Current Affairs - June 1, 2019 Current Affairs

Former Flipkart Executive Sandeep Patil has been appointed as India Managing Director of Truecaller. He served as the head of consumer and commercial lending vertical at Flipkart until his new appointment with Truecaller. Sandeep Patil will be leading business strategies to expand the company and increase its revenue. He will be supervising the teams based in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. India is the largest market for Truecaller with 60-70% of global revenue and user base.

Smriti Irani was named as the Minister of Women and Child Development; and Minister of Textiles of Modi's Cabinet.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) signed an agreement on the selection of crew and training for Gaganyaan Programme. It was signed between Air Vice Marshal (AVM) RGK Kapoor, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (ACAS) Operations (Space), IAF and Shri R Hutton, Project Director of Gaganyaan Programme. The Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) will lead the selection and training of astronauts on behalf of IAF. Gaganyaan Programme was announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2018. Rs. 10,000 crore worth mission is scheduled to be launched in December 2021 and as a part of it, ISRO had set up the Human Spaceflight Centre at its headquarters in Bengaluru on January 30.

India's only orangutan, Binny died at Odisha's Nandankanan Zoological Park after a prolonged illness. It was 41 years old. Since a year, she was under treatment by the experts from the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology(OUAT) under the constant advice of the Orangutan experts from UK and Singapore. She was brought from Pune's Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park on November 20, 2003, aged 25. Orangutans are one of the world's 3 extant species of great apes found in Indonesia and Malaysia. At present, they are found only in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra.

As the World Environment Day is approaching, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched a theme song 'Hawa Aane De' on air pollution. The song was launched in the national capital. The aim is to spread awareness regarding protecting the environment. Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the song in the presence of actor Shekhar Suman and singer Shaan. World Environment Day is celebrated on June 05.

US President Donald Trump has announced tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico in a bid to curb illegal immigration. From 10th June 2019, a five percent tariff would be imposed and slowly raised until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied. President Trump has declared a national emergency to tackle what he claims is a crisis at the US southern border.

World Milk Day is a day established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to recognize the importance of milk as a global food. It has been observed on June 1 each year since 2001. The day is intended to provide an opportunity to bring attention to activities that are connected with the dairy sector. Various activities are organised on this day to raise awareness about milk and milk products. It is celebrated for the contribution of milk and dairy products in several industries, the economy and people's lives.

The Punjab government has decided to make it mandatory for all online food aggregators to ensure that food supplied by them should compulsorily have hygiene rating as per Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) guidelines. The decision was taken under the 'Tandarust Punjab Mission'.

Jammu and Kashmir Government released Healthcare Investment Policy-2019. It follows the State Administrative Council decision taken on March 08, 2019. The newly adopted policy is aimed to promote and encourage private entrepreneurs in the health sector to improve the quality of service. Private parties and entrepreneurs are encouraged by providing subsidies and incentives. 30% subsidy on capital investment will be provided to set up multi-specialty Hospitals, Super Specialty Hospitals, Medical Colleges, Nursing Colleges, and Paramedical Colleges.

New York-based investment and financial services major Goldman Sachs have pumped in $250 million to construct one of its largest global workspaces in Bengaluru. Bengaluru, with 2,500 techies, is the second-largest engineering talent base of Goldman Sachs after New York. Goldman Sachs Service, Bengaluru has become one of the firm's global centres of innovation focused on the development and application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to help solve business problems for our worldwide network.

10th National Science Film Festival of India(NSFFl) will be in Agartala, Tripura in January-February 2020. This is for the second time the event will be held in a North-Eastern city. It will be jointly hosted by Vigyan Prasar of the Central Government, State Government, and Tripura Central University. Chief Minister of the State Biplab Kumar Deb had requested the Union Science and Technology Ministerto hold the NSFF in Tripura. Minimum 10 countries will participate in the upcoming event and it will include the films produced by UNICEF, UNESCO and filmmakers from different countries.

The SWIFT India and South Asia Conference held at the St Regis Mumbai. The conference saw the participation of 500 delegates representing financial institutions, regulators, market infrastructure experts, multinational corporations, and other industry professionals, to discuss the most pertinent issues concerning the nation's financial market. The theme of the conference was "Digitisation in transition: The future of innovation and cyber security. It was organized and hosted by SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication).

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati has signed an MoU with The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to set up an IITG-ISRO Space Technology Cell (STC) at the institute where Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi inaugurated a new academic complex and research and development building. IITG-ISRO STC would be first of its kind in the North-east region to augment research and capacity building processes in the field of space technology.

Former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been named as the new Finance Minister under Modi's Government.

Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport of Indore, Madhya Pradesh was declared as International Airport. It was given the International status as per sub-rule (b) of rule 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Rules, 1950 by the Central Government. The Indore airport facilitates round the clock operations and was given its World Standardization Certificate by the UK.

Every year, on 31st May, the World Health Organization (WHO) and global partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). The annual campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2019 is on "tobacco and lung health".

Lawmakers of Papua New Guinea elected James Marape as its 8th prime minister. He belongs to Pangu Party. He succeeded Peter O Neill of People's National Congress party, who was pressured to resign by a series of political defections in recent days, and tensions over a multi-billion-dollar gas project signed this year with French company Total and the US firm ExxonMobil. Marape earlier served as the finance minister of Papua New Guinea while he was a member of the People's National Congress party and he resigned on April 2019.

Delhi government announced to build a water museum in the capital. Apart from this, the construction of a drinking water treatment plant in Chandraval and the construction of a sewage treatment plant in Okhla has also been approved. The construction of this plant will cost about Rs. 598 crores.

Rajnath Singh has been named as the new defence minister of Modi's new government.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the resolution plan of Tata Steel to acquire debt-ridden Bhushan Energy Ltd. for about Rs.800 crore on 30 May. The principal bench of NCLT-Delhi also rejected objections from Bhushan Energy's former promoter Neeraj Singal opposing Tata Steels' bid. Under the resolution plan, Tata Steel will offer an upfront payment of Rs.730 crore. It would also pay Rs.50 crore additionally to operational creditors of the company. Besides, Tata Steel would also infuse Rs.367 crore into the company as a part of equity infusion. A detailed order is still awaited in this matter.