Current Affairs - June 19, 2019 Current Affairs

Randstad rates Amazon India as country's most attractive employer brand. Microsoft India emerged as the runner-up, followed by Sony India. Mercedes-Benz, IBM, Larsen & Toubro, Nestle, Infosys, Samsung and Dell are others among the country's top 10 most attractive employers. As per the study, salary and employee benefits continue to be the top driver, while choosing an employer for the Indian workforce, followed by work-life balance and job security.

India is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of victory in Operation VIJAY, which popularly known as the Kargil War. The Kargil War is a saga of strong political, military and diplomatic actions. The Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations for the year 2019 will be spread over three days from 25-27 July 2019 and will be organized at Dras and New Delhi. However, as part of the build up to the main event, numerous activities are planned to be organized all over the country with effect from first week of July 2019. The theme of the day is 'Remember, Rejoice and Renew'. The objective of these celebrations is to evoke feeling of nationalism and patriotism through nationwide campaigns especially amongst youth and to pay homage to the valiant soldiers.

Peter Gilchrist from Singapore has won the 2019 Pacific International Billiards Championship at the Yarraville Club. In the final, he defeated India's Sourav Kothari.

Sustainable Gastronomy Day is celebrated around the world on 18th June. It emphasizes the need to focus the world's attention on the role that sustainable gastronomy can play.

Om Birla has been named as the new Lok Sabha Speaker by the NDA. He is elected Member of Parliament from Kota, Rajasthan. Om Birla will file nomination for Lok Sabha speaker elections today. As soon as the new Speaker is appointed, Virendra Kumar's role will cease to exist.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed Rs.1 crore penalty on private sector lender HDFC Bank for violating know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) norms. The penalty was imposed on 18 June 2019. RBI had received a reference from customs' authorities regarding submission of forged bill of entries (BoEs) by certain importers to the bank for remittance of foreign currency. RBI's examination revealed the violations of the RBI directions on KYC/AML norms and on reporting of frauds. RBI said that the penalties are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance. Also it is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers.

The 48th DG conference was held between India's Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). It was concluded on 15 June at Dhaka, Bangladesh. A Joint Record of Discussion was signed by DG, BSF, Rajni Kant Mishra and DG, BGB, Major General Md Shafeenul Islam. Both BSF abd BGB agreed to undertake joint efforts to bring down the killing incidents to zero by increasing coordinated patrols in vulnerable areas to cattle and narcotics smuggling, educating border population about the sanctity of International Border (IB) and preventing criminals from crossing the IB. Both sides also agreed to pursue and share real-time information including a preliminary questioning report as applicable about the persons apprehended with smuggled items.

Autistic Pride Day is being observed on 18th June every year. Autistic pride recognizes the importance of pride for autistics and understands it not as a disease but as a difference. Autistic Pride Day was initiated by Aspies For Freedom, a group that raises public awareness about autism rights.

The Indian government has demanded Whatsapp, the Facebook-owned messaging application, to digitally fingerprint messages that are sent on its platform without breaking the encryption. The move is to ensure traceability of all content shared through the WhatsApp platform, without reading the message. This decision is in line with draft amendments to intermediary guidelines of the Information Technology Act released in December 2018, which requires all internet platforms to ensure traceability of the origin of all content shared through them.

United Nations has released its World Population Prospects 2019 recently. This report explained that India is expected to show the highest population increase between now and 2050, overtaking China as the world's most populous country, by around 2027.

India will be hosting the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the first time. COP-14 will be held between September 2 and 14 in Delhi. The Centre launched a flagship project, part of a larger international initiative called the Bonn Challenge ahead of the COP-14. The flagship project aims to enhance India's capacity for forest landscape restoration (FLR). The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded land under restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.

Operation Sunrise 2 is a coordinated military operation which was carried out between India and Myanmar to target militant groups. The Indian army and Myanmar Army carried out a three-week-long coordinated operation in their respective border areas from May 16. The operation targeted several militant groups operating in Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. The first phase of "Operation Sunrise" was conducted in March along the Indo-Myanmar border. In the operation a number of camps of north-east-based militant groups were busted. During "Operation Sunrise 2", the armies coordinated with each other to bust camps of militant outfits, including the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), NSCN (Khaplang), the United Liberation Front of Assam (I) and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB). Nearly six dozen militants belonging to these groups were nabbed and several of their camps destroyed during the operation.

In an environment-friendly initiative, Lucknow constructed its first plastic waste road. The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has started using plastic waste to construct roads as a pilot project. This environment-friendly road is being constructed as a trial from Gomti Nagar Police Station to Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow. The LDA will follow all the road-making guidelines set by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) for the construction. Mixed plastic waste increases the durability of roads by 40 to 50 percent. About 8-10 percent of plastic waste mixed in coal tar and it will be durable for a longer time.

Debendranath Sarangi, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the 1977 batch was re-elected as president of Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) while Dronacharya awardee and national coach Cyrus Poncha was made secretary-general. They were elected unopposed for a period of four years from 2019 to 2023.The SRFI also have Director of coaching, Dhiraj Singh and Former SRFI president N Ramachandran will be the Patron of SRFI.

The 2nd Meeting of India-Italy Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism was held in New Delhi, India on 17 June 2019. The meeting was co-chaired by Mahaveer Singhvi, Joint Secretary (Counter Terrorism), Ministry of External Affairs and Diego Brasioli, Principal Director for Security, Disarmament and non- Proliferation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy. The next meeting of the Joint Working Group will be held in Italy.

The Reserve Bank of India had set up an eight-member expert committee under the leadership of former chairman of SEBI, UK Sinha on 18 June 2019. The aim is to review the current framework for the MSME sector. UK Sinha, former chairman of SEBI was the head of the committee.

Facebook has announced a digital currency called Libra that will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe. Libra is being touted as a means to connect people who do not have access to traditional banking platforms. Technology to make transactions with Libra will be available as a standalone app - as well as on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger platforms - as early as 2020.

In its latest Global Economic Outlook, the global rating agency Fitch lowers India's growth forecast from 6.8% to 6.6% for the current fiscal, as manufacturing and agriculture sectors showed signs of slowing down over the past year. Fitch also retained its GDP growth forecast for the next fiscal (2020-21) at 7.1% and 7.0% for 2021-22.

Bangladesh has recorded the second highest successful chase in World Cup history. The Bangladesh cricket team chased down the target of 322 against West Indies. Bangladesh (322/3) beat West Indies (321/8) by 7 wickets in Taunton. The previous second highest successful chase in World Cup was also recorded by Bangladesh when they chased down the target of 319 against Scotland in 2015. Notably, it is also Bangladesh's highest ever chase in ODI cricket.

Egypt's first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was buried on June 18, 2019 amid heavy security in Cairo, a day after his collapse and death during a court session. Rights groups have called for an independent and transparent probe into the detention conditions and death of the former leader.