Daily Current affairs - June 1st, 2017 for all competitive exams
World Milk Day: 1st June
World Milk Day is an initiative of
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, to celebrate
the contribution of the dairy industry around the globe on 1st June.
- The Day provides an opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicize activities connected with milk and the milk industry. The first World Milk Day was held in 2001.
India is no longer the fastest-growing economy
According to
the latest data, India lost its fastest-growing major economy tag in the fourth
quarter of 2016-17, with GDP growth coming in at 6.1% compared with China’s
6.9% in the same period.
- GDP
of India grew 7.1% in the financial year 2016-17, slower than the 8%
registered in 2015-16. Gross value added (GVA) growth was 6.6% for 2016-17
and 5.6% in the fourth quarter, compared with 7.9% in 2015-16 and 8.7% in
Q4 of that year.
The data indicate that post-demonetisation there
has been a slowdown.
India to be first in world to run all government
ports on green energy
All 12 major domestic ports will soon switch to renewable energy to meet their entire power requirements, making India the first country to have all government-owned ports running on solar and wind energy.
All 12 major domestic ports will soon switch to renewable energy to meet their entire power requirements, making India the first country to have all government-owned ports running on solar and wind energy.
- The
government plans to install almost 200 megawatt solar and wind
power generation capacity at the ports by 2019.
- Almost 150 mw of this will be solar power and 50 mw wind power generation capacity. The capacity could be ramped up to 500 mw in the next few years.
India to strengthen bilateral cooperation with
Spain to fight terrorism
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
signed seven agreements with Spain PM Mariano Rajoy to
strengthen bilateral cooperation to fight against terrorism after the
visit from Germany.
The seven agreements and MoUs are as follows-
1. Agreement for Transfer of
Sentence Persons
2. MoU on Cooperation in Organ
Transplantation
3. MoU on Cooperation in Cyber
Security
4. MoU on Cooperation in
Renewable Energy
5. MoU on Technical Cooperation
in Civil Aviation
6. Agreement on visa waiver for
holders of diplomatic passports
7. MoU between Foreign Service
Institute and Diplomatic Academy of Spain.
Indian Railways to launch 'buy now, pay later'
feature for tickets
To attract more passengers to buy online train
tickets, Indian Railways has introduced a service ‘Buy Now, Pay
Later’ which allow passengers to make payment for tickets booked online
within a window of 15 days.
- To
buy tickets from the IRCTC website and pay later will decrease the
difficulties involved in the payment process at the time.
- ePayLater, a Mumbai-based fintech firm has joined hands with IRCTC for adding the new feature to Indian Railways ticket booking services.
Preventive
detention no quick fix
Supreme Court
of India, in a case, has observed that preventive detention of a person by a
State after branding him a ‘goonda’ merely because the normal legal process is
ineffective and time-consuming in ‘curbing the evil he spreads’ is illegal.
- The judgment dealt with the case of a seed manufacturer in Telangana who was taken into preventive detention by the authorities on the allegation that he is selling spurious chilli seeds to poor farmers.
Make cow a national animal:
Rajasthan HC
Amid the debate on the
notification banning the sale of cattle for slaughter, a judge at the Rajasthan
High Court, Justice Mahesh Chandra Sharma asked the State to get the cow
declared a national animal and wanted the penalty for cow slaughter raised from
the 10-year prison term to life term.
- Justice
Sharma listed 11 benefits of cow urine and seven advantages of consumption
of cow ghee and panchagavya (a
concoction made from cow dung, cow urine, cow’s milk and other
ingredients).
First
Scorpene submarine Kalvari to be commissioned by July
The first of
the six Scorpene submarines- Kalvari, being built in India under technology
transfer is likely to join the Navy by end of July. Kalvari is going through
its final phase of trials.
- Kalvari is named after a deep-sea tiger shark. The Scorpene is part of the ambitious Project 75 of Indian Navy’s submarine programme.
Arun Jaitley inaugurates Telangana solar plant
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated a
grid-connected solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance
Factory in Telangana’s Medak district.
- He also dedicated a 9 MW capacity windmill project
installed at Dammur in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 53 crore by Bharat Earth
Movers Limited (BEML).
- The solar power plant at Medak has been set up at a cost of Rs105 crore by Bharat Electronics Limited.
