DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JUNE 15, 2018

Daily Current Affairs (June 15, 2018) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness , Static GK and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

NATIONAL

Six museums on tribal freedom fighters to be set up

The Centre will set up six museums dedicated to tribal freedom fighters in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala with an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore. Nearly, 10 percent of India’s population is tribal.

The biggest among these six museums in the first phase are the ones coming up in Gujarat’s Garudeshwar, at a cost of Rs 102 crore, and the one dedicated to Birsa Munda in Ranchi, at Rs 37 crore. The 70-acre museum in Gujarat will be completed by 2020 and will be dedicated to various tribal movements in the country.

Besides, the Raipur museum (at Rs 26 crore) will showcase the movement led by Veer Narayan Singh; the Lambasingini museum (Rs 35 crore) in Andhra Pradesh will commemorate Alluri Sita Rama Raju; the museum in Chhindwara (Rs 39 crore) is dedicated to various tribal leaders from Madhya Pradesh; while the one in Kozhikode (Rs 16 crore) will pay tribute to tribal freedom fighters under the leadership of Thalakkal Chandu.


National level Tribal Research Institute (TRI)  proposed to be set up at Delhi

The ministry of tribal affairs has proposed setting up of a national level Tribal Research Institute (TRI) along with a National Tribal Museum in New Delhi. It was announced by Union Minister Jual Oram.

The national level TRI will be responsible for coordinating the activities of state TRIs along with taking up national level studies.

The National Tribal Museum, which will be a part of the set up, will showcase the rich tribal culture and heritage using state-of-the art technologies.

The allocations under Scheduled Tribe Component (STC) has seen an increase of 94 per cent in the last four years, from Rs 19, 437 crores in 2014-15 to Rs 37,803 crores in 2018-19.


KSLMA initiates  ‘water literacy’ campaign

Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority has initiated a ‘water literacy’ campaign with the involvement of 70,000 students aiming to create awareness about the importance of water conservation in the State.

As per the campaign, every student will take classes about water conservation for 15 families in their locality.

The campaign aims at improvising the knowledge of students as also people regarding importance of water, prevention of water pollution, water conservation and laws related to water management.


Niti Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index: Gujarat Tops

Gujarat has emerged the top state in composite water management in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the first-of-its-kind ranking of states on management of water. Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been the worst performers.

Tripura is the top performer in northeast, while Rajasthan has emerged as the best performer in the incremental progress over the last two years. Niti Aayog has ranked all states on the composite water management index comprising of nine parameters and 28 indicators.

According to the Aayog, India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat. It is estimated the crisis is going to get worse by 2030 when India’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply.


Arunachal Pradesh inked an agreement with Smart Village Movement (SVM)

The Arunachal Pradesh government has inked an agreement with Andhra Pradesh-based Smart Village Movement (SVM) to facilitate technology innovations, research and development in selected villages of the north-eastern state.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by director-cum-member secretary of State Council for IT & e-Governance, Neelam Yapin Tana, and SVM project director Shreya Evani.
To begin with, 100 villages spread over 60 assembly constituencies would be selected in consultation with the government for the SVM project.


106th Indian Science Congress to Be Held in LPU

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate ‘106th Indian Science Congress’, to be held at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab from January 3 to 7, 2019.

The theme for the five-day science congress is ‘Future India: Science & Technology’.

According to an LPU spokesperson, about 15,000 delegates, including 300 top scientists and Nobel Laureates from across world are expected to attend the congress.


Cashless Ticketing Through ‘Utsonmobile’ App Developed By CRIS

The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) has developed a mobile based application ‘utsonmobile’. The initiative is towards digitalisation and achieving a cashless economy.

The ‘utsonmobile’ application enables booking and cancellation of unreserved tickets, issue and renewal of season and platform tickets, check and load R-wallet balance and helps maintain user profile management and booking history.

Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) will be created automatically with zero balance to the passenger.

There will be no extra cost for creating R-Wallet.


Himachal gets Rs 1,900 cr Funding for Tourism

The Central government has approved a tourism infrastructure development project of Rs 1,900 crore for Himachal Pradesh. It will be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

With the help of the funding, the state would be able to develop tourism in rural and unexplored areas and improve the infrastructure of towns, which will also generate employment opportunities.

The eight-year-long project will cover beautification of towns, development of unexplored areas, conservation and restoration of heritage buildings and infrastructure development in adventure, rural tourism with emphasis on community participation and employment generation.


Integrated Command and Control Centre of Naya Raipur Smart City Inaugurated

The Integrated Command and Control Centre of the Naya Raipur Smart City was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Naya Raipur is one of the 3 Smart Cities of Chhattisgarh selected under the Smart Cities Mission. The other two cities are Raipur and Bilaspur.

Integrated Command & Control Centre of Naya Raipur becomes the 10th Smart City Centre to be operational in the country. Under the ambitious Smart City Mission, Integrated Command & Control Centres in 9 cities had already become operational in the cities of are Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Pune, Nagpur, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Bhopal and Kakinada.


20 States signed MoU for implementing Ayushman Bharat

Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding with the State Health Ministers of 20 States marking their commitment towards the launch of the Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM).

The scheme will integrate two on-going centrally sponsored schemes viz. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

About Rs 5 lakh will be given to Rs 10.74 crore families under Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) or Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission.

