plan tougher action to tackle online radicalisation.
• Israel has approved the construction of over 8,000 new homes in West Bank, making it the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the area in 25 years.
• Panama has established formal diplomatic ties with China and broke all of its relationship with Taiwan in a move that is seen as a victory for China in its drive to isolate Taiwan from the rest of the world.
  • Note : China claims Taiwan as its own territory.
  • Panama has established formal diplomatic ties with China and broke with Taiwan on 12 of June.

Key Notes:

• Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said to media that Panama was upgrading its commercial ties with China.
• Panama is establishing full diplomatic links with the second most important customer of its key shipping canal.
• China has commended Panama for its decision.
• The Panamanian government has announced that it is breaking its ‘diplomatic ties’ with Taiwan, and pledges to end all relations or official contact with Taiwan.
• Panama is one of the Taiwan’s oldest friends. vi. Some diplomats in Beijing had speculated that the Central American country could become the next nation to break ties.
• Taiwanese President Tsai Ing­wen visited Central American allies earlier this year but did not stop in Panama.

About Panama :

♦ Capital : Panama City

♦ President: Juan Carlos Varela

♦ Vice President: Isabel Saint Malo

SRK, Salman, Akshay part of Forbes’ highest­ earning

• The Forbes list of the ‘World’s Highest­Paid Celebrities of 2017‘ has been topped by American rapper and entrepreneur Sean Combs, known by his more famous stage name ‘Diddy’, with earnings of 130 million dollars. It was published on 13th of June 2017.

• Indian superstars Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar are among Forbes’ annual list of the highest­earning entertainers in the world.

• The list includes American singer and icon Beyonce on the second spot with earnings of USD 105 million.Author J K Rowling, is at number three with USD 95 million.

National nEWS Affairs

• MHA panel to examine rules on people’s movement near Indo­ Myanmar border On June 12, 2017, Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh decided to set up an expert committee to examine the rules which allows free movement of Indian and Myanmarese citizens within 16 kms of the border.
  • The decision to setup the committee was taken by Rajnath Singh while chairing the meeting of Indo­Myanmar Border States in Aizawl, Mizoram on June 12, 2017.
  • The committee will be headed by the special secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• With 2.5 lakh Child labourers, Uttar Pradesh ranks first – CRY report As per a report released by Child Rights and You (CRY), Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of children (250672) engaged in labour.
  • Over 8 lakh children in India between the age group 5 and 6 years are engaged in child labour.Over 60% of these children do not attend school. Majority of these kids are engaged in family based employments.
  • Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of children engaged in labour, followed by Bihar (128087 children) and Maharashtra (82847 children).

• Sikkim govt signs Mou with British Council

The Human Resource Development department of Sikkim government has signed a MoU with the British Council on 13 of June, 2017

Key Notes:

i.Objective: To enhance the quality of education in the state.

1. The MoU was signed by G P Upadhaya, additional chief secretary cum principal Human Resource Development department and Alan Gemmell, Head of British Council.

iii. The main aim of signing the MoU is to improve the educational structure of the schools of Sikkim.

1. The purpose of the MoU is to support the aims and aspirations of the young people of Sikkim through collaborative projects.
2. The CM of Sikkim also planned his vision to revolutionise Sikkim’s education and help children achieves greater feats in life.
3. The programme includes capacity building in teaching, learning and research pedagogy of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Social Science teachers from undergraduate colleges and universities in Sikkim by UK higher education experts along with internship of young faculties at relevant UK Universities.

About Sikkim

• Capital: Gangtok
• Governor: Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil
• Chief Minister: Pawan Chamling

Recent Committees in News

• Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted an expert committee to examine the rules which allow free movement of people near Indo-Myanmar border.
  • This expert committee would be headed by the special secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• BJP constitutes 3-member high level committee to consult political parties for reaching consensus on Presidential candidate.
  • Members of this Committee :
    • M Venkaiah Naidu
    • Rajnath Singh
    • Arun Jaitley

New Appointments

• Uber has appointed Wan Ling Martello, the Executive Vice President of Nestle in South Asia, as an independent board director.
  • Note : Martello is only the second woman on Uber’s seven-member board after Arianna Huffington, who joined the board in April 2016.

Awards & Honors

• ‘Project Jal Sanchay’, a water conservation model which is successfully adopted in Nalanda district of south-central Bihar, has been chosen for the National Award for excellence inMGNREGP (Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee programme) by the Ministry of Rural Development.
  • The award will be conferred on June 19 at a function held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

Science & Technology

• In the first-ever study of dating Jupiter‘s age, an international group of scientists have confirmed that Solar System’s largest planet is also the oldest.
  • Scientists showed through analyses of meteorites that Jupiter’s solid core was the first to form after the explosion of a nebula (cloud of dust and gas) 4.6 billion years ago, that led to Solar System’s formation.

