. NEWS BULLETIN―21 Week-1, June 2019

NATIONAL

The Modi Government announced the portfolios of the

Union Council of Ministers.

―BJP national president Amit Shah has been allotted Home

Ministry ―Former Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar has been allotted

External Affairs Minister.

―Former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been

allotted Finance Ministry.

―Former Home Minister Rajnath Singh will take over as the

Defence Minister.

―Nitin Gadkari will continue as the Minister of Road

Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium

Enterprises.

―Ravi Shankar Prasad will continue as the Law Minister,

with additional responsibility of Information Technology and

Telecommunications.

―Piyush Goyal will continue as the Railways Minister with

the addition of Commerce Ministry.

―Dharmendra Pradhan will continue as the Petroleum

Minister along with additional responsibility of Steel ministry.

―Smriti Irani, will continue as the Textiles Minister, along

with Women and Child Development.

―Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been allotted newly created

Jal Shakti ministry.

―Narendra Singh Tomar has been allotted agriculture

ministry along with Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

―Thawarchand Gehlot has been allotted the Ministry of

Social Justice and Empowerment.

―Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda has been

allotted the new Tribal Affairs Ministry.

―Ramesh Pokhriyal has been allotted Human Resources

Ministry.

―Prakash Javadekar has been allotted the Environment and

Forests Ministry and Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

―Pralhad Joshi has been allotted Ministry of Coal along with

Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

―Kiren Rijiju is the new Sports Minister.

―R.K. Singh will continue as the power and renewable energy

minister,

―Hardeep Puri has been allotted Civil Aviation ministry.

―Prime Minister Modi will himself hold the portfolios of

Department of Personnel and Training, Atomic Energy and

Space.

―The other important portfolios are as follow:

―D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Minister for Chemicals and

Fertilizers.

―Ram Vilas Paswan: Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food

and Public Distribution.

―Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Minister for Food Processing

Industries.

―Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Minister for Health and Family

Welfare; Minister for Science and Technology; and Minister

for Earth Sciences.

―Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minister for Minority Affairs.

―Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey: Minister for Skill

Development and Entrepreneurship.

―Arvind Sawant: Minister for Heavy Industries and Public

Enterprise.

―Giriraj Singh: Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and

Fisheries.

78 Members of the 17th Lok Sabha are women.

―This has also taken the total number of women Lok Sabha

members to the all-time high of 14 percent.

―11 percent of the 16th Lok Sabha members were women.

Whereas 5 percent of the 1st Lok Sabha members were women.

―Both Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have sent 11 women

members each to the 17th Lok Sabha. This is the highest number

of female MPs that a state has sent.

―Uttar Pradesh has sent more women MPs because there is a

larger number of Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

―West Bengal sent more women MPs because 41 percent of

all the Trinamool Congress contestants were women.

―One third of all the elected MPs from Odisha are women.

This is due to the fact that 33 percent of all the BJD candidates

were women.

―Neither NDA nor UPA was able to clear the Bill for reserving

33 percent of the Parliament seats for women.

―Approximately 8,000 individuals contested in the 17th Lok

Sabha elections. Less than 800 of these were women. One-third

of these 800 contested as independent candidates.

―Both BJP and Congress did not give tickets to more than 12

percent women candidates each.

―Globally on an average 24 percent of the National

Legislation members are females.

―In South Asia 18 percent of the National Legislation

members are female.

―European Union and Latin America & Caribbean countries

have as much as one third women in the national legislatures.

―There are many countries which have better women

representation than India. For example, Rwanda (61 per cent)

Cuba and Bolivia (both 53 per cent), Mexico (48 per cent) and

Sweden (47 per cent).

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Cabinet Ministers of India 2019

―India’s women representation in the Parliament is even

worse than that of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and

Nepal.

India invited the leaders of all BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal

Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic

Cooperation) countries for Modi’s searing in ceremony.

―BIMSTEC includes all countries in the Bay of Bengal

region: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and

Bhutan.

―In addition, leaders from the Kyrgyz Republic (who is chair

of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) and Mauritius (who

was the chief guest at Pravasi Bhartiya Divas) were also

invited.

―Few Tamil cinema stars like Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan

were also invited for the ceremony.

―All the SAARC leaders - including the Prime Minister of

Pakistan - were invited for PM Modi’s oath-taking ceremony in

2014.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that we would not

take a ministerial position in the 17th Lok Sabha.

―He made this announcement citing health issues.