The scheme allows the beneficiary to take cashless benefits from any public or private empanelled hospitals across the country. The payment for treatment will be done on package rate which will be defined by Government in advance basis. It includes pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.


INTERNATIONAL

Nirmala Sitharaman Inaugurates 1st Representative Offic of BEL

Smt Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the first Representative Office of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Representative Office will aim to promote BEL’s exports in areas such as Weapon Systems, Radar Systems, Naval Systems, Military Communication Systems, Electronic Warfare Systems, Combat Management System and Coastal Surveillance System.

Smt Sitharaman handed over the symbolic key of the Representative Office of BEL at Vietnam (VIRO) to Chairman & Managing Director, BEL Shri Gowtama MV.

BEL, India’s leading defence electronics company, is fast expanding its global presence especially in South East Asian countries such as the Republic of Union of Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.

Vietnam

Capital: Hanoi

Currency: Vietnamese dong


BANKING AND ECONOMY

US Govt approves sale of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to India

The United States government has approved a deal to sell the Indian military six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for $930 million.

The lead contractors are US arms, aviations and engineering giants Lockheed Martin, General Electric and Raytheon.

In addition to aircraft, the contract includes night vision sensors, GPS guidance and hundreds of Hellfire anti-armor and Stinger air-to-air missiles.


India ranked 177th in Global Environment Performance Index

India ranks 177 out of 180 in Environmental Performance Index. In 2016, the country was ranked 141 out of 180 countries.

The State of India’s Environment (SoE) is an annual compendium of environmental statistics put together by Down To Earth magazine, which Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) helps publish.  India scored 5.75 out of 100 in air quality.

India’s disappointing performance and the gravity of the situation is further highlighted when compared with countries such as Switzerland and Japan which have scored over 90.

The Top 3 countries on the list are,

  1. Switzerland
  2. France
  3. Denmark

WPI inflation at 14-month-high of 4.43% in May

Inflation based on wholesale prices shot up to a 14-month high of 4.43 percent in May on increasing prices of petrol and diesel as well as vegetables.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 3.18 per cent in April and 2.26 per cent in May last year.

According to government data released, inflation in food articles was at 1.60 per cent in May 2018, against 0.87 per cent in the preceding month.

Data released earlier this week showed retail inflation jumping to a 4-month high of 4.87 per cent in May on costlier food items such as fruits, vegetables and fuel. RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation data while formulating monetary policy.


Maharashtra and Quebec ink agreement for greater economic cooperation

The Maharashtra government and Canada’s Quebec province have signed a pact to increase the economic cooperation, especially in areas like information technology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and welfare nof the tribal community.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is on a tour to the US and Canada, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.


APPOINTMENTS

Dr. Inder Jit Singh Assumes Charge As Secretary, Ministry of Coal

Dr. Inder Jit Singh has assumed charge as Secretary, Ministry of Coal.

Dr. Inder Jit Singh took over the charge of  Secretary which fell vacant after superannuation of Shri Susheel Kumar.

Prior to this appointment as Coal Secretary, Dr. Inder Jit Singh was posted as Secretary (Coordination) in Cabinet Secretariat.


Union Home Minister to be the ex-officio chairman of the NEC

The Union cabinet has approved the nomination of the home minister as the ex-officio chairman of the North Eastern Council (NEC).

The NEC is an apex regional planning body and comprises governors and chief ministers of all the eight northeastern states as its members.

The cabinet also approved that minister of state (Independent Charge) for the ministry of development of north-eastern region (DoNER) would serve as vice chairman of the council.


Indian-American Dhivya Suryadevara appointed as CFO of General Motors

An Indian-American Dhivya Suryadevara has been named the Chief Finance Officer of the US’ largest automaker, General Motors.

Ms. Suryadevara, currently the vice president of corporate finance, will succeed Chuck Stevens, the General Motor’s present CFO, on September 1.

The Chennai-born Ms. Suryadevara has been General Motor’s vice president of corporate finance since July 2017.


SPORTS

Smriti Mandhana set to become first Indian to play in Kia Super League

Indian women’s cricket team opener Smriti Mandhana, will become the first player from her country to appear in England’s Kia Super T20 League beginning July 22.

Smriti was signed by Western Storm and will represent them in the upcoming edition of the tournament that features six teams. She also scored over 826 runs with a highest score of 76 in the 40 T20 Internationals she has played so far.

Mandhana has also played for Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia.


Shikhar Dhawan: The first-ever Indian batsman to score a century in the first session of a Test match

Shikhar Dhawan became the first Indian cricketer to score a century before lunch on the opening day of a Test.  He scored 107 runs from 96 balls.

The previous record for the highest score by an Indian batsman was held by Virender Sehwag, who scored 99 not out against West Indies in Gros Islet. Dhawan is only the sixth batsman overall to get to triple figures in the first session.

The last batsman to hit a ton before lunch was Australia opener David Warner, against Pakistan in 2017.


IMPORTANT DAYS

World Blood Donors Day 2018 – June 14

The World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) is observed on June 14. Countries around the world celebrate this event on the birth anniversary of Karl Landsteiner – the Austrian-American pathologist and immunologist who distinguished the main blood groups.

It is aimed at raising awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need.

The theme of World Blood Donor Day 2018 is “Blood connect us all” and the slogan of this day is ‘Be there for someone else, Share Life, Give Blood. The event is hosted by Greece.


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