International Affairs
Today (20th June 2016) is World Refugee Day.
This day is observed by the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR)
This day is dedicated to
raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.
The decision to observe the
day, coinciding with Africa Refugee Day, was made by the UN in December 2000.
The first World Refugee Day
marked the 50th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention.
Theme
of the year 2016 : We Stand Together With Refugee
The Assam Government
has launched a unique initiative ‘Maitree Ek Gyan Yatra’ to link primary
schools to high schools to colleges.
The purpose of the
programme is to change the mindset of the teachers, as in some places in
states teachers of a school considered it below their dignity to teach the
lower level students.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi today released postage stamps on Surya Namaskara to
mark the 2nd International Yoga
Day to be celebrated on June 21.
The stamps, of ₹5
and ₹25, depict the 12 ‘asanas’ constituting the Surya Namaskara.
The Himachal
Pradesh government has launched a ₹640 crore project for Skill Dvelopment under which multipurpose
training centres will be set up in rural areas.
The training, to be given
by both government and private associations, will be accessible to all people
aged between 16-49, including BPL families.
Individuals will be trained
in tourism, agriculture and banking sectors, among others.
Business & Economy
The government has announced that it will set up a new Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) to
sell its shares in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and other private
companies, as part of its ₹56,500 crore disinvestment
target for the 2016-17 fiscal.
Note : ETFs are investment
vehicles which hold assets like stocks or bonds and are traded on a stock
exchange.
Israel has approved additional funds of $18 million for construction of settlements in the West Bank.
According to reports, $88
million have already been allotted for settlements earlier.
Note : These settlements in the
West Bank are considered illegal according to international law and the United
States and the European Union have called for their construction to be halted.
Awards & Honors
The 'Panama Papers' investigation, which
revealed details of offshore entities owned by people across the world, won the Investigation of the Year award for
the year 2016.
This award was presented at the Global Editors Network summit in Vienna.
Important Points to Note
:
'Panama Papers' was the
biggest ever data leak since 2015.
The investigation was a
collaboration of over 100 media organisations, with Indian Express being the
Indian partner.
People in News
The Anti
Corruption Branch of Delhi has
registered a case against former Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal in connection with Rs 400 crore water tanker scam.
Science &
Technology
Chinese supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight, built at a cost of around $270 million
(approximately ₹1,820 crore), has topped the list of the world's fastest
computers.
It is almost 3 times faster than the previous
record-holder Tianhe-2 and
is almost five times faster than the quickest US computing system.
Public sector aerospace and defence major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)has
unveiled indigenous Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA) HTT-40 in Bengaluru.
The aircraft made its maiden flight recently the HAL
Airport in Bengaluru in presence of Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
French firm Cooltech
Applications has launched what it claims as the world's first commercially available
magnetic refrigeration system.
It achieves refrigeration
by passing a water coolant through magneto caloric materials undergoing
repeated magnetization-demagnetization cycles.
The system works without
any refrigerant gas, making it more environmentally efficient than conventional
refrigerators.
The 48-hour
long countdown for Wednesday's launch of record 20 Satellites by ISRO from Sriharikota began at 9:26 this morning.
Workhorse PSLV C34 will carry the
satellites and inject them into the 505 km sun synchronous orbit one after the
other.
Note : The 20 satellites include
Cartosat-2 Series remote sensing payload of India for earth observation
purposes, two Indian students satellites and 17 other micro and nano satellites
of foreign customers from US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia.
Deaths
Actor Anton
Yelchin (27), who portrayed the character 'Pavel Chekov' in the
'Star Trek' reboot series, died following an accident.
New Appointments
Virginia Raggi has been elected as Rome's first female mayor.
Businessman Bipin R Patel was appointed as
the President of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(GCCI) for the term 2016-17.
He is going to replace
Rohit J Patel.
Sports
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg (Germany) has won the 2016 European Grand Prixof Formula
One.
The Indian mixed recurve
team of Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das has won theSilver medal at the Archery World Cup held in
Antalya, Turkey.
Japanese footballer Kazuyoshi Miura has broken his own record to become theoldest goalscorer in Japan’s football league.
Miura, aged 49 years, is currently the world’s oldest
active football player, and is playing in his 31st season as a
professional.
Before retiring
internationally, Miura scored 55 goals in 89 appearances for Japan.
Cleveland
Cavaliers today
defeated defending champions Golden State Warriors 93-89 in the seventh game of
the NBA finals to win
the championship title for
the first time in the franchise history.
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