Current Affairs - June 9, 2017 Current Affairs

Punjab government has launched a unique 'Chief Minister Scholarship Scheme' with a resolve to provide cheaper and quality technical education to the meritorious and poor students of the state. The Technical Education Minister informed that under the scheme, the students of Punjab would get the fee waiver as per the percentage of marks obtained in Class X.

Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan was admitted into the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Hall of Fame. He was awarded the honor along with Arthur Morris, George Lohmann and Karen Rolton by fellow ICC Cricket Hall of Famers and members of the media.

Rohan Bopanna from India and his Canadian teammate Gabriela Dabrowski have won the 2017 French Open mixed doubles tournament by defeating the pair of Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Colombia's Robert Farah in the final by 2-6, 6-2, 12-10.

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is the sole sportsperson from the country to feature among the world's 100 highest paid athletes in the latest Forbes list. Kohli has been ranked 89th on the 2017 Forbes list of 'The World's highest paid athletes' with a total pay of USD 22 million that includes USD three million from salary and winnings and another 19 million from endorsements.

Walmart topped the Fortune's annual list of Americas top 500 companies for the fifth consecutive year with the revenue of $ 485.8 million. Walmart is followed by oil and gas company Exxon Mobil and Apple, the top tech company on the list. While Amazon has been ranked 18th, Facebook has jumped 85 spots to be ranked 157th.

The 17th summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit has started in Astana, Kazakhstan from June 8, 2017. In this summit, India and Pakistan has become full members of the organization. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The Tamil Nadu government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Civil Aviation Ministry for the implementation of low-cost flight services in the first phase of implementation of the Centre's "Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik" (UDAN) scheme which seeks to promote regional air connectivity.

The second National Health Editors' Conference on Yoga will be inaugurated by Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shri Shripad Yesso Naik at National Media Centre in New Delhi. The theme of this year's conference is "Yoga for Health and Harmony".

A minor planet somewhere in the Milky Way galaxy, many light years away from Earth, will be called Sahithi Pingali. Sahithi Pingali is a 16-year-old Bengaluru schoolgirl, whose concern and work for the city's polluted lakes have earned her this honour. will be named after her through the Ceres Connection programme run by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Society for Science and the Public. She won three special awards in addition to a second prize in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair ISEF at Los Angeles.

Ruchira Kamboj has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of South Africa. She is presently Ambassador/PR to Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO, Paris.

The Indian Railways is firming up plans to join hands with Malaysia to redevelop about 20 stations in Tier-II cities across the country. It aimed at attracting nearly Rs 1 lakh crore private investment, the station redevelopment project envisages infrastructure revamp at platforms and circulating areas.

Madhya Pradesh government launched a new debt relief scheme - Krishi Rin Samadhan Yojana - for farmers. The cabinet also allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the scheme under the scheme, the interest rate on loans would be less, which would in turn also help defaulting farmers get loans. Beside loan waivers, farmers are also demanding Rs 50 per litre of milk as they claim that Rs 37 is spent by them for every litre.

The first media forum of BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) opened in Beijing. The contacts between media are an important basis for friendship, trust and mutual cultural exchange between the countries. During an inaugural session of the BRICS Media Forum in the Chinese capital, Cai Mingzhao, president of Xinhua News Agency and executive president of the Forum, announced that the news agency will invest $1 million for boosting media cooperation in the five-nation grouping.

India's ranking in terms of data speed also dropped to 74th, below Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as download speed dropped more than one megabit per second in the last six months as traffic has surged post Reliance Jio launch. According to data released by TRAI, India had 217.95 million data subscribers at the end of 2016 while average data usage has risen from 236 MB a month in September to 884 MB in December 2016. While Bharti Airtel tops in download speed, Reliance Jio helped India to rank 15 among 75 countries in the State of LTE report.

The cheif minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath cabinet has decided to rename Mughalsarai railway station near Varanasi after RSS ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Upadhyay had died under mysterious circumstances while travelling in a train at Mughalsarai station on February 11, 1968. Mughalsarai is one of the busiest stations of the Eastern Railway.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) appointed B K Manjunath as a Part-time chairman for three years. He is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a practicing charted accountant for the last 25 years.

India and the UN Office for South Cooperation have launched a partnership fund to promote sustainable development projects across the developing world. India-UN Development Partnership Fund was launched on occasion of the World Oceans Day at a special ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of India.