―Arun Jaitley said that he had undergone serious health

challenges during the last 18 months and as such he would like

to take time for treatment and recuperation.

―As a Finance Minister of the country Jaitley was

instrumental in clearing multiple legislations including the

legislation for Goods and Services Tax.

The Left parties’ performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha

elections was their worst performance till date.

―In the aftermath of the performance CPI has once again given

a call for reunification of the Communist parties.

―CPI is arguing that the Left parties in India are facing an

unprecedented challenge in its history.

―CPI has also admitted that it might lose the national party

status.

―This is not the first time that CPI has called for reunification.

It has been doing that time and again.

Rahul Gandhi announced his decision for stepping down

as the Congress President, and asked the party to look for a

successor. Rahul Gandhi clarified that he would continue in the

current position until a successor is found. The decision to

resign was taken by Rahul Gandhi after the party suffered its

second-worst defeat in history under his leadership.

―In the aftermath of the defeat many state Congress presidents

resigned and many others offered to resign. Post defeat,

Congress leaders in Rajasthan started rumbling and there were

tensions emerging in the JD(S)-Congress government in

Karnataka.

―Many different Congress leaders and opposition leaders of

other parties had already approached Rahul for reconsidering

his decision. But till now he has remained un-waivered.

―Congress will not get Leader of the Opposition status

because it has less than 55 MP or less than ten percent of the

total MPs in the House.

The Government has granted the Justice Rohini

Commission an extension till July 31, 2019.

―The Rohini Commission under the leadership of the Justice G

Rohini (retired) was constituted under Article 340 of the Indian

Constitution for examining the sub-categorisations of the Other

Backward Classes (OBC). Constituted on October 2, 2017, the

commission was originally supposed to give report within a

period of three months. This is the sixth time that the

commission has been granted an extension.

―These extensions have been given in the light of the

“voluminous data involved and time required for analysis to

prepare a comprehensive report”.

LAW The Centre Government has told the Supreme Court that it

neither supports registration of FIR nor CBI investigation into

Rafale fighter jets deal due its sensitive nature.

―The Centre Government is seeking dismissal of the petition

seeking review of the Supreme Court’s December 14 verdict

providing clean chit to the government in Rafale deal.

―The three-judge bench of the SC on May 10 reserved its

verdict on the pleas seeking review of the December 14

judgement in the Rafale case.

The Brazil Supreme Court has ruled to make homophobia

and transphobia a crime equivalent to crimes like racism.

―The Supreme Federal Tribunal of Brazil has 11 judges. Six of

them have favoured the ruling.

―In 1989, Brazil made racism a crime punishable with a

sentence of up to five years.

―The Supreme Court ruled that homophobia should be treated

at par with racism until the nation’s legislature enacts a specific

legislation for LGBT group.

Supreme Court has refused to grant arrest protection to

newly elected BSP MP from Uttar Pradesh; Atul Rai.

―Atul is accused of raping a college student. The vacation

bench of the Supreme Court said that it was not interested in

providing relief to Rai. In the past the Supreme Court had

refused to provide interim arrest protection to Rai.

―An FIR was registered against Rai on the complaint of a

student that he sexually assaulted her.

The Gujarat local court sentenced two cattle owners to

imprisonment. The accused were charged with leaving their

bovines on the public road in Vadodara in 2017. The

Vadodara Municipal Corporation had pressed charges

against them for negligence.

―The complaint by VMC was filed under section 308 of the

Indian Penal Code. The section deals with the attempting to

culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The case was part

of the VMC drive to deal with cattle menace on the streets.

―The accused Alpesh Rabari and Hitesh Rabari, also have to

pay a fine of Rs 5000 each.

Rajasthan High Court has directed the State Government to

cancel the licences of all illiterate drivers i.e. drivers who are

unable to read and write. The Rajasthan High Court while

passing the order termed the illiterate drivers as a menace for

pedestrians.

― The Court said that illiterate individuals are unable to

understand the road signs and caution warnings on highways

and city roads. The High Court also directed the State transport

Authorities to issue appropriate instructions in this regard.

The Court also said that the action should be taken in cases

where the licences are issued to individuals without the

capability of reading and writing.

STATES

Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig

(Retd) B D Mishra has invited the BJP

leader and Chief Minister designate

Prem Khandu for forming the

government in the state.

