Daily Current affairs - June 23rd, 2017 for all competitive exams
The UN general assembly, in
its resolution 57/277, designated 23 june as public service day.
- The un public service day celebrates the value and
virtue of public service to the community; highlights the contribution of
public service in the development process; recognizes the work of public
servants, and encourages young people to pursue careers in the public
sector.
International widows’
day - 23 June
International widows day is
an opportunity for action towards achieving full rights and recognition for
widows – too long invisible, uncounted and ignored.
- A dearth of reliable hard data remains one of the
major obstacles to developing the policies and programmes to address the
poverty, violence and discrimination suffered by widows.
Amendment of the Social Security Agreement between India
and the Netherlands
The Union Cabinet has approved Amendment of the bilateral Social
Security Agreement (SSA) between India and the Netherlands by incorporating the “Country of Residence” Principle into the said SSA.
- The circumstances where the “country of residence”
principle will apply to a few instances of Indian nationals include the
following:
- An Indian worker who dies in the Netherlands and has
his/her spouse and children living in India.
- An Indian worker who gets disabled while working in
the Netherlands and returns to India.
NATGRID can soon access PAN, I-T records
The Centre has empowered the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the integrated mechanism to keep track of security-related
data, to access the Income Tax department’s records on individual taxpayers as
well as PAN card holders. NATGRID and the I-T department could sign a pact soon
to operationalise the data sharing arrangement.
- NATGRID is an ambitious counter terrorism
programme, which will utilise technologies like Big Data and analytics
to study and analyse the huge amounts of data from various intelligence
and enforcement agencies to help track suspected terrorists and prevent
terrorist attacks.
- NATGRID is a post Mumbai 26/11 attack measure. It
aims to mitigate a vital deficiency — lack of real time information, which
was considered to be one of the major hurdles in detecting US terror
suspect David Headley’s movement across the country during his multiple
visits between 2006 and 2009.
Meira kumar to contest against
kovind
the opposition unanimously
selected former lok sabha speaker meira kumar as its candidate for the
presidential election next month.
- She has been a five-time lok sabha member, lok sabha
speaker, union cabinet minister and has had a stint in the indian foreign
service.
A law, this time for Antarctica
India is drafting a dedicated Antarctica policy and a law that will likely
be tabled in the winter session of Parliament. Ministry of Earth Sciences will
draft the law.
- India, being among the countries that have acceded
to the Antarctica Treaty, is expected to have a clear policy on the
consequences of its activities in the region. India is expanding its
infrastructure development in Antarctica. The government is rebuilding its
station, Maitri, to make it bigger and last for at least 30 years. Dakshin Gangotri, the first Indian base
established in 1984, has weakened and become just a supply
base.
- The treaty is framed to ensure ‘in the interests of
all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively
for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of
international discord.’
Cartosat-2 launch: India puts another smart eye in the
sky
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has launched the Cartosat-2 series
satellite—a dedicated satellite for defence forces—along with 30 co-passenger
satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
- This is the 40th flight of PSLV and 17th flight
of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).
- Cartosat-2 is a remote sensing satellite and it is
similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series with the
objective of providing high-resolution scene specific spot imagery.
Indian Naval Material Management Service (INMMS) as an
Organized Group ‘A’ Engineering Service:
The Union Cabinet has approved constitution of an organized Group ‘A’
Engineering Service, namely Indian Naval Material Management Service (INMMS)
and consequent changes in cadre structure of existing Group ‘A’ cadre of Naval
Store Officers of the Indian Navy.
- The proposed INMMS would attract the best talents
available and will provide a reservoir of technically qualified Material
Managers for handling the Materials Management functions of Indian Navy.
- It will improve the functional efficiency of
Material Management of Naval Stores and ensure operational readiness of
the Navy at all times as well as provide better career prospects for the
incumbents.
National flag, temple
offerings and gandhi caps will need e-waybills under gst
The national flag,
temple prasadam , khadi fabric, and gandhi caps may be exempt from
goods and services tax, but for their transportation, the centre is considering
mandating the generation of e-waybills once that system is operationalised.
- Transporting currency, lpg, and kerosene oil,
however, won’t need an e-waybill. An e-waybill is an electronic bill
documenting any transport of a good of a value of more than rs. 50,000.
Uttarakhand and Haryana declared 4th and 5th ODF States
in the country:
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), rural Uttarakhand and rural
Haryana have declared themselves as the 4th and 5th Open Defecation Free (ODF)
States of India.
- They have joined the league of Sikkim, Himachal
Pradesh and Kerala, which were the first three states to be declared ODF.
Nationally, the sanitation coverage has increased from 42% to over 64% in
just two and a half years since the launch of SBM.
- With the total number of ODF States now rising to 5,
more than 2 Lakh villages and 147 districts have also been declared ODF
across the country.
Kerala gets its first total
yoga village
- On the occasion of international yoga day,
kunnamthanam became a complete yoga village with at least one member of
each family in the panchayat trained in yoga.
- A public yoga session attended by as many as 3,000 people, including children and senior citizens, was also held as part of the celebrations.
India’s biggest municipal bonds programme launched in
Maharashtra:
To finance its 24×7 water supply project, the Pune Municipal Corporation
has launched India’s biggest municipal bonds programme. The project looks to
raise Rs 2,264 crore in five years.
- Municipal bonds are debt instruments through which a
corporation or municipality raises money from individuals or institutions.
Meet on preserving endangered Manipur deer held:
A workshop on how people and brow-antlered deer (Sangai), can co-exist,
recently concluded in Manipur. Due to lack of funds and poaching, sangai may
become extinct sooner than expected.
- The sangai is an endemic, rare and endangered
subspecies of brow-antlered deer. It is also state animal of Manipur.
- The Sangai is now restricted to the Keibul Lamjao
National Park (KLNP) in the Southeastern fringe of Loktak Lake in Manipur.
Phumdis, floating vegetation occupy about two-third of the surface area of
the lake. They feed, live and breed on this 9 km area of Phumdis.
Goa receives archival material
from portugal
The national archives of
india has received the digital copies of 62 volumes. The collection is an
important primary source for the study of the portuguese expansion in asia.
- Under a new agreement to promote cooperation in the
field of archiving, portugal has handed over a collection of documents
known as ‘moncoes do reino’ (monsoon correspondence) to india.
- The volumes were originally part of 456 volumes that
cover the period from 1568 to 1914 and form the largest of all record
collections in the goa state archives.
Resolve 55 accounts in six
months or face IBC: RBI
RBI has asked banks to
resolve 55 high value cases of bad loans within six months or face the prospect
of being directed to go in for the new insolvency resolution mechanism as part
of the strategy to rein in unacceptable level of non-performing assets (npas).
- Earlier this month, reserve bank of india identified
12 accounts for insolvency proceedings with each of them having over rs.
5,000 crore of outstanding loans, accounting for 25% of total npas of
banks.
- The banking sector is saddled with npas of over rs.
8 lakh crore, of which rs. 6 lakh crore is with public sector banks
(psbs). The 12 identified cases account for 25% or about rs. 2 lakh crore
of npas.
- Ibc has defined time-frame for the resolution and there is 14-day time period for admission or rejection of a case by national company law tribunal. After a case is accepted by nclt, the creditor would get 30 days to hire insolvency practitioners and then the entire process to be completed in 180 days which will look at various possibilities including revival of projects or liquidation.
