18th June 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena jointly inaugurated the Duraiappah Stadium in Jaffna today through video-conferencing from Delhi. 
• Note : India has helped Lanka renovate the stadium, which was not in use since 1997, by investing ₹7 crore. 
• Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha today visited world famous Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. 
  
• Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her South Korean counterpart Joo Hyunghwan, has launched Korea Plus, a platform to promote and facilitate Korean investments in India. 
• This will include supporting Korean enterprises entering India for the first time and looking into issues faced by Korean companies doing business in India.
• President Pranab Mukherjee returned home after a 6 day visit to Ghana, Ivory Coast and Namibia where he met top leaders of these countries and inked important agreements.

National Affairs

• The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) released National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016.
• The policy’s mission is to  provide  safe,  secure,  affordable  and  sustainable air travel  for passengers  and  air  transportation  of  cargo  with  access to various parts of India and the world.
• In Himachal Pradesh, the Shimla Municipal Corporation has set up a Garment Bank in the state run Kamla Nehru Hospital Shimla for new born babies.
• President of the State Red Cross Society Pratibha Singh inaugurated this bank.
• This unique garment bank would help those needy people who remained unable to purchase new cloths for their new born babies.
• Note : This is the first such garment bank in the country.

Business & Economy

• The Madras High Court today ruled that banks can recover money from a person's savings bank account if the debtor fails to settle the loan dues despite reminders. 
• The court observed this while dismissing a petition seeking to restrain a nationalised bank from recovering farm loan dues from a person's pension amount in the savings account.
• India recorded its highest-ever tea production of 1,233 million kg in 2015-16 fiscal. 
• The Eurozone has approved €7.5 billion (about $8.46 billion) in bailout funds for Greece, in what will be the first payment since 2015.
• This will allow the country to meet €3.5 billion in debt repayments to the European Central Bank in July. 
• Note : Greece owes its creditors over €300 billion, approximately 180% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• Raghuram Rajan today announced that he will not continue as the RBI Governor and will return to academia after his term ends on September 4.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outline RAPID, five-point mantra to tax officials to reform and broaden the direct tax net base. 
• The new five point charter for tax administrators RAPID means,
• R - Revenue, 
• A - Accountability, 
• P - Probity, 
• I  - Information 
• D - Digitization. 
• Note : It was announced while inaugurating Rajasva Gyan Sangam, a two-day Annual Conference of Senior Tax Administrators in New Delhi.
• The Union Finance Ministry has announced that Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) can now open National Pension Savings (NPS) accounts online i.e. through eNPS if they have Aadhaar Card or Permanent Account Number (PAN) card. 
• Earlier, NRIs could open NPS accounts only through paper based applications by approaching Bank offices.  
• Note : NPS are being regulated by the PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority), a regulator established by the Finance Ministry.

People in News

• An Egypt court today sentenced ousted President Mohamed Morsi to life imprisonment for spying for Qatar. 

Awards & Honors

• Mohun Bagan announced that it will honour country’s only Dronacharya football coach Syed Nayeemuddin with the Mohun Bagan Ratna award.
• Nayeemuddin was chosen for this prestigious award for his overall contribution to the club and the country both as a player and as a coach.

Science & Technology

• According to a report by software security group Kaspersky, India ranks 4th in the list of hacked servers available for sale on xDedic, an underground marketplace for compromised servers. 
• The report said access to 3,488 hacked Indian servers was being sold on xDedic. 
• The listed servers grant access to government networks, online banking and payment, and telecom networks, among others.
• US based private space transport service company SpaceX successfully launched two commercial satellites viz. EUTELSAT 117 West B and ABS-2A. 
• They were launched using SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket which had lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US. 
• This mission was SpaceX’s second dual-satellite launch.

Deaths

• Noted theatre personality and popular yesteryear Odia film actress Manimala Devi (86) passed away.
• he was among the first generation artistes in the state and had ruled the Odia film industry as lead actress in the 1960s with her influential performances in various films.
• Former Maharashtra Director General of Police Suryakant Jog (90) passed away.
• He was the DGP of the state from 1985 to 1987.
• He was well known as generator of the movement for water conservation, Vasundhara in Amravati.
  

New Appointments

• Three women flight cadets, Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chatuvedi and Mohana Singh, made history today as they were commissioned as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force for the first time ever.
• Former cricketer and former BJP MP Chetan Chauhan has been named the Chairman of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). 
• He is currently serving as the vice-president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, besides being a senior BCCI official.
• Senior IAS officer Supriya Sahu was today appointed as Director General of Doordarshan.
• She will be the full-time director general of the state-run broadcaster after two year as the post was lying vacant since July 2014.
• She is going to replace Aparna Vaish who was acting head of Doordharsan.

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