Business & Economic Affairs

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is going to introduce a new batch of₹500 currency notes, which will have inset letter ‘A‘.
  • However, old notes, which were introduced following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move, will continue to remain legal tender.
  • The note will bear the signature of RBI Governor Urjit Patel and will have the year of printing ‘2017’.
• India’s retail inflation in May cooled to a record low of 2.18% from 2.99% in April, according to government data.
  • May’s inflation level is the lowest since India began measuring consumer price inflation in 2012, and remains well below RBI’s 4% target for the seventh straight month.
  • The drop was due to lower prices of pulses, cereals, and perishable goods.
• Government imposes anti­dumping duty on Chinese ceramic items India has imposed an anti­dumping duty on import of ceramic table and kitchen ware items from China.

Key Notes:

• The government has done to protect domestic industry against goods being sold at below normal value.
• The anti­dumping duty imposed shall be levied for a period not exceeding six months (unless revoked, amended or superseded earlier).
• The main reason of dumping is that the ceramic tableware and kitchenwareare being exported from China to India below its normal value.
• The Directorate General of Anti­Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has recommended the imposition of provisional anti­dumping duty in order to remove the injury to the domestic industry

Current Sports Affairs

• Golden State Warriors have been crowned NBA Champions for the fifth time after defeating LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the best-of-seven NBA Finals today.
• In a meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, South Korean President Moon Jae-inoffered to co-host the 2030 World Cup with rival North Korea and other northeast Asian countries in an attempt to promote peace in the region.
• Virat Kohli has become the Top-ranked ODI batsman, rising two places in the ICC ODI rankings after scoring 157 runs in three matches in the ongoing Champions Trophy.
  • Top 10 in the List
    • Virat Kohli (India)
    • David Warner (Australia)
    • AB de Villiers (South Africa)
    • Joe Root (England)
    • Kane Williamson (New Zealand)

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.

International News Affairs

• Today (8th June) is World Oceans Day.
  • This is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future.
  • This day was officially recognized by the United Nations in late 2008.
  • The 2017 World Oceans Day will coincide with the The United Nations Ocean Conference.
  • Theme of World Oceans Day 2017 :  “Our Oceans, Our Future
• Today is World Brain Tumor Day.
  • This day was initiated by German Brain Tumor Association in the year 2000.
  • Aim of this Day : To spread awareness about this lethal disease.
• Voting in UK’s general election began today with Conservative Party’s Theresa May and Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn contesting to become Britain’s next PM.
  • The vote will determine who gets to negotiate Britain’s departure from the EU over the next two years.
• The BRICS grouping has established a1 million dollar fund for boosting media cooperation.
  • BRICS – Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa

National News Affairs

• The government is planning to introduce “Digital Unique Identification”, such as Aadhaar, PAN, or passport number for air travel, Union Minister Jayant Sinha announced today.
  • Air travellers are already required to carry a copy of their identity while entering an airport.
• The Centre has drafted a proposal to allow mercy killing of wild animals in order to control their population and also to save crops.
  • Mercy killing involves killing animals for reasons of space, lack of proper centres, resources and personnel, according to the draft of the policy.
  • The plan also recommends identifying the relevant procedures for mercy killing.
• Health Secretary C K Mishra has inaugurated the ‘Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh’, a National Human Milk Bank and Lactation Counselling Centre at the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) in New Delhi.
  • This centre would be the largest public sector human milk bank and lactation counselling centre available in North India
• The government has directed all colleges and universities to stop accepting students’ fees in cash and resort to digital modes from the next academic session.
  • Campus canteens were “encouraged” to use the government’s BHIM payments app for all transactions.
• The Union Ministry of Law and Justice has cleared the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2017, and thus legalising Kambala. The bill will now be sent to the President for getting his assent.
  • Kambala : This is the traditional slush track buffalo race that is held annually in coastal districts of Karnataka to entertain rural people of the area.

New Appointments

• US Air Force’s Lt Col Raja Chari has been selected by NASA from over 18,300 applicants for its 2017 Astronaut Class.
  • The 39-year-old, whose father hails from India, is the 3rd Indian-origin NASA astronautafter Sunita Williams and late Kalpana Chawla.
• Flipkart-owned fashion e-tailer Myntra has appointed former Amazon and Snapdeal executive Jeyandran Venugopal as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
  • Note : Venugopal would be Myntra’s third CTO in less than a year.
  • He will replace Ajit Narayanan, who held the responsibility since September last year.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• Retail giant Walmart has topped Fortune’s annual list of America’s top 500 companies for the fifth consecutive year with a revenue of $485.8 billion.
  • Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway emerged at the second position on the list followed by tech giant Apple.
• Oil marketing companies will extend the new pricing mechanism for fuel across India from June 16.
  • Under the new system, companies won’t wait for 15 days to adjust prices, and instead change them everyday based on crude price movements.
  • This will move India to an international fuel pricing standard and prevent losses due to crude movements over a 15-day period.
• India ranked 15thin the global 4G availability list, according to OpenSignal’s State of LTE report, up nine places from its November 2016 rank of 24.

