1st July 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (1st July) is International Joke Day.
• Six major powers and Iran have decided to extend an Interim Nuclear Agreement until July 7 to allow more time for negotiations on a final deal, the United States said on Tuesday the deadline for a long-term accord.
• The six major powers are, Britain, China, France, Germany,Russia and the United States.

National Affairs

• Today is National Doctor’s Day.
• We celebrate this day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Bidhan Chandra Roy, highly respected physician and renowned freedom fighter.
• He is remembered till date for actively involving himself in starting many institutions, hospitals and was fully dedicated to the upliftment of Indian society. 
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Digital India Week in New Delhi.
• Aim : To empower people and transform country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy.
• 13 launches made at Digital India Week:
• Digital Locker : 
• It is aimed at minimising the usage of physical documents and enabling sharing of e-documents across agencies and individuals. 
• National Scholarship Portal : 
• Unique log-in ID and password for all stakeholders. The scholarship will be disbursed to the bank accounts of students. A status update on mobile at every step of disbursement.
• eHospital / Online Registration Services : 
• Citizens can avail of online services such as registration and appointment, pay fees, view diagnostic reports and check blood availability.
• eSign: 
• eSign offers the functionality to authenticate signers and perform the digital signing of documents using Aadhaar eKYC service (biometric or OTP) while submitting documents to agencies. Hardware tokens are not required to be used.
• Digitise India Platform : 
• This initiative would facilitate efficient delivery of services and reduce piles of paper in record rooms of offices. The government’s files and documents, which are shareable and useful to citizens, would be digitised through “crowd sourcing” and citizens can earn money by participating in it.
• MyGov Mobile App : 
• Through this innovative platform, the government encourages citizens to participate in policymaking by giving ideas and suggestions. 
• Swachh Bharat Mission App : 
• This mobile app will resolve the issues and challenges faced by citizens and government organisations while taking swachhata (cleanliness) pledge and uploading of responses (images or videos) in the Swachh Bharat campaign
• BharatNet : 
• It is the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre to connect each of 2.5 lakh gram panchayats with a minimum of 100 Mbps bandwidth. 
• Bharatnet will serve as the infrastructure backbone of Digital India, to facilitate delivery of e-Governance, e-Health, e-Education, e-Banking, internet and various other services.
• Wi-Fi Hotspots : 
• BSNL has launched Wi-Fi services at 78 hotspots over 17 locations across 6 cities to provide affordable, anywhere and anytime, high-speed broadband services while on the move. 
• About 2,500 hotspots are planned to be set up by BSNL in FY16. These would essentially be in tourist destinations and government buildings dealing with people’s issues.
• Next Generation Network (NGN) : 
• NGN technology will converge public switched telephone network, data network and wireless mobile network to enable high speed broadband across the country. 
• This would provide for the first time value-added services such as video chats, video conferencing and other services now available on mobile phone on fixed line telephone at nominal prices.
• Centre for Flexible Electronics : 
• The National Centre for Flexible Electronics is an initiative of the Centre to promote research and innovation in the area of flexible electronics. 
• The electronics emerging from this technology can be fabricated on substrates that are plastics, paper, textiles or metal foils.
• Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (IoT) : 
• IoT is the emerging technological advancement in IT/ITeS sector, which is expected to swamp the connected digital world. 
• The Centre of Excellence for IoT is expected to promote a vibrant IoT ecosystem, helping India attain a leadership role in the filed.
• Electronics Development Fund Policy : 
• The objective of this policy is to create a self-sustaining eco-system of venture funds that shall fill the gap currently seen in the domains of early stage angel funding and venture funding in the technology areas of electronics, nano-electronics and IT. 
• It will facilitate the flow of risk capital to both industry and academia to undertake research and development in these technology areas.
• Government directs Petro Chemicals, Oil refining and thermal power industries to install 24X7 pollution monitoring devices to crack down on violation of environmental norms.
• Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas : Dharmendra Pradhan
• Supreme Court rules mediation (compromise) in rape cases as illegal.
• The court stated that it is against dignity of women.
• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’, aimed at ensuring water supply to farmers round the year, official sources said.
• Note : The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana is an irrigation scheme in which the Central government has planned to provide irrigation to the entire agricultural land in the country.
• The government approved the setting up of an Online National Agriculture Market that will provide more options to farmers for selling their produce.
• Note : Currently, farmers are restricted to selling their produce at mandis or market committees that charge various taxes on producers. 
• An online platform would be set up wherein farmers will be able to sell and buy fruits, vegetables and other produce from across the country.
• An agency would be set up to oversee online trading and to ensure that transactions take place smoothly, they said.
• It will also focus on creating godowns and facilitating transportation of the farm produce after the online trade, sources added.
• The move is expected to give choice to farmers to sell the farm produce both in physical mandis or online platform.
• Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has inaugurated the Integrated Security System (ISS) installed with a total cost Rs. 21.72 crore at four railway stations in the metropolis comprising CST, Dadar, Kurla and LTT.
• The system will monitor passenger activities through a network of CCTV cameras at six railway stations comprising CST, Dadar, Kurla, LTT, Kalyan and Thane.
• The ISS is aimed at improving security on Railway premises, ensuring safety of the people and averting terror attacks.
• He also inaugurated a modified foot over bridge (FOB) to facilitate passenger movement at Diva, new FOB at Vithalwadi apart from laying the foundation stone of a multi-level two-wheeler parking at Thane.
• A survey conducted by NSSO stated that the Literacy rate in rural areas was pegged at 71 per cent last year, compared to 86 per cent in urban areas, while among the age group of seven years and above, male literacy rate was found higher than the female literacy rate.
• NSSO : National Sample Survey Office

Awards & Honors

• Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar conferred with one of Peru's highest awards 'Grand Officer' for social work & mission to deliver peace.

Science & Technology

• Byron Wake, a  15-year-old boy in the UK who used a hypodermic syringe to insert a microchip under the skin on his hand have become Britain's youngest 'cyborg'  
• Cyborg : Part-human, Part Machine.
• He can now unlock his mobile phone and operate some Bluetooth devices with a wave of his hand.
• The chip is the size of a grain of rice and is encased in 'bio-safe' glass.
• Scientists have for the first time identified two promising drug candidates to prevent and treat the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) disease.
• The two antibodies, REGN3051 and REGN3048, showed an ability to neutralise the virus

Deaths

• Matti Makkonen, known as the Father of SMS after developing the idea of sending messages via mobile networks, has passed away.

Sports

• Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won the Commonwealth Chess Championship.

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