―Post poll the 41 BJP party legislators

unanimously elected Khandu as their

leader. ―This is the first time that Arunachal

will see full-fledged BJP government. Arunachal Pradesh CM-

Shri Prem Khandu

―BJP in Arunachal Pradesh achieved a landslide victory in the

Assembly polls under Khandu;s leadership.

―Khandu helped the BJP to increase its share from seven

assembly seats in 2014 to 41 seats in 2019.

―The only regional party – the People’s Party of Arunachal

(PPA) –won one assembly seat in the state.

YSR Congress chief Yeduguri

Sandinti Jaganmohan Reddy is all

set to become the second Chief

Minister of Andhra Pradesh post

bifurcation.

―The YSR Congress won 151 of the

175 assembly seats in the state. The YSR Congress also managed to

win 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in

the state.

Naveen Patnaik took oath and

became the Chief Minister of Odisha

for the fifth consecutive term.

―With this achievement Patnaik has

become one of the longest-serving

Chief Minister’s in India.

―Some of the other long serving

Chief Ministers of India include:

―Pawan Kumar Chamling, Sikkim

(24 years, 5 months, 14 days).

―Pawan holds the distinction of being

the longest serving chief minister of

independent India.

―Pawan is the founder and president of the Sikkim

Democratic Front. He has been ruling Sikkim since 1994. He

was defeated in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

―Jyoti Basu, West Bengal (23 years, 4 months, 15 days)

―Jyoti Basu, a member of the Communist Party of India

(Marxist) served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from

1977 to 2000.

―Gegong Apang, Arunachal Pradesh (22 years, 8 months, 6

days)

―Gegong Apang is the third longest serving Chief Minister.

Apang has represented both BJP and Congress as Chief

Minister. He is currently the member of Janata Dal (Secular)

―Lal Thanhawla, Mizoram (22 years, 1 month, 25 days)

―Lal Thanwala represents Congress party. He was elected as

CM five times.

―Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh (21 years, 11 days).

―Virbhadra Singh has served as Himachal Pradesh chief

minister for 21 years (not consecutive terms).

―Virbhadra Singh represents Congress.

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha

(SKM) president Prem Singh

Tamang, popularly known as

P.S. Golay, on May 27, 2019 took

oath as the chief minister of

Sikkim. He was administered the

oath by governor Ganga Prasad at

Paljor Stadium.

―The SKM, founded in 2013,

won a slender majority in the 32-

member Sikkim legislative

assembly by bagging 17 seats

against 15 won by SDF led by P.K. Chamling.

―The Chamling government was ousted by the SKM after over

24 years of rule. After taking charge of the office at Tashiling

state secretariat, Golay announced a five-day working week for

state government employees.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

American Government has removed India and Singapore

from the list of countries whose currency it monitors.

―The American Government has made this decision in the light

of the recent developments including the steps taken by India.

―The list still includes names of countries like China, Japan,

South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia

and Vietnam.

―India was net purchaser of foreign exchange in 2017. Since

then RBI steadily sold reserves for most of 2018.

―In 2018 the net sales of the foreign currency reached 1.7

percent of the GDP.

―India has kept adequate foreign exchange reserves as per the

IMF metrics.

―America placed India in its currency monitoring list of

countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange

policies in May 2018.

―Five other countries i.e. China, Germany, Japan, South

Korea and Switzerland were also placed on the list with India.

India stopped importing Iranian oil after the expiration of

the American waiver granted for the same.

―In 2018 US had granted waiver to eight countries for six

months for buying Iranian crude. The waiver ended on May 2,

2019.

―With this stopping, India has become the latest country to

comply with US sanctions on Iran.

―Besides India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan and Turkey have stopped

importing crude from Iran.

―India had stopped its imports after USA refused to extend

exemption further.

―Under American pressure, India has stopped crude imports

from both Venezuela and Iran.

―India was meeting 10 percent of its need from Iran crude.

―India is facing another complication as it is developing Iran’s

Chabahar port. US has exempted the development of this port

from the Iranian sanctions as of now; but this can change in the

future.

―Chabahar port is used for supplies and humanitarian

assistance to Afghanistan.

―The current US sanctions were imposed (or reimposed

depending on the perspective) after US pulled out of the 2014

nuclear accord between Iran and six other nuclear powers.

―The American Government is pressurising Iran into entering

nto a new deal that will cover both Iran’s nuclear program and

Iran’s ballistic missile program. ―US target is to reduce Iran crude oil exports to zero.

