14th June 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (14th June) is World Blood Donor Day‬
• This day  is celebrated every year on the day of birth anniversary of Austrian-American biologist and physician Karl Landsteiner (14th of June in 1868) who discovered the existence of different types of blood groups in 1901.  
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his discovery.
• This day is observed to raise the public awareness about the need for safe blood donation.
• Themes of World Blood Donor Day
  
  
• 2016 : "Blood connects us all”
• 2015 :  “Thank you for saving my life”.
• 2014 : “Safe blood for saving mothers”.
  
• 2013 : “Give the gift of life: Donate blood.”
• 2012 : “Every blood donor is a hero”.
• 2011 : “More blood, more life”.
• Important Note : World Blood Donor Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with 
• World Health Day, 
• World Tuberculosis Day, 
• World Immunization Week, 
• World Malaria Day, 
• World No Tobacco Day, 
• World Hepatitis Day and 
• World AIDS Day.
• Israel was today elected to Chair the United Nations Legal Committee.
• This is the first time that Israel will preside over a permanent UN committee since joining the world body in 1949.
• The Legal Committee is the sixth committee of the UN General Assembly and deals with international law. Israel won 109 of the 175 valid votes cast.
• According to the 2016 Global Nutrition Report, poor nutrition affects a third of the human population. 
• Of the 127 countries from which data was available, 57 countries were found to have serious levels of undernutrition and overweight adults. 
• It also states that out of five billion adults worldwide, nearly two billion were overweight and one in 12 had type-2 diabetes.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Africa next month to boost India’s economic and maritime ties with Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique. 
• The key topics of discussion during the four natoin tour will include energy security, food security, ocean economy, education, health, skill-building, and infrastructure. 
• Note : India’s bilateral trade with Africa stands at $70 billion.

National Affairs

• The Central government today said all of its vacancies must be publicised widely nationwide and suggested that advertisements be posted on the Labour Ministry's online portal. 
• It added that the vacancies must be filled on a regular basis. 
• Note : The Centre, in its budget estimates for 2016-17, said it would increase its existing workforce of 33.05 lakh by 2.18 lakh,
• The Sikkim government has identified and listed 21 trees across the state to be tagged as ‘Heritage Trees’ due to their historical and cultural importance. 
• A tree is recognised as a 'Heritage Tree' if it has a historical significance to the human settlement in the area. 
• Some of the trees identified include the locally found 'Bajrat', 'Tooni' and 'Rani Champ'.
• The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to set tobacco-free areas within 100 yards of all schools. 
• It further advised authorities to impose severe punishments on anyone caught selling tobacco products to underage kids. 

New Appointments

• Ranu Langthasa was unanimously appointed as the Chairperson of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) in Assam.
• Important Note : With this, she became the first women chairperson to be appointed to the post since the formation of Autonomous Council in 1950s.
• The senior-most Judge of the Manipur High Court Justice Rakesh Ranjan Prasad has assumed charge of the Chief Justice of the High Court. 
• He succeeded Justice Laxmi Kanta Mohapatra who has relinquished the charge of office.

Business & Economy

• The New Development Bank (NDB), established by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries is planning its first bond as a Yuan-denominated issue in China. 
• The bank will also issue bonds in other member countries in their local currencies to mitigate foreign currency risk of funded infrastructure projects.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today issued guidelines called Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)
• The main aims of this scheme are,
• Strengthen the lenders’ ability to deal with stressed assets 
• Put real assets back on track of entities facing genuine difficulties by providing an avenue for reworking financial structure.
• Gunit Chadha, CEO of Asia-Pacific of financial services firm Deutsche Bank, will step down from his post with effect from July 17. 
• Earlier, the bank posted a loss of $6.8 billion for 2015 following which it announced a global restructuring drive.
• The Haryana government today approved a project worth ₹25 crore to make the state’s agriculture production system more flexible to climate change. 
• The project proposes to intensify cropping systems and sustain production at less cost by adopting climate resilient technologies without deteriorating soil health. 
• Further, the project is said to benefit 75,000 farmers.
• The Sovereign gold bonds started trading on the stock exchanges (BSE and NSE) for the first time today. 
• Note : The government had issued gold bonds in three tranches starting November last year for about five tonnes worth of gold. 
• Non-banking lending firm SKS Microfinance has changed its name to Bharat Financial Inclusion. 
• The decision to change the name was taken in line with a shift in the company's core principles towards expanding the financial inclusion in the country. 
• Important Note : SKS is the first publicly-listed microfinance company in India.

Deaths

• The leader of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in US-led air strikes in Syria today. 
• The former captain of England Cricket team, Donald Carr (89) passed away. died.

Sports

• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) has won the Canada Grand Prix title of Formula One for the year 2016 . 
• Note : It was his second title of the season after winning 2016 Monaco Grand Prix in May 2016. 
• India has been given a wildcard by the Association Mundial de Futsal (AMF) to participate in the upcoming U-17 Futsal World Cup. 
• The tournament will be held from July 11-20 in Paraguay with 12 participating countries. 

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