24th June 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

sponsored links

International Affairs

• Whistleblower website Wikileaks on it's website cited NSA spied on French President Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac in 2006-12.
• Note : In 2013 the NSA was accused of spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• NSA : National Security Agency

National Affairs

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch three ambitious schemes to develop cities and towns tomorrow.
• The three projects are 
  
• Smart Cities Mission : The 48,000 crore rupees Smart Cities Mission is aimed at applying smart solutions to improve infrastructure and service delivery in the cities.
• Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and the Urban Transformation (AMRUT) : The AMRUT Mission is worth 50,000 crore rupees. This mission is aimed at infrastructure development of 500 cities with population of over one lakh.
• Housing For All : The 'Housing For All' mission will enable decent houses to all the needy, particularly the economically weaker sections and low income groups.
• Union Urban Development Minister : M Venkaiah Naidu
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for setting up of six new branches of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM).
• These new IIMs will be located at 
• Vishakhapatnam, 
• Bodh Gaya (Bihar), 
• Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh), 
• Nagpur, Sambalpur (Odisha) and 
• Amritsar.
• Note : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July 2014 had in his Budget speech committed to establish five new IIMs in Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Punjab.
• Cabinet has decided to set up National Memorial in memory of socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan in Bihar (Lala Ka Tola).
• Note : Lala Ka Tola is the birth place of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan. 
• The Memorial will be house a virtual museum and an institute to undertake study and research on
• democracy, 
• enhancing the role of Panchayats in nation building, 
• Gandhian thoughts, and 
• centre for Khadi and constructive work keeping in view the thoughts of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, along with Lok Nayak Khadi Gaurav Samvardhan Kendra at the same place for making national flags by women cluster(s).
• The Maharashtra government today decided to evoke MPDA against those involved in black marketing of essential commodities and sand mafia.
• MPDA : Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act

Deaths

• Senior BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh Dileep Singh Bhuria (71) passed away.
• Veteran journalist, author and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai (66) passed away. 

People in News

• Jharkhand MLA Kamal Kishore Bhagat awarded seven-year sentence in 22 year-old attempt to murder case.

Science & Technology

• According to data released by the Union ministry of new and renewable energy, Rajasthan has grabbed the number one position in the country in terms of total installed capacity of solar energy (1,167 megawatt). Gujarat stood at second position with 1,000MW.
• Top five states  in solar energy generation
• Rajasthan
• Gujarat
• Madhya Pradesh
• Maharashtra
• Andhra Pradesh
• The Centre has launched an Android application with which the public can upload pictures of pollution sources of the Ganga river for further action by the authorities concerned.
• Union Water Resources Minister  Uma Bharti launched this Mobile Bhuvan Android app and Web portal after signing of an MoU between the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Isro to effectively plan and monitor the Centre's flagship Clean Ganga Mission.
• Bhuvan Ganga portal is an exclusive Web portal deployed in Isro Bhuvan's geoportal with all geospatial layers related to river Ganga.
• It will be used as a tool to support decision making and planning for the Clean Ganga Mission. The Mobile Bhuvan app is a user-friendly Android-based application to enable public to collect and report information on various pollution sources that affect the water quality of river Ganga.

Business & Economy

• SEBI allows start-ups to list and raise funds with an easier set of norms within India.
• SEBI Chairman : U K Sinha
• Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today announced that India to supply high grade iron ore to Japan and SouthKorea for three years beginning 2015
• 30th June is the last date to exchange Rs. 500 note and Rs. 1000 note printed before 2005
• Seeking cooperation for withdrawing pre-2005 currency notes from circulation, the RBI has asked the public to deposit the old design notes in their bank accounts or exchange them at a bank branch convenient to them.
• The rationale behind the move to withdraw banknotes printed prior to 2005 is to remove them from the market because they have fewer security features compared with banknotes printed after 2005.
• Note : The earlier deadline was January 1, but later the Reserve Bank of India had extended it till the end of this month.
• Telecom major Bharti Airtel has launched 4G services in Mysore that will allow its customers to access high speed access to the Internet.
• Note : 
• In April 2012, Airtel had launched India's first 4G services in Kolkata. 
• Its 4G services are now available in Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Pune, Chandigarh and Amritsar.

Awards & Honors

• Tennis legend Steffi Graf was appointed the Ayurveda brand ambassador of Kerala.
• Eminent Scientist from Hyderabad based DRDO (Defence Research and Development Laboratory), Dr Prakash Chand Jain recently won the prestigious Dr Biren Roy Space Science and Design Award for his contribution in space sciences.

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

sponsored links