Current Affairs - June 4, 2018 Current Affairs

The first official World Bicycle Day (WBD) is observed by United Nations (UN) on 3rd June 2018 to encourage a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation. On this occasion, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu flagged off a cycling event at Connaught Place in New Delhi Nearly five thousand cyclists participated in the 8km long event. New Delhi Municipal Council has organised the event in association with World Cycling Alliance.

Priyanka Das from Assam has been appointed as ambassador for 'promote science' initiative in France to encourage girls to pursue scientific careers. Priyanka Das is doing her PhD and working in R&D in the Navigation Systems division of France's Safran. She is 26 years old. "For Girls and Science" initiative was introduced in 2014 to promote scientific careers among youth, mainly girls. It is supported by the Ministry of National Education of France and the L'Oreal Foundation.

The agreement is in lines of development, product support, go-to-market initiatives for JDA's commerce, SofTechnics and pricing revenue management solutions. The aim of the agreement is to provide a seamless customer experience. HCL will work on product development and inclusion of technology in supply chain and in retail applications for the JDA customers.

Marcos Paqueta was appointed as the head coach of The Indian Super League (ISL) club FC Pune City. He also guided the team of Saudi Arabia in 2006 World Cup. He has managed national teams of U-17 and U-20 of Brazil. He has an experience of 30 years.

Dr. Dinesh Gupta, an officer of the 1983 UPSC batch, has been appointed as the new Director General (DG) of the Geological Survey of India (GSI). He took over from N Kutumba Rao to become the 47th DG of the GSI. Gupta is an expert in mineral exploration and responsibility has been given to him to steer GSI in this field.

India received the first-ever cargo of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Russia as New Delhi diversifies import basket to meet its vast energy needs. State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd will bring the shipload of LNG from Gazprom, a Russian supplier, at Petronet LNG Ltd's import terminal in Dahej, Gujarat. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan received the first consignment at the terminal. Beginning of supplies from Russia comes within weeks of India importing its first ever LNG cargo from the US under a long-term import deal.

The state government of Gujarat has launched a dedicated ambulance service for infants to prevent the death of newborns due to lack of emergency medical facilities in health centres. This service is under the 'Neonatal ambulance service project for inter-hospital transfer'. It would consist of 10 well equipped ambulances across the state. The service started as a pilot project in Jamnagar Civil Hospital. This project would help newborns of the primary health care centres in the rural areas as they do not have needed medical services available. The ambulance would have special equipment such as baby warmer machines, on-board treatment and comfort.

The global financial services major Morgan Stanley reported that India would become a leader in shared mobility by 2030. This improvement would be caused by the increasing amount of electric and autonomous vehicles being used. This would increase the shared miles by 35% to 50% of all miles travelled in India by 2040.

Making a breakthrough in missile technology, India successfully carried out the flight test of Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) propulsion based missile, according to the Defence Ministry. The technology demonstrator flight test was conducted from the Launch Centre-III of Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Odisha.

Anjani Kumar Singh, the former Bihar chief secretary has been appointed the Advisor, Policy and Programme Implementation, to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Anjani Kumar Singh is an IAS officer of 1981 batch. He retired in February 2018. But he was given an extension for 3 months. As Anjani Kumar Singh's extension period ended, Deepak Kumar took charge as the new chief secretary of Bihar.

Environment-friendly, clean and equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists, 13 Indian beaches will soon get the Blue Flag certification. These beaches of Odisha, Maharashtra and other coastal states will be the first in not just India, but in Asia, to get the Blue Flag certification. The Indian beaches are being developed by the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an environment ministry's body working for the management of coastal areas.

India's first superfast train, Deccan Queen express from Mumbai to Pune has completed 88 years on June 1, 2018. Also known as 'Queen of Deccan' the train started on June 1, 1930. This was the first deluxe train introduced on the railway to serve 2 important cities of the region.

The United States has renamed its oldest and largest military command, US Pacific Command, or PACOM, to Indo-Pacific Command, according to the US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis. The decision has been taken in recognition of the growing importance of the Indian Ocean in US strategic thinking. The Trump administration had also renamed Asia Pacific as Indo-Pacific and identified India as one bookend of the region.

Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shripad Yesso Naik will inaugurate the 3rd National Health Editors Conference on Yoga at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) in New Delhi. The conference is organized by the Ministry of AYUSH along with the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY). This Conference on 'Evidence Based Recent Innovative Research on Yoga - A Review of Yoga Research' is conducted to mark the beginning of International Day of Yoga (21st June). Over 100 Health Editors from National and Regional media organizations would take part in the conference. The conference aims to enlighten the media persons on the scientific aspects of yoga & its benefits for human health.

International Monetory Fund (IMF) released its loan of $252 million to the island nation of Srilanka. This loan is a part of a deal of amount $1.5 billion that was to be loaned by the IMF to SriLanka. The move of price increase of fuel was welcomed. The cooking gas and lamps has doubled. The gasoline price has been increased by 15%. The restructuring of loss making SriLankan Airlines was proposed.