―American sanctions are having serious affects on the Iranian

economy. The value of its currency has dropped to all time low,

its inflation rate has increased by more than four times.

Foreign investors are moving away from Iran. Iran claims that

the sanctions against it are illegal.

Kerala government has taken a decision of levying 1

percent cess on GST from June 1st. The extra cess is being

levied for dealing with the devastations that the state saw in the

aftermath of 2018 floods.

―With this decision Kerala has become the first Indian state

to levy calamity cess. The extra cess will not be imposed on

daily essential items like wheat, edible oil, pulses etc. The cess

will be imposed for a period of two years.

―The government is expecting to raise Rs 600 crore through

the cess. The cess was announced in the annual budget of state

and approved by the then FM, Shri Arun Jaitley in the GST

Council.

―Last year Kerala experienced the worst floods in more than a

century. The floods were designated as Level 3 calamity event.

Andhra Pradesh CM – Shri Jagan Mohan Reddy

Odisha CM – Shri Naveen Patnaik

Sikkim CM - Shri P.S. Golay

In Nissan Motor case, the Permanent Court of Arbitration

in Singapore has rejected India’s argument that the Court does

not have jurisdiction for handling the case. ―Indian government will most likely file an appeal in the

Singapore’s Supreme Court. The acceptance of India’s

argument would have led to the throwing out of the whole case.

―In 2016 Japan’s Nissan sent a legal notice to the Indian

Government claiming Rs 5,000 (USD 720 million) crores. This

claim included Rs 2,900 crore in unpaid incentives and Rs

2,100 crore in damages (interest, costs etc). Nissan claimed that

this amount was due to it as incentives as part of the 2008

agreement for setting up a car manufacturing facility in Tamil

Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government promised number of

incentives including tax breaks to Nissan and France’s

Renault when they agreed to set up manufacturing facility in

the state. These incentives included tax benefits.

―Consequently, Nissan and Renault invested to the tune of Rs

6,100 crore in the factory. The factory can manufacture around

4,80,000 vehicles annually.

―The factory also provides job to more than 40,000

individuals. Tamil Nadu government has been trying to settle

the matter with Nissan but till now an acceptable agreement

has remained a distant dream.

―In case of a settlement, Nissan will have an option of

withdrawing its arbitration case against India.

―Nissan took India to Court for alleged violation of the

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)

between India and Japan. CEPA provides certain protections to

Japanese firms investing in India and vice versa.

―In 2017, India filed a plea claiming that the arbitration court

in Singapore does not have authority to deal with the issue for

multiple reasons including tax related issues which are not

covered by the CEPA.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

For the first time in the history, an all-women crew of the

Indian Air Force flew a medium lift helicopter (Mi-17 V5).

―The crew flew the Mi-17 V5 helicopter as part of IAF’s Battle

Inoculation Training. ―Parul Bharadwaj – the crew leader – has become the first

woman pilot of IAF to fly Mi-17 V5.

―Co-pilot Flying Officer Aman Nidhi is the first woman

Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot from Jharkhand.

―The third crew Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal is the first

woman flight engineer of the Indian Air Force.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully tested a locally developed 500 kg

class guided bomb.

―The 500 kg class Inertial Guided Bomb was dropped from

Su 30 MKI combat jet at Pokhran in Rajasthan.

―The tested bomb is capable of carrying different warheads.

―Last week Indian Air Force had successfully test fired the

BrahMos cruise missile from a Sukhoi jet at the Andaman and

Nicobar Islands.

Indian Air Force transport aircraft AN-32 has been certified

to fly on blended aviation fuel containing up to 10 per cent of

indigenous bio-jet fuel.

―The certificate was granted by aero-engine test facilities at

Chandigarh.

―The certificate was granted after one year of evaluation tests

and trails using the blended aviation fuel.

―These tests and trials followed the international aviation

standards.

―The indigenous bio-jet fuel was produced by the CSIR-IIP

lab at Dehradun in 2013.

―Till now the fuel was not tested or certified for commercial

use due to the lack of testing facilities in civil aviation sector,

―In 2018, the Indian Air Force permitted the use of its

resources for testing, evaluating and certifying the bio-jet fuel.

―Since 2018, Indian Air Force engineers and flight test crew

have been evaluating the fuel against international standards.

―In a statement IAF has announced this as a step in promoting

the ‘Make in India’ mission as this bio-fuel would be produced

from Tree Borne Oils (TBOs) sourced from tribal areas and

farmers, augmenting their income substantially.

