Today’s Current Affairs – 16th & 17th- June- 2018 – MyProgressCard

National News

1. India to host European Union Film Festival

• The European Union Film Festival (EUFF) will debut in New Delhi on 18th June, 2018 at the Siri Fort Auditorium.
• It is being organized by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India in association with the Delegation of the European Union and embassies of EU Member States in various city film clubs.
• With a selection of 24 latest European films from 23 EU Member States, this years’ film festival brings some unusual stories for the world cinema lovers.

Image Credit: SocialPost

• The festival will extend through 11 cities in India including New Delhi, Chennai, Port Blair, Pune, Puducherry, Kolkata, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Thrissur, Hyderabad and Goa from 18th June till 31st August.

2. Prime Minister to Chair the 4th meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chairs the fourth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
• The day-long meeting will be attended by Union Ministers, Chief Ministers from the States, Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories and senior officials from the Government of India.
• The Governing Council of NITI Aayog is the premier body tasked with evolving a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of States in shaping the development narrative.

Image Credit: DD News

• The Governing Council reviews the work done during the previous year and deliberates upon the future developmental priorities.

Static/Current implications:

• Chairman of NITI Aayog – Narendra Modi

• CEO of NITI Aayog – Amitab Kant

3. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis seeks World Bank support for twin projects

• Devendra Fadnavis met World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva at Washington DC to seek World Bank’s cooperation in two projects namely:                                                                                                                                                           
  1) Rural transformation through sustainable livelihood in 10,000 villages and

  2) A multimodal transport corridor in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Image Credit: The Indian Express

Static/Current implications:

• Capital of Maharashtra – Mumbai

• Chief minister – Devendra Fadnavis

• Governor – C. Vidyasagar Rao

• World Bank headquarters – Washington D.C.

4. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu to lays foundation stone for sewage management system in Itanagar

• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone for sewage management system and Stormwater drainage system in Itanagar under government’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme.

Image Credit: APN News

• The main objective of this scheme is to enable basic facilities like drainage system, basic water harvesting system in the region.

Static/Current implications:

• Capital of Arunachal Pradesh – Itanagar

• Chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh – Pema Khandu

• Governor of Arunachal Pradesh – B.D.Mishra

5. Reliance Industries investing in India’s first carbon fiber manufacturing unit

• In view of serving the aerospace and defence sectors, Reliance Industries is investing in establishing India’s first carbon fiber manufacturing unit and will also make low-cost and high-volume composite products such as modular toilets, homes and composites for windmill blades and rotor blades. Reliance Industries has already developed capabilities for 3D printing of wide-range of plastic and metals products.

Image Credit: livemint

• To capture Rs.30,000 crore composites market, Reliance has planned to manufacture graphene, enhanced plastics and elastomers, fibre reinforced composites that can replace steel. It has said that, it will focus on design and specifications driven markets and applications that would give better returns.

6. School Chale Hum Abhiyan 2018 launched in Bhopal

• Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the ‘School Chale Hum Abhiyan 2018’ in Bhopal.
• The motive of this scheme is to see that no child is deprived of schooling.

Image Credit: Times of India

• Inaugurating the month long campaign on June 15, the minister encouraged students, teachers and parents to make it a success.

Static/Current implications:

• Capital of Madhya Pradesh – Bhopal

• Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh – Shivraj Singh Chouhan

• Governor of Madhya Pradesh – Anandiben Patel

7. WhatsApp Introduced payments service in India

• With the help of NPCI and multiple banks, WhatsApp has initiated payment services in India to facilitate financial transactions via Unified Payments Interface (UPI).         

Image Credit: Hindustan Times

• The Reserve Bank of India has mandated all payment system operators to ensure that data related to payments is stored only in India giving firms six months to comply with it. It has been stated that sensitive user data such as the last 6 digits of a debit card and UPI PIN is not stored at all.

Static/Current implications:

• Year of foundation of NPCI – 2008

• Headquarters of NPCI – Mumbai

• Chairman of NPCI – B. Mahaptra

8. Foundation Stone of ‘Auxiliary Production Unit & Artificial Limbs Fitting Centre’ Laid at Nawada, Faridabad 

• The Foundation stone of “Auxiliary Production Unit and State-of-the-Art Artificial Limbs Fitting Centre” was laid in Faridabad, Haryana by the chief minister of Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) and Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

Image Credit: Devdiscourse

• These services provided at the auxiliary centres in other areas will help differently abled people to cover lesser distance for receiving these devices.

