Current Affairs - June 7, 2020 Current Affairs

According to the Forbes 100 world's highest-paid celebrities 2020, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar ranked 52nd with estimated earnings of USD 48.5 million & is the only Indian featured on the list. The list is topped by 22 years old Kylie Jenner, model who earned USD 590M & also topped in the women category, followed by 42 years old American rapper Kanye West(2nd, USD 170M), 38 years old Tennis player Roger Federer(3rd rank, USD 106 M) & 35 years old Football Cristiano Ronaldo( 4th rank , USD 105 M).

In the Times Higher Education Asia University Ranking launched on 4th June 2020, Indian became the Third most represented country with 8 institutes in the top 100.Indian Institute of Science with 36th position on the list retains its top position in India.

HDFC Bank, a Mumbai based private sector bank has launched a special campaign 'Summer Treats' with offers to meet the changing needs of merchants as well as salaried and self-employed customers.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari has launched the UNDP national awareness campaign on 'Prevention of Human and Animal Mortality on Highways' on 5 June. The campaign aims to generate awareness and education for the masses at large towards reducing or eliminating mortality on the roads of both human beings and animals.

The virtual Global Vaccine Summit 2020 was hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson from London in which business leaders, UN agencies, civil society, government ministers, Heads of State and country leaders participated from over 50 ?countries.Global Vaccine Summit organised by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi).

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) rearranged the Commodity derivatives advisory committee and appointed Ashok Dalwani, Retired IAS officer as the chairman and Aliasgar S Mithwani, Chief General Manager of SEBI as Secretary of the 17-member committee.

Union Minister of Power R. K. Singh launched the #iCommit initiative for building an energy resilient future on 5 June 2020. A campaign was also launched to encourage all stakeholders and individuals to continue moving towards energy efficiency.

Cabinet's Appointment committee approved the appointments of Rajeev Topno, the private secretary to the prime minister as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, World Bank & Brajendra Navnit, the Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office(July 2014 - September 2019) as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation & will be posted at the Permanent Mission of India to the WTO, under the Department of Commerce. He replaced JS Deepak at the PMI whose two-year extended term ended on May 31.

A survey released by the Reserve Bank has showed that Indian economy may contract by 1.5 percent in FY21 though the next fiscal is expected to be much better.

Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences scientist has discovered that a low cost and efficient way to generate hydrogen from water using Molybdenum dioxide as a catalyst. They have found that Molybdenum dioxide nanomaterials annealed in hydrogen atmosphere can act as efficient catalysts. Using this, Hydrogen can be generated from water and produces water on energy generation without any carbon footprint.

The first India-Australia virtual leader's summit was held between Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. The focus of the meet was to further strengthen the bilateral ties in areas like healthcare, trade and defence.

In accordance with the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey for [July 2018 - June 2019] of National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India's unemployment rate fell between July 2018 and June 2019 to 5.8% from 6.1% during the same period of 2017-18 while the Indian economy grew 6.1% in 2018-19, slower than the 7% expansion recorded the year before. This is the second Annual Report being brought out by NSO on the basis of PLFS.

Former Delhi Police commissioner Ved Marwah passed away on 5 June 2020. He was 87 years old. The former Governor of Mizoram, Manipur, and Jharkhand also served as the director-general of the National Security Guard (NSG), and as an adviser to governors in J&K and Bihar.

The Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, Mubadala is all set to buy 1.85% stake in jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, for Rs 9,093.60 crore. The investment from Mubadala comes in Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

World silver-medallist and Indian boxer Amit Panghal and Vikas Krishan were nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the Boxing Federation of India.

Centre approves the 3-month extension(August 1- October 31) of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam, a 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service(IAS) officer who assumed charge on June 30, 2019, after the retirement of incumbent Girija Vaidyanathan. K. Shanmugam was to retire from service on July 31, 2020.

The President of India Ram Nath Kovind has promulgated the two Ordinances namely the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020. The move comes after the announcement of the landmark decisions by the Government of India for reforms in the agricultural sector for raising the income of the farmers as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

In order to encourage the deployment of Points of Sale infrastructure in smaller cities and towns, the Reserve Bank of India has initiated with Rs 500-crore Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF with an initial contribution of Rs 250 crore . The remaining amount will be contributed by card issuing banks and card networks working in the country.

India and China held high-level talks on 6 June. The talk was initiated by India and was held at the Border Personnel Meeting Point in Maldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. The talks were held amid the border stand-off between the militaries of the two countries near eastern Ladakh. The Indian delegation was led by Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, while the Chinese side was headed by the Commander of the Tibet Military District.

The 51st annual WEF Davos meeting to be held in January 2021 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). WEF to adopt a new twin-summit format by bringing together leaders from across the globe for an in-person and well as virtual dialogues with the theme: 'The Great Reset'.