SPORTS

On the eve of ICC men’s World

Cup, ICC launched the criiio

campaign for celebrating diversity

of cricket.

―Under the campaign the fans of

cricket have been asked to share

pictures and videos of how and

where they play cricket.

―The videos and pictures have to be

shared by using the newly launched

criiio and visiting the site criiio.com.

―ICC has planned a series of

programs for the next 12 months; this is first of these programs. ―Different individuals across the world play cricket

differently. Criiio is a celebration of all of these ways.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 has started.

―The opening ceremony of the games took place at the Mall

located opposite the Buckingham Palace in London (United

Kingdom).

―The ceremony was hosted by former England cricketer

Andrew Flintoff, Shibani Dandekar and Comedian Paddy

McGuinness.

―The captains of 10 teams participating in the World Cup met

with the British Royal family at a gala event which took place

before the opening ceremony.

―English singer John Newman performed ‘Feel the love’ at the

start of the event.

―The opening ceremony concluded with the official theme

song of the ICC World Cup 2019; ‘Stand By’.

The seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will

start from July 20, 2019. The starting time of the matches have

also been changed from 8.00 PM to 7.30 PM.

―Bengaluru Bulls is the defending champion of the seventh

PKL season.

Apurvi Chandela won the

women’s 10m Air Rifle at the

year’s third International

Shooting Sport Federation

(ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol

stage in Munich, Germ any.

―Apurvi defeated the Wang

Luyao of China by attaining a

score of 251 against Wang’s score of 250.8.

―This is Apurvi’s second ISSF World Cup gold medal of

2019. She won the first gold by attaining the world record score

at Delhi. Overall this is Apurvi’s fourth ISSF medal.

INTERNATIONAL

The results of the European Union elections 2019 have been

announced. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party received the highest

number of votes and seats in the European parliament.

Apurvi Chandela

―This is the first time that euro-sceptic party like the Brexit

Party has secured more than 25% of seats (29 out of 73) by

acquiring 31.71% of votes.

―The pro-EU Liberal Democrats attained the second position

by securing 15 seats by acquiring 20% of votes.

―The Labour party attained the third position by securing 10

seats. The fourth position was secured by the pro-European,

environmentalist Greens with seven seats.

―The Green parties in Europe are moving up due to the

growing climate concerns. This is a counterpoint to the far-

right and anti-migrant parties that have been growing in

popularity across Europe in recent years.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

According to media reports Huawei’s in-house operating

system, codenamed ‘HongMeng’ will not be ready till 2020.

―This will create difficulty for the company as the US

government has imposed a global ban on it by adding its name

to the Entity List.

―Consequently, Google cancelled the company’s Android

licence.

―While cancelling the license, Google clarified that the Play

Store and Play Protect services will continue to work on

Huawei phones for now. But there is no certainty over the future

course of action.

―Microsoft also stopped selling Huawei laptops in its online

store. It might also cancel Windows license for the firm.

SUMMIT & ORGANIZTION

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed

gratitude for India’s contribution to the United Nations and its

peacekeeping missions. ―India currently contributes around 6,400 peacekeepers to

various missions across the world. India is the fourth largest

contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping.

―Indian Peacekeepers are currently deployed on the UN peace

operations in Abyei, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, the Middle East, South Sudan and the

Western Sahara.

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

An all-white, albino panda has been reportedly seen at the

Wolong National Nature Reserve in the southwestern

province of Sichuan, China.

―This is the first of its kind documented sighting of fully while

giant panda in the world. White Panda’s get their colour due to

the rare genetically inherited genes that prevents the normal

synthesis of melanin.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

BOOKS & AUTHORS The Good Son―by You Jeong Jeong

The Selected Works of Abdullah the Cossack―by HM Naqvi

I Have Become The Tide―by Githa Hariharan

The Lost Decade (2008-2018) ―by Puja Mehra

Caste as Social Capital―by R. Vaidyanathan.

APPOINTMENTS Justice A K Mittal has taken oaths as the new Chief Justice

of the Meghalaya High Court

―The oaths of the office were administered by the Governor

Tathagata Roy at the Raj Bhawan of Meghalaya in the presence

of the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, and his cabinet

ministers.

―Justice Mittal is the most senior judge of the Punjab and

Haryana High Court. Justice Mittal is replacing Chief Justice

Mohammad Yaqoob Mir.