Static/Current implications:

• Capital of Haryana – Chandigarh

• Chief minister of Haryana – Manohar Lal Khattar

• Governor of Haryana – Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki

9. Telangana government to set up Child Protection Units in all 31 districts

• Telangana plans to set up ‘District Child Protection Units (DCPU)’ in all 31 districts to protect the children from child abuse, child labor and also to implement the child rights in all districts.
• Women and Children welfare department Secretary M Jagadeeshwar informed that ‘District Child Protection Units (DCPU)’ were already established in 10 districts and plans to extend another 21 districts of the state by next two months.

Image Credit: Telangana Today

• Objective: To protection of children, besides anti-trafficking and to implement juvenile justice act.

Static/Current implications:                                                                  

• Capital of Telangana – Hyderabad
• Chief minister of Telangana- K. Chandrashekar Rao
• Governor of Telangana – E. S. L. Narasimhan

10. India has trade deficit with 10 out of 16 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership  members

• According to the data of Commerce Ministry, India had trade deficit (the difference between imports and exports) with as many as 10 countries out of 16 member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) block comprises 10 ASEAN group members namely – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam and their six FTA partners – India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Image Credit: asean

• The trade gap with China, Korea, Indonesia and Australia has increased to USD 63.12 billion; USD 11.96 billion; USD 12.47 billion and USD 10.16 billion in 2017-18.
• It was USD 51.11 billion, USD 8.34 billion, USD 9.94 billion and USD 8.19 billion respectively in the previous financial year, 2016-17.                                                                                                                                                                
• It’s same with regard to Japan, Thailand and New Zealand.

11. 19 cancer centers in Assam to start functioning from mid-2020

• The Assam government announced that it has taken a decision to start 19 cancer care centers across the state in partnership with Tata Trust with an investment of Rs.1,910 Crore.
• They will start functioning from mid-2020.

Static/Current implications:                                                                  

• Capital of Assam – Dispur
• Chief minister of Assam – Sarbananda Sonowal
• Governor of Assam – Jagdish Mukhi

Sports News

12. Cristiano Ronaldo scores 1st hat-trick of FIFA World Cup 2018

• Portugal football team captain Cristiano Ronaldo, scored FIFA World Cup 2018’s first hat-trick in the first match of the tournament, in the first 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
• This hat-trick was the 51st in World Cup history, as well as Ronaldo’s 51st career hat-trick.

Image Credit: The Indian Express

• Ronaldo achieved his 6th international hat trick when he scored on a free kick in the 88th minute, giving Portugal a 3-3 tie with Spain. He doubled his total by entering 3 career World Cup goals.

International Visits

Obituaries

13. Former Bengal minister passes away

• Satya Sadhan Chakraborty, former West Bengal minister and CPI(M) leader, passed away due to heart attack in Kolkata at the age of 85.
• He was the state higher education minister for more than 10 years from 1991 to 2006.

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• In 1980, he was elected to Lok Sabha from South Kolkata constituency.

Important Days

14. International Day of Family Remittances – 16 June

• 16 June was declared as International Day of Family Remittances by the IFAD’s Governing Council in 2015 to accentuate the prominent financial contribution made by migrant workers to their families back home and to the sustainable development of their native countries.
• This day was adopted by the UN General Assembly in June 2018. 

Image Credit: Medium                                                                                                                                                          

• The first International Day of Family Remittances was celebrated on 16 June 2015.
• Theme for 2018: To achieve the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)- “One Family at a Time”

15. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

• World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed every year to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification.                                                                                                       
• Theme of WDCD :- “Land has true value – invest in “             

Image Credit: The Green Market Oracle

• WDCD was established by the UN General Assembly 23 years ago to raise awareness on the global and national actions that address desertification, land degradation and drought.

International News

16. NASA’s record-breaking astronaut Peggy Whitson retires at age 58

• Peggy Whitson, NASA’s astronaut, who spent a record-breaking 665 days in space, has retired from the space agency at the age of 58.                                                                                                                                                                   
• She claimed the title for most spacewalks by a woman and set the record for most time spent in space by a US astronaut, placing 8th on the all-time space endurance list.                                                                                        
• She also served as chief of the astronaut corps from 2009 to 2012, becoming both the first woman to hold the position and the first non-military astronaut corps chief.

Image Credit: NDTV Gadgets

• In 2008, she returned to the ISS and became the first female commander of the space station.

17. NSG plenary meeting held in Jurmala, Latvia

• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary meeting is organised in Jurmala, Latvia as Latvia assumed chairmanship of NSG for 2018-19.
• With this, Latvia became the first Baltic state to chair the NSG. There is no progress in India’s application for NSG entry in this plenary meeting.

Static/Current implications:

• Capital of Latvia – Riga
• Currency of Latvia – Euro
• Prime minister of Latvia – Maris Kucinskis
• President of Latvia – Raimonds Vejonis