Current Affairs - June 21, 2018 Current Affairs

Shillong has been selected as the 100th city to receive funding under the Centre's flagship "Smart Cities Mission". In January 2016, 20 cities were announced under the Smart Cities Mission, followed by 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016, 30 cities in June 2017, and 9 cities in January this year. The total proposed investment in the finally selected 100 cities under the Smart Cities Mission would be Rs 2,05,018 crore. Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for implementing various projects.

Nasscom unveiled its 'Women Wizards Rule Tech' programme for women techies to support women in being successful and thus increasing the number of women as senior officials in the IT field. The Women Wizards Rule Tech was announced in March at the Nasscom Diversity and Inclusion Summit in Chennai as a joint initiative by the Nasscom Sector Skills Council and the Data Security Council of India. This initiative will aid women techies in core technologies like IT-Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), Business Process Management (BPM), product and research and development (R&D) sectors.

India and Italy agreed to boost cooperation in counter-terrorism and cybersecurity as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met the top Italian leadership and discussed steps to revitalise bilateral ties. It was the first major political exchange between the two countries. Ms. Swaraj is there on the first leg of her seven-day tour of four European countries.

Microsoft has acquired Flipgrid, an education start-up with an app that lets students record and share videos on specific topics with their classmates. Microsoft is making Flipgrid free of charge. Schools that already have subscriptions will receive prorated refunds. The acquisition comes one and a half years after Microsoft announced a partnership with Flipgrid.

SBI Managing Director B Sriram took charge as the CEO and MD of IDBI Bank for 3 months. He has been appointed in place of Mahesh Kumar Jain who was recently made the Deputy Governor of RBI. Sriram currently manages SBI's corporate banking division, which has a loan book exceeding ₹10 lakh crore.

The world's first International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics was launched at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on June 20, 2018. It is a joint venture of the Regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives and also Gujarat Forensic Science University. This is a centre of excellence which will use forensics for humanitarian services. The purpose of this Centre is to provide service to the nation and to the entire world when the need arises. The launch of the Centre was followed by an International Symposium on Humanitarian Forensics.

The Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has launched the Handbook on legal processes for Police in respect of Crime against Children in New Delhi. Ms Gandhi urged all stakeholders to unite in preventing and combating crimes against children. She highlighted that the government is committed to create a nation free of violence against women and children.

Renowned music composer A.R. Rahman has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of the Sikkim government. Mr. Rahman will promote and protect the state's achievements nationally and globally. Earlier in 2018, Sikkim government had made Mr. A.R. Rahman its Brand Ambassador of tourism and business.

The World Music Day is celebrated across the world on 21st June. The day is also known as 'Fete de la Musique' after a music festival that began in France in 1982. This Day was first celebrated on 21st June 1982.

The tri-service joint Russia-India military exercise Indra-2018 will take place in an Indian military base in the second half of this year. Russia has been a long-standing defence partner of India.

The conference 'National Consultation on Making Agriculture Sustainable and Profitable' will be inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in Pune, Maharashtra on June 21, 2018. The 2-day conference is being organised by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in the context of the ongoing debate and efforts at various levels to double farmers' incomes by 2022. Naidu, as Vice-President is chairman of the IIPA institute. Agriculture experts and agri-economists at the conference will deliberate upon creating an enabling policy framework, agricultural trade policy, transfer of technology from labs to land and agricultural credit and insurance.

The Haryana Government has launched 7-Star Gram Panchayat Rainbow scheme to give star rankings to its panchayats on the basis of 7 social parameters. The panchayats will be judged on sex ratio, education, hygiene, environment preservation, governance and social participation. Under the scheme, approx 1,120 villages of Haryana has achieved star ranking since its launch in January 2018. The Ambala district topped the star ranking with 407 stars followed by Gurugram with 199 stars and Karnal with 75 stars. The selected villages will be honoured at an award ceremony to be held in Panchkula, Gurugram and Rohtak in July 2018. The villages would be rewarded Rs one lakh for achieving each parameter.

Eminent Indian-American surgeon, writer and public health innovator Atul Gawande has been named as the CEO of a new US employee health care company,started by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon. He will take over as the CEO of the company from July 9.

Under 'India Smart Cities Award' 2018, Surat has been awarded for showcasing "great momentum" in the implementation of projects under the Smart Cities Mission, according to the Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry. Bhopal and Ahmedabad were selected in the 'Innovative Idea' category for their "transformative approach towards sustainable integrated development". Under 'urban environment' category- Bhopal, Pune and Coimbatore bagged the award for public bike-sharing project.

The 28th Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was held in Jurmala, Latvia. The NSG plenary meeting was chaired by Ambassador Janis Zlamets of Latvia. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.