Lonnie Bunch has been appointed as the 14th secretary of

the Smithsonian Institution. Bunch is the first African

American to be appointed as a Smithsonian secretary.

―Bunch is replacing David Skorton. David Skorton has been

appointed as the president and CEO of the Association of

American Medical Colleges.

―Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846. Smithsonian

Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and

research complex, with 19 museums and a National Zoological

Park.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

Prem Tinsulanonda died on 26th May, 2019 at the age of 98

in Thailand. Prem was an army commander, prime minister and

adviser to the royal palace. Prem was regarded as one of the

most influential political figures of Thailand. Prem was best

known for his long-standing devotion to the monarchy,

especially the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Nobel Prize winner physicist Murray Gell-Mann died on

24th May, 2019 at the age of 89. Murray contributed towards

discovery and classification of subatomic particles. Murray

transformed physics by his eightfold model of classifying

subatomic particles based on electric charge, spin and other

characteristics.

―Murray was awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1969 for his

contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of

elementary particles and their interactions.

MUST-KNOW

BJP: Bharatiya Janata Party

TMC: All India Trinamool Congress

BJD: Biju Janata Dal

NOTA: None of The Above

NDA: National Democratic Alliance

UPA: United Progressive Alliance

BIMSTEC: Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral

Technical and Economic Cooperation

SCO: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

SAARC: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

OBC: Other Backward Classes

LED: Light-Emitting Diode

IMF: International Monetary Fund

GST: Goods and Services Tax

ISSF: International Shooting Sport Federation

ICC: International Cricket Council

DAYS/ANNIVERSARIES

28th May every year is celebrated as Menstrual Health Day.

―The day is celebrated for raising awareness about the

importance of proper menstrual hygiene.

―The poor knowledge about menstrual hygiene, coupled with

the presence of taboos and stigma, restricted access to hygiene

menstrual products and poor sanitation infrastructure have

significantly negative impact on the educational opportunities,

health and overall social status of females across the world.

―The Menstrual Health day helps in breaking silence, raising

awareness and changing negative social norms around the issue

of menstrual health.

. NEWS BULLETIN―22 Week-2, June 2019

NATIONAL

The Centre Government has confirmed the unemployment

figures of 6.1 percent during 2017-18. This is the highest

unemployment in the 45 years. The released data shows 7.8

percent of all employable urban youths as unemployed. This

figure is 5.3 percent for the rural youth.

―Participation rate for males and females for the quarter

ending December 2018 was 73.6 percent and 19.5 percent

respectively.

―This data confirms the data in the pre-election leaked report

on unemployment which was being denied by the government.

―This was in top of the poor performance of agriculture and

manufacturing sector in January-March period.

―This is the first time in the last two years that India’s GDP has

registered growth lower than China’s GDP growth.

The Newly elected BJP government has reconstituted eight

key Cabinet Committees.

―The centre government has acknowledged the slowing down

of economy and pressing need for job creation and announced

setting up of two new cabinet committees on Investment and

Growth, and Employment and Skill Development

―The Cabinet Committees and their members are as under:

―Appointments Committee of the Cabinet: Prime Minister

Modi and Amit Shah.

―Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs panel: PM Modi

(Chair), Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, DV

Sadananda Gowda, Narendra Singh Tomar, Nirmala

Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, S

Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan.

―Growth and Cabinet Committee on Employment and

Skill Development: PM Modi (Chair), Amit Shah, Nirmala

Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal, Ramesh

Pokhriyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mahendra Nath Pandey,

Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Hardeep Singh Puri.

―Cabinet Committee on Accommodation: Amit Shah

(chair), Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal.

―Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs: Amit Shah

(chair), Nirmala Sitharaman, Ramvilas Paswan, Narendra Singh

Tomar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash

Javadekar and Prahlad Joshi.

―Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs: PM Modi (chair),

Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ramvilas

Paswan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad,

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Arvind

Ganpat Sawant, and Prahlad Joshi.

―Cabinet Committee on Security: PM Modi (chair) Amit

Shah, Rajnath Singh, Sitharaman and S Jaishankar.

―Cabinet Committee on Investment: PM Modi (Chair), Amit

Shah, Nirmala Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush

Goyal as members.

A new gender equality index created by Equal Measures

2030 has ranked India 95 among 129 countries.

―India attained a score of 56.2 out of 100 on the gender

parameter of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

―Countries such as Ghana, Rwanda and Bhutan have done

better than India on the index.

