7th June Current Affairs in English

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Launched Public Grievance Redressal Act

Chief Minister launched the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Act enabling people to get their grievances redressed within a specific time period in the State.

Venue: Gandhi Maidan, Patna.

Feature: The Act has enabled people to get their issues redressed.

Narayanasamy sworn in as Puducherry CM

i. Former Union Minister and Congress party leader V Narayanasamy was sworn in as Puducherry Chief Minister Along with Narayanasamy, five Congress legislators will be sworn-in as ministers.

ii. Newly appointed Lt Governor Kiran Bedi administrated the oath of office and secrecy to the team of ministers at Puducherry.

iii. The Ministers who took charge as a ministers include A Namassivayam, Malladi Krishna Rao, Shah Jahan, M Kandasamy and R Kamalakannan.

iv. Narayanasamy for whom this is the first term and was elected leader of the 15-member Congress Legislature party.

v. The party also has support of the two-member DMK in the 30-member Assembly. In the recently concluded Assembly polls Congress had secured 15 seats of the 21 seats.

Dia Mirza named ambassador for Swachh Saathi programme

i. Bollywood actress Dia Mirza Sangha has been appointed as the ambassador for Swachh Bharat Mission’s Swachh Saathi programme that for youth-based student internship.

ii. She will take forward the message of the Swachh Saathi programme to make healthy and environmentally conscious youth and country.

iii. Under this programme, more than 2,000 interns would be enrolled, who would coordinate with around 10,000 schools across the country and ensure that all students in these schools take the pledge for Clean India.

iv. Mirza, was a second runner up at Femina Miss India 2000. She also became the first Indian to win this title in 29 years.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Vice President Hamid Ansari visited Morocco and Tunisia from June 1 to June 3– Overview

Vice-President Hamid Ansari boarded on a five-day visit to Morocco and Tunisia to build on diplomatic gains from the India-Africa Summit and place platform for a future partnership.

Maiden visit by an Indian Vice-President in 50 years to the two nations

Hosted by: Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkairane, Morocco.

Venue: Rabat

Focus: To discuss the issues of terrorism, UN Security Council expansion, investments in private sector and to strengthen Africa and regional matters.

India ranks second on GRD index on ease of doing business

India has moved 13 positions to rank 2nd among 30 developing countries in 2016 on ease of doing business and China is topped in the list.

Delegate: Debashish Mukherjee, a partner with A T Kearney and co-head of the Consumer Industries & Retail Products Practice for India and South east Asia.

2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI): Listed top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Sudarsan Pattnaik wins gold in People’s Choice Prize

i. Eminent sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won gold medal in people’s choice prize at world championship festival in Bulgaria

ii. The theme of the championship was Sport World and Olympic Symbols and the height of the sculpture was two meters. He has received highest number of votes.

iii. He has been selected for the prize for his sculpture Drugs kill Sports which is the 2 metre height sculpture.

iv. The sand sculpture upholds the sanctity, richness and sports, as an ever-cherished saga of entertainment source.

APPOINTMENTS

G Ashok Kumar assumes charge as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff

i. Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar took charge as the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff. He is an alumnus of Pune National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into the Executive Branch in 1982.

ii. He has served as the navigating officer of Indian Naval Ships Beas, Nilgiri, Ranvir and Vikrant also specialized in navigation and direction.

iii. Ashok worked as the commanding officer of INS Kulish and Ranvir, and executive officer onboard INS Brahmaputra.

Ashok Kumar:

♦ He graduated from Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and has attended the Army Higher Command Course at Mhow besides the Expeditionary Operations Course at Quantico, Virginia, USA.

Servion Global appoints Sameet Gupte as CEO

i. Chennai based Everstone Capital and Solmark owned Servion Global Solutions Ltd appointed Sameet Gupte as its new CEO and Member of Board. Sameet replaces Balakrishnan K who has been elevated to Executive Vice-Chairman of Servions Board.

ii. Prior to his new appointment he was serving asExecutive Vice-President and Global Head of financial services for Virtusa Polaris.

iii. This appointment comes from the company in the aftermath of company plans to double revenue within next four years, with the firm budding at around 20 per cent yearly.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

BHEL commissions 3 supercritical thermal units in Uttar Pradesh

i. State run Bharat Heavy Electricals has commissioned all the 3 supercritical units of 660 MW each at the 1980 MW coal-based Lalitpur Super Thermal Power Project (STPP), in Uttar Pradesh.

ii. The commissioning comes from the company within a span less than three months as a result of enhanced focus on project execution by way of innovative erection techniques and meticulous project management.

iii. Lalitpur Power Generation Company developed plant which has been promoted by the Bajaj Hindusthan group located in Lalitpur in Bundelkhand district of Uttar Pradesh.

iv. The main plant package contract of this 1980 MW power plant is being executed by the power major BHEL.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited

♦ Founded: 1964

♦ Headquarters: New Delhi

♦ Chairman & MD:Atul Sobti,

All train coaches will have bio-toilets by 2019

i. Indian Railways will fit bio-toilets on all its 55,000 coaches with two years ahead ofschedule by 2019, all of coaches would be fitted with 1,40,000 bio-toilets. 

ii. As of March this year Railways board have installed around 35,000 bio-toilets in 10,000 railway coaches as Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu announced in his budget speech that 17,000 bio-toilets would be fitted in trains.

iii. The Ministry also confident about phasing out such toilets by 2020-21 under itsSwachh Rail-Swachh Bharat (Clean Rail-Clean India) programme.

Flushing a bio-toilet:

♦ DRDO developed a bio-toilet discharges human waste into an underfloor holding tank where anaerobic bacteria remove harmful pathogens and break the waste down into neutral water and methane.

♦ A stainless steel bio-toilet set with six chambers costs around 90, 000.

SPORTS

Rohan Bopanna direct entry for Rio

i. Bangalore hailed Tennis star Rohan Bopanna officially secured a direct entry into themen’s doubles event of the Rio Olympic Games by returning to top-10 in the ATP ranking Men’s doubles chart.

ii. His place in the top-10 player list not only gets a direct entry but also has the choice to pick his partner for the men’s doubles event regardless of his ranking.

iii. However in the women’s doubles chart, Sania Mirza continued to be joint world number one with Swiss partner Martina Hingis.