IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS
OF JUNE 29th, 2019
IMPORTANT
CURRENT AFFAIRS OF JUNE 29th, 2019
1.
On the 1st day of G20 Summit at Osaka (Japan), G-20
nations have agreed to make united efforts to address major global
economic challenges.
a. The countries
have affirmed to work together to foster global economic growth while
harnessing the power of technological innovation, in particular digitization
and its application for the benefits of all.
b. India also
pitched strongly to deal with fugitive economic offenders.
c. Indian PM
Narendra Modi also invited the G-20 countries to join a global
coalition on disaster resilience, saying disasters require quick and
effective remedial measures as they invariably affect the poor the most.
d. Note : Modi held
bilateral and multilateral meetings during the summit with many leaders,
including US President Donald Trump, Russian
president Vladimir Putinand China's Xi
Jinping.
2.
Today (29th June) is National Statistics Day.
a. This day is
organised by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
b. This day
commemorates the birth anniversary of Indian Bengali scientist and applied
statistician, Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.
i) He is best
remembered for theMahalanobis distance, a statistical measure.
3.
Uttar Pradesh state government has included 17 Other Backward
Classes (OBC) castes in the Scheduled Castes (SC)
list.
a. These castes
include Kashyap, Mallah, Kumhar, Rajbhar and Prajapati among
others.
b. With this new
move, the people of these castes will get the benefits of reservation and other
facilities on par with other SC castes.
4.
As many as 1,076 people died due to swine
flu in India this year until June 23, the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare has announced today.
a. The number of
people infected by the virus stands at 26,140.
b. Note : Over 200
people died due to swine flu in Rajasthan, which recorded
the highest death toll from the virus among states in India.
5.
Government is all set to implement One Nation-One Ration
Card scheme across the country by the end of June next year.
a. The Food
Ministry has already written to the states and Union Territories to fast-track
the roll out of the scheme.
b. The new
mechanism will ensure that no poor person is deprived of Public Distribution
System, PDS entitlement if the person shifts from one place to another.
c. The system
will also help to remove fake ration card holders.
d. Note : 10 states -
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura are already providing portability of PDS
entitlements.
6.
The Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Human
Resource Development has finalized and released a 5-year vision plan
named Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP).
a. This is in
accordance with the Prime Minister's direction for finalizing a five-year
vision plan for each Ministry.
b. The report
has been prepared after a detailed exercise done by the experts from various
areas, including promoting excellence, employability and entrepreneurship among
others.
7.
The government has reduced interest rate on Small
Savings Schemes, including Public Provident Fund (PPF), which will now
fetch 7.9% interest rate for the July-September quarter, down from existing
8%.
a. Important
Points to Note :
i) Govt has
reduced interest rate on PPF to 7.9% from 8% now.
ii) Interest on
5year NSC has also been cut to 7.9%.
iii) Interest rate
on Sukanya Samridhi Yojana has been brought down to 8.4% from 8.5%.
iv) Interest rate
on Kisan Vikas Patra has come down to 7.6% from 7.7%. It will now mature in 113
months instead of 112 months.
v) The interest
rates on 5 year time deposits, 5-year recurring deposits and the 5-year Senior
Citizens Savings Scheme have been lowered by 10 basis points.
vi) Senior
citizens scheme will now attract an interest rate of 8.6%.
vii) 5-year time
deposit and 5 year recurring deposit will attract interest rates of 7.7% and
7.2% respectively.
viii)
Postal savings rate remains unchanged at 4%.
8.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian
President Joko Widodo, met today on the sidelines of
G20 Summit in Japan.
a. Both leaders
discussed ways to boost bilateral ties.
b. As a result
of these discussions, India and Indonesia set
a $50 billion target for bilateral trade by 2025.
9.
Gujarat government has decided to increase the Dearness
Allowance (DA) of its over 9 lakh employees and pensioners by 3
per cent.
a. Now, the
employees and pensioners will get a total 12 percent dearness allowance from
the existing 9 per cent with retrospective effect from the 1st of January this
year.
10. The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) under
its Dragonfly mission, will send an 8-rotor drone-like
vehicle to Titan (Saturn's largest moon) to search
for origins and signs of life.
a. Dragonfly is
scheduled to launch in the year 2026 and arrive on Titan in 2034.
b. Note : Planned to
last at least 2.7 years, Dragonfly will become the 1st to fly its
entire science payload to new places outside Earth.
11. Search Engine
giant Google has announced a new undersea internet cable 'Equiano',
its 3rd private international cable after 'Dunant' and 'Curie'.
a. This new
cable will link Europe and Africa.
12. Senior IAS
officer K Shanmugham has been appointed the new
Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu Government.
a. He is going
to replace Girija Vaidyanathan, who retires on superannuation
tomorrow afternoon.
13. Senior IPS
officer J K Tripathy has been named the new Director
General of Police, Tamil Nadu.
a. He is going
to replace TK Rajendran who superannuated on completion of his
2 years tenure as the police chief.
14. Nike, the
official apparel sponsor of Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI), today formally unveiled Team
India's Orange-blue jersey for their World Cup
match against England.
a. India will
wear the away jersey on June 30, so it doesn't clash with England's blue
jersey.
b. The International
Cricket Council (ICC) gave various colour options to BCCI and they
chose the combination that "looked the best to them".
15. Sports
Minister Kiren Rijiju today announced an increase in Diet budget of all
athletes to bring parity.
a. The move will
impact 12,500 athletes training in various centres of the
Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Sports Ministry will release an
additional amount of 150 crore rupees annually to fund the new
diet budget.
b. Earlier, the
diet budget for SAI trainees was 250 rupees. For junior athletes, the diet
budget was 480 rupees and for senior athletes, it was 690 rupees.
c. But now the
Sports Minister decided to make the amounts equal.
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