1) Exercise ‘Jalrahat’ commences in Assam
a) Exercise ‘JALRAHAT’ recently commenced in Assam. It is a joint initiative of the state government and the armed forces that is being led by GAJRAJ Corps with full support from HQ Eastern Command.
b) The exercise ended on June 30. The name ‘Jalrahat’ is a clubbed name of the relief works that will be carried by all three branches of the Indian Armed Forces, namely the Army, Navy and Air Force.
c) Indian Navy will be carrying out Exercise Prakampana based on relief and assistance in case of a super cyclone at Vizag, Andhra Pradesh in August 2016.
d) Indian Air Force will be undertaking Exercise Sahayta based on relief and assistance in case of a major earthquake at Bhuj, Gujarat.
2) Renowned painter KG Subramanyan passes away
a) K G Subramanyam, the pioneer of modern art forms in painting and pottery has passed away at the age of 92.
b) Recipient of Padma Vibhushan, Subramanyan was also a freedom fighter and was jailed briefly during the Quit India Movement.
c) He also received a British Council Research Fellowship to the Slade School of Art at the University of London in the year 1955.
d) He was an art historian and his body of work forms a significant document of Indian art history.
3) China launches second Shijian-16 series satellite
a) Recently, China launched its second Shijian-16 series satellite. It was carried by a Long March-4B rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
b) This satellite is intended for space environment measurements, radiation and its effects as well as technology testing.
c) First introduced in May 1999, Long March-4B rockets are used to launch sun-synchronous orbit meteorological satellites.
d) The first Shijian-16 satellite was launched in October 2013.
4) ZSI to record climate change impact on Himalayan animals
a) Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has started five long-term monitoring plots in the Himalayan region to document the impact of climate change on animals.
b) The project will be funded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Species like fish, butterflies, bees and other insects will be monitored for the changes in their distribution due to climatic changes.
c) The current monitoring will be compared to the old data of ZSI in terms of climate change on the survival of the species.
d) The project will run for three years in states like West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
5) Union Cabinet approved MoU between UPSC and Royal Civil Service Commission of Bhutan
a) A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC), Bhutan.
b) The MoU aims to strengthen the existing relationship between UPSC and RCSC. It will facilitate sharing of experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.
c) As per the MoU draft, Sharing of experience and expertise in Civil Service matters, Sharing of expertise on use of Information Technology (IT) and Digitization of records, storage and display of historical records will be done.
6) 10th National Statistics Day celebrated
a) 29th June is marked and celebrated as National Statistics Day across India to create awareness about the importance of statistics in daily life and in the process of planning and development.
b) The theme this year is ‘Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare’.
c) The day is celebrated annually on the occasion of birth anniversary of India’s eminent statistician Late Prof Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and was the first Indian statistician to receive global recognition.
7) Union cabinet clears National Mineral Exploration Policy
a) To attract private sector investment, the Union cabinet has approved the National Mineral Exploration Policy to attract both domestic and foreign mining companies in exploration jobs.
b) The decision comes after the lack of exploration opportunities due to limited capabilities of the Geological Survey of India and Mineral Exploration Company Ltd.
c) The policy will pave the way for competitive bidding of prospective mineral blocks through the process of e-auction. Also, the exploration companies will be given an option of annuity or upfront payment to collect their revenue share.
8) UNICEF releases State of the World’s Children 2016 Report
a) The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has released the World’s Children 2016 Report which highlights the condition of vulnerable children across the world.
b) Key Highlights of the report are as follows:
i) Unless we accelerate our progress, nearly 70 million children may die before celebrating their fifth birthdays – 3.6 million in 2030 alone, the deadline year for the Sustainable Development Goals.
ii) Children in sub-Saharan Africa are 10 times more likely to die before their fifth birthdays than children in high-income countries.
iii) Over 60 million primary school-aged children will be out of school – approximately the same number as those out of school today. More than half will be from sub-Saharan Africa.
iv) Around 750 million women will have been married as children – three quarters of a billion child brides.
c) The report also states investing in vulnerable children can not only make their lives better but also make the society richer in every sense.
d) India in the report: India is among five nations who will bear maximum under five deaths, others being Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.
e) The average annual rate for reduction in neonatal mortality required for India to reach the target is almost double the current level.
