IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS
OF JUNE 26th, 2019
IMPORTANT
CURRENT AFFAIRS OF JUNE 26th, 2019
1.
(26th June) is International Day Against Drug Abuse and
Illicit Trafficking.
a. This
day is a United Nations International Day against drug abuse and the
illegal drug trade.
b. The date 26th
June chosen to commemorate Lin Zexu's dismantling of the opium trade in Humen,
Guangdong, just before the First Opium War in China.
c. Theme of the
year 2019 : "Health for justice, justice for health"
2.
Today is International Day in Support of Victims and
Nature.
a. This day had
been launched by the United Nations (UN) in 1997 and is a result of the
UN-convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment. This convention is binding according to international law, and
aims to avoid, ban and prohibit torture.
3.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Prime
Minister Narendra Modi at his residence
today.
a. Pompeo later
met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National
Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
4.
Pakistan, China and 53 other members of the United Nations' Asia-Pacific
Group of countries have backed India's
candidature for a non-permanent seat at the Security Council for
a 2-year term in 2021-2022.
a. Elections for
five non-permanent members for the 2021-2022 term will reportedly be held
around June 2020.
b. Note : India has
served as a non-permanent member of the UNSC 7 times.
5.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today
leave for Japan.
a. During this
visit, he will attend the 14th G20 Summit in Osaka on 28th and
29th of this month.
b. More than 20
countries will be participating in the G20 Summit.
c. Theme of 14th
G20 Summit : Human centred future society.
d. Food
security, energy security, financial stability, terrorism-related issues,
Innovation in the digital economy and artificial intelligence will be discussed
in the meeting.
e. Note : Former
Union Minister Suresh Prabhu is Prime Minister's Sherpa at the summit.
6.
The 32nd Congress of the International Seed Testing
Association (ISTA) has kick-started in Hyderabad this
morning.
a. Union
Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Kailash
Choudharyformally inaugurated the 8-day event.
b. Note : The Seed
Congress is being held for the 1st time in South Asia.
7.
Google Maps today rolled out a new feature 'Stay Safer' for
its Indian users who travel in taxis and autorickshaws.
a. The users
will get 'off-route alerts' if their driver deviates more than
0.5 kilometres from the Google Maps' suggested route.
b. Users can
also share their live trip with friends and family from that screen to make
them aware.
8.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has featured
in the list of '100 Most Influential People in UK-India Relations :
Celebrating Women'.
a. The list
credited Sitharaman as one of India's most
"powerful women" who plays a "pivotal" role in the
bilateral relationship.
9.
To give Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) a
leg up, an RBI panel has recommended establishing a ₹5,000-crore distressed
assets fund, setting up a non-profit special purpose vehicle (SPV) to
support crowd-funding, and doubling the limit for banks to extend loans without
collateral to ₹20
lakh.
a. The expert
committee on MSMEs was headed by : UK Sinha (former SEBI Chairman)
10.A Memorandum of Agreement
(MoA) was signed between the Ministry of Shipping and IIT,
Kharagpur for setting up the Centre for Inland and Coastal
Maritime Technology.
a. This Centre
will focus on indigenisation of ship designing, building and testing.
11.The government today
appointed Arvind Kumar, a 1984 batch IPS officer of the
Assam-Meghalaya cadre, as the new Director of the Intelligence
Bureau (IB).
12.The government also
appointed Samant Goel of the Punjab cadre as the Chief
of India’s external spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
13.The government has
extended the tenure of Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer
of its think tank NITI Aayog, by 2 years.
a. His current
term was to end on 30th June2019.
14.US First Lady Melania
Trump has announced that her spokesperson Stephanie Grisham will
be the next White House Press Secretary and Communications Director.
a. Grisham is
going to replace Sarah Sanders who's set to step down at the
end of this month.
15.WarnerMedia has
named Ann Sarnoff as the CEO of Warner
Bros.
a. With this,
Sarnoff will become the 1st woman to head the studio.
b. She is going
to replaceKevin Tsujihara.
16.The Internet and
Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has named Amit Agarwal,
the SVP and Country Manager of Amazon India, as the new Chairman of
the association.
a. Agarwal is
going to replace former Google India and South East Asia VP Rajan Anandan.
b. Yatra
CEO Dhruv Shringi was named Vice Chairman,
while Times Internet Vice-Chairman Satyan Gajwani was
named Treasurer.
17.US defence and aerospace
major Boeing today appointed Surendra Ahuja as
the Managing Director of Boeing Defense India.
18.The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that the 2026 Winter
Olympics will be staged at the Italian venue of Milan/Cortina
d'Ampezzo after beating off a bid from Sweden's Stockholm/Are.
a. Italy has twice
previously hosted the Winter Olympics, firstly in 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo and
then in 2006 in Turin.
b. The Winter
Olympics 2026 will be held during 6th to 22nd February 2026.
19.Australia defeated
England by 64 runs at Lord's Cricket Ground to become the 1st team to
qualify for the 2019 World Cup semi-finals.
20.Former Chennai Super
Kings pacer Manpreet Gony announced his retirement from
all forms of cricket, except overseas short-format leagues.
a. Gony played
in 2 ODIs apart from playing in 61 first-class matches for Punjab and 44 IPL
matches.
b. He will now
play for Toronto Nationals in the Global T20 Canada league.
21.The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) today stripped Olympic status from the
troubled world boxing body AIBA.
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