Current Affairs - June 1, 2017 Current Affairs

The inauguration of the first India-Sri Lanka Joint Research Symposium was held in Colombo. It was inaugurated by Science, Technology and Research Minister, Susil Premajayantha, and Indian High Commissioner, Taranjit Singh Sandhu. The Ministry is holding the Symposium to showcase the outcomes from the India-Sri Lanka joint collaboration in Science & Technology.

India has signed a loan agreement of 36 million dollars with the World Bank for Himachal Pradesh Public Financial Management Capacity Building Programme. The main objective is to improve the efficiency of Public Expenditure Management and Tax Administration in Himachal Pradesh. The programme worth is about 45 million dollars, of which 36 million dollars will be financed by the Bank, and the remaining amount will be funded out of State Budget.

United States of America for the first time successfully tested its defence system against an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). A ground-based interceptor was launched at a California air base and shot down a mock ballistic missile. It was the first live-fire test against a simulated ICBM for the Ground-Based Missile Defense.

Goa govt to relaunch Congress' scheme to detect metabolic disorders in babies. The scheme, started by the erstwhile Congress-led government in the state, was discontinued in 2012 when Manohar Parrikar was chief minister.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Parker Solar Probe launched in the summer of 2018 to explore the sun's atmosphere. The satellite is named as the Parker Solar Probe in honour of astrophysicist Eugene Parker. This will be NASA's first mission to the sun and its outermost atmosphere corona. The 10-feet high Parker Solar Probe will fly within 6.4 million km of the sun's surface right into the solar atmosphere.

June 1 is observed as World Milk Day every year. It was initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It is celebrated to increase the common public awareness about all aspects of the natural milk such as its natural origin, milk nutritional value and various milk products including its economic importance throughout the globe.

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a new technology which will change the way biofuel is manufactured by making the process cheaper, quicker and pollution-free. The 'soil-to-soil' manufacturing technology developed at the P.K. Sinha Centre for bio-energy at IIT-Kgp. 2gm bioethanol can be produced from various naturally available lignocellulosic components. The green leafy part of corn and sugarcane plants, the waste part of paddy straw,bamboo, banana plant, pineapple and cotton plants, kans grass (kassh phool), castor plant and even non-edible weeds that grow in dry and waste land and a mix of all has been used by IIT-KGP to produce bio fuel. The project is funded by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Maharashtra's CM Devendra Fadnavis launched a web portal 'Mahaswayam' for job seekers, employers, entrepreneurs, and training institutes who can avail details regarding skill development and employment. Besides, training institutes can also register, get details on participation in the state skill development programme, get training fee receipts.

George Kurian, a BJP leader and 'social and educational activist' from Kerala, has become the new vice chairperson of National Commission for Minorities (NCM). The appointment was made by union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (independent charge) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The National Commission for Minorities is responsible for safeguarding the constitutional rights of minorities in India. Former Maharashtra minister Sulekha Kumbhare, Jain representative from Gujarat Sunil Singhi, and Parsi representative Vada Dasturji Khurshed Kaikobad Dastoor are the other members of the NCM.

Telangana has launched T-Wallet, a digital wallet, which people can use for public and private financial transactions. There is no service charge for using T-wallet. The Telangana Government has tied up with Vijaya Bank. It will provide an escrow account facility for Transaction Analysts, which got the licence to operate the wallet.

The Indian Railways introduced 'Buy Now, Pay Later' service for passengers to book tickets online first and make payment for the reservations within a window of 15 days. It allows passengers to travel after five days of booking the ticket, is available for confirmed, waitlisted, and Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) berths.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated a grid-connected solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory in Telangana's Medak district. It is set up at a cost of Rs 105 crore by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) with the commissioning of 9 Mega Watt windmill project at Dammit.

A new glass frog species with transparent skin through which its beating heart is visible has been discovered by scientists in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador. Hyalinobatrachium yaku has unique physical and behavioural traits. Glass frogs need pristine streams to breed in, if the stream dries up, or becomes polluted, the frogs can't survive.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed a $100 million loan to be guaranteed by the Government of India to finance large solar rooftop systems on industrial and commercial buildings throughout India. India's solar rooftop market is expanding fast with an estimated total capacity potential of 124Giga Watts (GW) aiming to increase the country's solar rooftop capacity by 40 GW in 2022. Solar Rooftop Investment Program (SRIP) approved by ADB in the year 2016.

The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) planned to launch 'Deep Ocean Mission' by January 2018. This will improve India's position in ocean research field. India designated an area of 75,000 square km for deep sea exploration. This area has an estimated resource of about 100 million tonnes of strategic metals such Copper, Nickel, Cobalt besides Manganese and Iron.

China launched cybersecurity law to ensure its national security, amid criticism from foreign company. It is designed to safeguard China's cyberspace sovereignty, national security, public interest, as well as the rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organisations.

Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen announced publicly the world's largest aircraft with a 385-foot wingspan, capable of launching rockets. It's called the Stratolaunch aircraft, and it's massive. The plane has a 385-foot wingspan, which makes it the largest in the world by that metric. It weighs about 500,000 pounds dry, but that can swell to a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds.

The Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu launched the scheme Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna in Titarwasa village to make villages in Rajasthan open defecation free.