9) Suzuki Motors appoints scion Toshihiro Suzuki as CEO
a) Suzuki Motor Corp has appointed Toshihiro Suzuki, son of Chairman Osamu Suzuki, as its CEO.
b) The appointment comes after Osamu Suzuki said he would decline the CEO position to take responsibility for the automaker’s use of incorrect testing methods when calculating vehicle mileage.
10) India maintains 3rd position in ICC ODI team rankings
a) In the recently released ICC ODI team rankings, the Indian cricket team has maintained its third spot.
b) With 123 points, team Australia is at the top position followed by New Zealand. India has 110 points in total.
c) South African batsman AB De Villiers has yet again topped the list of ODI batsmen. In this list, India’s Virat Kohli is placed second, while Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan occupy the sixth and eighth positions respectively.
d) No Indian features in the top 10 of the ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers which has been topped by West Indian Sunil Narine, followed by New Zealand’s Trent Boult and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan. The latter ranks first in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders.
11) Sanjeev Rajput wins silver in ISSF World Cup
a) Indian shooter Sanjeev Rajput has bagged the silver medal in the men’s 50 metre rifle 3 position event of the ISSF World Cup in Baku.
b) Rajput shot 456.9 points in this tournament.
c) Croatia’s Petar Gorsa won the gold medal with 457.5, while Hyeonjun Kim of Korea bagged the bronze after he shot 445.5.
12) Ethiopia, Bolivia, Sweden, Kazakhstan elected non-permanent UNSC Members
a) All the 193 members of the UN General Assembly elected Sweden, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan to serve on the UN Security Council (UNSC).
b) This selection has been made for a period of two years starting 1st January, 2017. The newly-elected countries will replace Spain, Malaysia, New Zealand, Angola and Venezuela.
c) As the voting between Italy and Netherlands yielded no clear winner, both the countries will share the two-year term, each for a one-year period.
c) Bolivia and Ethiopia were chosen by their regional groups and had no competitors. Kazakhstan won the seat reserved for Asia Pacific against Thailand, while Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden had competed for two seats for Western Europe.
13) World Bank approves the Tejaswini Project in Jharkhand
a) The World Bank Board has approved of the $63 million Tejaswini Projects, the first World Bank project for the development and support of women and adolescent girls.
b) Tejaswini: Socioeconomic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls & Young Women Project in Jharkhand will support adolescent girls and young women, aged between 14-24, to complete their secondary-level education and acquire relevant skills for the job market.
c) The project will focus on socio-economic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women in 17 select districts of Jharkhand.
d) It is expected to benefit about 680,000 adolescent girls and young women. In the 17 project districts, there are about 2.1 million adolescent girls and young women in the 14-24 age group, of which 13 percent belong to Scheduled Castes and 25 percent to Scheduled Tribes.
14) FSSAI signs MoU with ASCI
a) A MoU was signed between the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Advertising Standards Council in India against misleading ads.
b) This MoU is aimed at monitor and keep a check on the misleading & uncorroborated ads in the food and beverage sector.
c) FSSAI has made it compulsory to ASCI to keep check upon the process of complaints against misleading ads by food companies.
d) The CEO of FSSAI, Pawan Agarwal opined that the MoU would effectively help in handling misleading ads related to food and will provide a paradigm shift towards handling such scenarios and bring transparency and accountability with the stakeholders’ participation.
15) Navy inducts Indigenous Heavyweight Torpedo ‘Varunastra’
a) Indigenously developed heavyweight torpedo Varunastra was inducted in the Indian Navy on 29th June.
b) Developed by Naval Science and Technological Laboratory of the DRDO for the Indian Navy, it weighs 1.25 tonnes. It carries the torpedo carries about 250 kg of explosives at a speed of around 40 nautical miles an hour.
c) Torpedo is a self propelled weapon, with an explosive head that can be launched above or below water surface directed towards a target. Earlier, Torpedo Varunastra was showcased for the first time on the 2016 Republic Day Parade at Rajpath.