Awards & Honours

• A minor planet in the Milky Way galaxy would be named after 16-year-old Sahithi Pingalifrom Bengaluru.
  • The class 12 student represented India and finished second at ISEF, world’s largest international pre-college science competition, following which MIT decided to name a planet after her.
  • She had developed a mobile application which obtains data by crowdsourcing to measure pollution in lakes.
• Union Minister of Health and Family WelfareJ P Nadda has been conferred the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award for global tobacco control.
• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has surpassed the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, to become the top-ranked Indian institute according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.
  • Note : With rankings of 172 (IIT-Delhi), 179 (IIT-Bombay) and 190 (IISc), three universities have found a place in the top 200 for the first time.

Current Sports Affairs

• Indian professional tennis player Rohan Bopanna has become the 4th Indian to win a Grand Slam, winning the French Open mixed doubles along with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski today.
• Forbes’ world’s highest-paid athletes list of 2017
  • Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list followed by American basketball player LeBron James and Argentine footballer Lionel Messi.
  • Virat Kohli (89th Spot) is the only Indian and lone cricketer in Forbes’ world’s highest-paid athletes list of 2017.
  • Tennis player Serena Williams is the only woman in Forbes’ 2017 list of world’s 100 highest paid athletes.
  • Top 10 in the List :
    • Cristiano Ronaldo
    • LeBron James
    • Lionel Messi
    • Roger Federer
    • Kevin Durant
    • Andrew Luck
    • Rory McIlroy
    • Stephen Curry
    • James Harden
    • Lewis Hamilton

International News Affairs

• Today (5th June 2017) is World Environment Day.
  • This day is observed to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth.
  • This day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in the year 1972 on the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began.
  • This year’s host country : Canada
  • Theme of World Environment Day 2017 : “Connecting people to nature”
• The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt today broke off all diplomatic ties and land and sea contact with fellow Gulf Arab state Qatar, citing “terrorism” and “flagrant violation” of international law.
  • This comes after Qatar’s state news reported that a Qatari emir criticised Donald Trump and praised Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, although Qatar claimed this was fake news.
• For the first time, Pakistan’s Sindh government has recruited 46 women in the police’s counter-terror department for combat operations and intelligence gathering.
  • Note : Less than 2% of Pakistani police officers are women.

Awards & Honours

• The Ministry of Rural Development has selected Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh) as one among the 17 districts for MGNREGA annual award.
  • The award will be given to Vizianagaram for its effective implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during the time period 2015-16.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• 2017 Global Retail Development Index
  • The 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) titled ‘The Age of Focus‘ has placed India at the top position among 30 developing countries on ease of doing business in the retail sector.
  • China stood at the second place and Malaysia has been ranked third.
  • Top 10 in the List
    • India (71.7)
    • China (70.4)
    • Malaysia (60.9)
    • Turkey (59.8)
    • United Arab Emirates (59.4)
    • Vietnam    (56.1)
    • Morocco (56.1)
    • Indonesia (55.9)
    • Peru (54.0)
    • Colombia (53.6)
  • Note: This is the 16th edition of the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI).
• Khadi yarn, Gandhi topi, and India’s national flag will not attract any tax under the new GST regime, which is to be implemented from July 1.
  • Further, chandan tika, unbranded honey, and wick for diya have also been exempted under the new indirect tax regime.
• The World Bank has projected 2 per cent growth for India this year against 6.8 per cent last year.
• State-run NTPC today announced that the company has forayed into electric vehicle charging business and has set up first such charging stations at its offices in Delhi and Noida.

Science & Technology

• The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)today successfully launched India’s heaviest rocket ‘Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III‘ carrying the 3,136 kg communication satellite GSAT-19.
  • The 43.43-metre rocket that weighs 640 tonnes is capable of lifting payloads of up to 4,000 kg into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
  • It was developed in 15 years at a cost of ₹300 crore.

Current Sports Affairs

• India defeated Pakistan by 124 runs (D/L method) in their opening encounter of the Champions Trophy 2017, achieving the biggest margin of victory by runs against the arch-rivals in an ICC tournament.