Current Affairs - June 18, 2017 Current Affairs

According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), May 2017 was the second hottest month in a span of 137 years. May 2016 is the hottest on record with 0.93 degrees Celsius warmer than the May 2017 mean temperature.

Adani Group set up 50-MW solar PV plant in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh. As per the agreement signed with NTPC, power generated by the plant will be transmitted through 21.5 kilometre long 132 kilovolts transmission line connecting with UP Power Transmission Corporation's (UPTCL) Mahoba Substation. Under the National Solar Mission Scheme the plant has been set up with an investment of Rs. 315 crore.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the United Nations' central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development. The headquarters of the ECOSOC is located in New York, Unites States. The elected members of ECOSOC for a three-year term beginning 1 January, 2018 are Belarus, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Turkey and Uruguay.

Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram Celebrates 100 Years in Gujarat at the Nehru Centre on 17th of June. Mahatma Gandhi lived in the ashram, situated on the banks of Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad along with his wife Kasturba from 1917 and 1930. Gopalkrishna Gandhi will be invited to grace the centenary celebrations to be held at the Ashram.

Indian wrestlers produced a superb show to bag five medals at the Junior Asian Championships. Pooja Gehlot won gold in the 51kg category while Sonu clinched a silver medal in the 44kg event. Manju Kumari got a bronze in the women's 59kg division. The boys bagged two medals in the Greco-Roman categories on the second day of the competition with S. Satish clinching silver in the 120kg division while Manish got a bronze in the 50kg category.

Sushma Swaraj has announced the opening of 149 new Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs). It will be set up in the second phase. Sushma Swaraj has announced the opening of 149 new Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs). It will be set up in the second phase.

Gaitri Issar Kumar, the joint secretary in the President's Secretariat and a 1986 batch IFS officer, has been appointed as the India's new Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union (EU) which has its headquarters in the Belgian capital of Brussels. Beside this, Reenat Sandhu and Ajit Vinayak Gupte have been named as the India's new Ambassador to Italy and Denmark.

Indian IT service provider HCL Technologies is at the second place in the top 100 of Nikkei Asian Review's Asia300 companies list. The list was topped by Taiwan's Largan Precision, the world's leading maker of lenses for smartphone cameras.

Tsshe World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum-2017 has held in Geneva, Switzerland on June 12-16 to represent the world's largest annual gathering of the 'ICT for development' community. The WSIS 2017 theme is 'Information and Knowledge Societies for SDGs' and has served as a platform for discussions on the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as a means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dedicated the first phase of Kochi Metro to the nation. The Kochi Metro will be the first in India to use Communication Based Train Control technology to maximise frequencies and minimise errors. The Kochi Metro Rail Corporation decided to employ transgender people in stations. The project cost an estimated Rs. 5,180 crore.