No midday meal without Aadhaar
in UP schools
Students of government-run
primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, who do not have an Aadhaar card, will not be
able to get midday meal after June 30.
- The direction from the State government comes three months after the Union Human Resource Development Ministry made Aadhaar cards mandatory for midday meals and asked UP schools to make a list of students who possess the cards.
Iconic ‘Balchitravani’ shuts
shop
The city-based State
Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), popularly known as ‘Balchitravani’,
set-up by the Maharashtra government in 1984 to bolster children’s education,
and which remained a fixture in Pune’s educational fabric for more than three
decades,shut shop on may 31 after the current Bharatiya Janata Party-led
government claimed it had no funds to support it.
- All 50 employees of the now defunct institute were officially relieved of their duties. The institute will be absorbed by Balbharati as part of its e-learning arm.
Punjab, UN to join hands to fight drug menace
The Punjab government has decided to
collaborate with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as part
of its efforts to root out the drug menace in the State.
- Chief
Minister Amarinder Singh and UNODC representative Sergey Kapinos met here
in this regard on May 31.
- The
meeting also saw a decision regarding developing a roadmap about
implementing the project, for which a committee headed by the Principal
Secretary (Health) with the STF chief as co-convenor and two UNODC
representatives will be set up.
70th World Health Assembly held in Geneva,
Switzerland
The 70th
World Health Assembly was held recently (22nd-31st May) in Geneva,
Switzerland. In the meeting member nations agreed to increase their assessed
contributions by 3 percent.
- Member states also agreed on a five-year action plan that will initiate collaboration between WHO, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in tackling shortfalls in global health and social workforce.
Plan for Indian SEZs in Bangladesh hits bump
India’s plan
to step up investments in Bangladesh by setting up three mega Special Economic
Zones (SEZ) exclusively for Indian companies in the latter’s territory has hit
a major hurdle.
- Indian
companies have cited various constraints including inadequate
infrastructure and lack of uninterrupted power supply” at Mongla,
Bheramara and Mirsarai – the sites in Bangladesh for the proposed Indian
SEZs. For better connectivity and business prospects, they sought
alternative sites close to the Chittagong Port and the capital city of
Dhaka — similar to those been allocated by Bangladesh for Chinese SEZs.
- India and Bangladesh had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in June 2015 — during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh — for cooperation on establishing Indian SEZs in Bangladesh.
Trump may quit climate accord
President Donald Trump is
expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
- Making good on a campaign pledge but severely weakening the landmark 2015 climate change accord that committed nearly every nation to take action to curb the warming of the planet.
Aleksandar Vucic sworn in as
Serbia’s next president
Aleksandar Vucic was sworn
in as Serbia’s president on May 31, pledging to work for peace and stability in
the war-weary Balkans while strengthening the country’s armed forces.
ADB and PNB sign $100 million loan to finance Solar
Rooftop projects
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed a $100 million loan to be guaranteed by the Government of India that will finance large solar rooftop systems on industrial and commercial buildings throughout India.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed a $100 million loan to be guaranteed by the Government of India that will finance large solar rooftop systems on industrial and commercial buildings throughout India.
- This
is the first tranche loan of the $500 million multi-tranche finance
facility Solar Rooftop Investment Program (SRIP) approved by ADB in 2016.
- The first tranche loan of $100 million would be financed entirely from the Clean Technology Fund CTF.
India signs loan agreement of 36 million dollar
with World Bank
India has signed a loan agreement of 36
million dollars with the World Bank for Himachal
Pradesh Public Financial Management Capacity Building Programme.
- The project aims to improve the efficiency of public
expenditure management and tax administration in Himachal Pradesh.
- The agreement was signed by Joint Secretary of
Department of Economic Affairs Raj Kumar and the Bank's Country Director
Junaid Kamal Ahmad.
Shaktikanta Das retires as Economic Affairs
Secretary; Tapan Ray to take over
Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta
Das announced his retirement as the Corporate Affairs
Secretary. Shaktikanta Das has been associated with the Government of
India as the Economic Affairs Secretary for nearly 37 years.
- He will be succeeded by Tapan Ray, who will take the additional charges as the new Economic Affairs Secretary.
Vinay Dube named Jet Airways
CEO
Jet Airways has announced
the appointment of Vinay Dube as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
- The appointment is subject to receipt of all requisite government /regulatory approvals, including his security clearance.
