IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF
JUNE 7th, 2018
1. The
informal meeting of IBSA Foreign Ministers was recently held
at Pretoria, South Africa.
a. India's
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of
International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Lindiwe
Sisulu and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Federative Republic of Brazil, Marcos Bezerra Abbott Galvão participated
in the meeting.
b. The
Ministers exchanged views on furthering IBSA cooperation during the year.
c. IBSA - India, Brazil, South Africa
2. To
address the criticality of ground water resources in a major part of the
country, the Indian government has formulated a new scheme titled, Atal
Bhujal Yojana.
a. The
scheme aims to improve ground water management in priority areas in the country
through community participation.
3. The Uttarakhand
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat announced
a blanket (complete) ban on polythene starting July
31.
4. In a
bid to check e-waste problem, Rajasthan government has
launched a scheme wherein people can sell their old phones, computers,
routers and any other electronic items to the government.
5. India has
registered a significant decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio
(MMR) recording a 22-per cent reduction in such deaths since 2013.
a. According
to the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin released, the MMR has declined
from 167 in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-2016.
6. The
Centre approved the continuation of the Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
Mark-III programmes, costing over ₹10,000 crore.
a. While ₹6,131 crore was allotted for
launching light-weight satellites in 30 PSLV flights, ₹4,338 crore was given for
heavy-weight satellites on 10 GSLV missions.
7. American
multinational technology company Microsoft has launched the
prototype of an underwater data centre off the coast of
Scotland's Orkney Islands.
a. The
40-foot-long capsule, which contains 864 servers and 27.6 Petabytes of storage,
has been placed 117 feet below the ocean's surface.
8. Union
Cabinet apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Denmark on
technical cooperation in the field of Sustainable and Smart Urban
Development.
a. The
cabinet also apprised the similar MoUs signed between India and United Kingdom
and between India and France.
9. The
Cabinet approved an MoU signed between India and The
Netherlands on technical cooperation in the field of Spatial
Planning, Water Management and Mobility Management.
10. The
Cabinet also approved MoU signed between India and Oman on Cooperation
in the peaceful uses of outer space.
11.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to
allow voluntary transition of Urban Cooperative Banks meeting
certain prescribed criteria into Small Finance Banks.
a. The
detailed scheme for this will be announced soon.
b. Note :
The High Powered Committee on Urban Cooperative Banks, chaired byR.
Gandhi, the then Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank, had recommended the
voluntary conversion of large Multi-State UCBs into Joint Stock Companies and
other UCBs which meet certain criteria into Small Finance Banks.
12. The
government has made Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory for
sending money abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme
(LRS).
a. Note :
Earlier, PAN was not insisted upon for current account transactions of up to
$25,000.
13. Japanese
conglomerate SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son will meet
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to India next week.
a. During
this meeting, Son will discuss his company's plan to invest $60 billion in the
solar sector of the country.
14.
To study the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Policy of
India, the Indian Government has constituted a Group of
eminent persons.
a. This
group will evaluate the SEZ policy, suggest measures to cater to the needs of
exporters in the present economic scenario and make the SEZ policy WTO compatible.
b. Head of
this Group : Baba Kalyani (Industrialist)
15.
IIT Bombay (162)
has displaced IIT Delhi (172) to become the top-ranked Indian
institute in the QS World University Rankings.
a. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology remained the top
university for seventh straight year.
16.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appointed
the astronaut and aeronautics engineer Pedro Duque, as the Science
Minister.
a. Note : Duque
is the first Spaniard to go into space.
17. Mumbai based
low-cost carrier GoAir appointed former EasyJet
executive Cornelis Vrieswijk as its new CEO.
18.
Indian Skipper Virat Kohli has been
named BCCI's best international cricketer (Men) for the
2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
a. For
this, he will receive the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award at
the BCCI Awards to be held in Bengaluru on 12th June
2018.
b. Indian
women's T20I team captain Harmanpreet Kaur and
opener Smriti Mandhana will receive the awards for best
international cricketer (women) for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons
respectively.
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