―India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been rated very poor in

terms of women education.

―The index covers 14 of the 17 SDGs and ranks countries on

51 parameters ranging from health to climate change and

violence.

―A score of 100 on the index means that the set target for the

indicator has been achieved. For example; 50 percent women

representation in the national legislature or 100 percent girls

completing secondary education.

―129 countries reviewed scored an average of 65.7 out of 100.

―No country emerged as the world’s top or even as one in top

ten performer across all the measured parameters.

―The parameter ranks a score below 59 as a poor score.

―Denmark has received the highest marks in the index.

Finland has received the second highest score. They have been

followed by Sweden, Norway and Netherlands.

―Countries marked by conflict: Niger, Yemen, Congo, Chad

etc. have received the lowest scores in the index.

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) has re-elected Sonia Gandhi as

its leader.

―Sonia Gandhi has been re-elected to

the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli

constituency in Uttar Pradesh. ―Congress cannot claim the leader of

the opposition status because it only has

52 members in the Lok Sabha. Congress

will need three more members for claiming the post.

―The appointment of Congress Leader of Lok Sabha has not

been done yet.

The Government of India has

merged the ministries of Water

Resources and Drinking Water and

Sanitation to form a new Jal Shakti

Ministry.

―All the water related works will be

merged and made part of this

ministry. ―The scope of the new ministry will

include international and interstate

water disputes, Namami Gange project, clean drinking water

projects etc.

―Forming of the new ministry was one of the polls promises

of the BJP during the recent Lok Sabha elections.

―The newly created ministry will be headed by Cabinet

Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

On 3rd June, 2019 the Indian Air Force aircraft AN-32

went missing over Arunachal Pradesh.

―The aircraft with 13 people onboard took off from the Jorhat

in Assam and was supposed to land at the Mechuka Advanced

Landing Ground in Shi Yomi, Arunachal Pradesh.

―The aircraft took off at 12:30 PM and it was supposed to land

at 1:30 PM. The contact with the aircraft was lost at 1:00 PM.

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Sonia Gandhi

Ministry of Jal Shakti

―Indian army, IITB

and state police

personnel are helping

Indian Air Force on

land while Indian Navy

aircraft and ISRO

satellites are helping for

remote search and rescue operation.

―Yomi situated on China border is one of the remotest

locations in Arunachal Pradesh. ―AN-32 is a soviet era, soviet designed aircraft used by Indian

Air Force.

―No signs (including wreckage) of the aircraft were found until

the time of writing this bulletin.

Railway ministry is exploring the possibility of running

Vande Bharat express on Mumbai-Pune and Nasik-Vadodara

lines. Currently Vande Bharat Express is running between New

Delhi and Varanasi. This train reduced the travel time between

the cities by almost 40 per cent.

LAW The Special Session Court in Vadodara, Gujarat has rejected

the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) closure report on Arjun

Vanzara bribery case.

―Arjun Vanjara is an IPS officer DG Vanzara’s son. Arjun

was a mamlatdar in Vadodara at the time of his arrest. Arjun

was caught red handed in 2016 while accepting a bribe of Rs

75,000. ACB filed a closure report under Section 169 of the

Criminal Procedure Code citing lack of evidence in the case.

―ACB also claimed that there was no relationship between the

complainant and Arjun.

―The Session Court has not accepted the closure report and has

asked the police to conduct further investigation into the case.

Delhi High Court has asked the Centre Government to make

its stand on the Uniform Civil Code clear.

―The Delhi High Court has also asked the government to

constitute a High-Level Expert Committee for drafting the

code within a prescribed time.

―In addition, the Delhi High Court also issued notice to the

Law Commission of India and the Ministry of Home Affairs

for the same plea.

―The information is being sought by the Delhi High Court on

a Public Interest Litigation seeking directions for framing a

uniform civil code in the country under Article 44 of the

Constitution of India.

―The petition claimed that existence of personal laws

contradicted the Article 14 (right to equality), Article 15 (right

against discrimination) and Article 21 (right to life and liberty)

of the Constitution of India.

―Uniform civil law will replace the current personal laws.

The existing personal laws are based on ―different scriptures

and customs of different religious communities.

―The uniform civil code will have a common set of rules

applicable to every citizen of India.

Centre Government has approached the Supreme Court

challenging the Madras High Court order quashing the land

acquisition order for the Salem-Chennai green corridor project.

―Salem-Chennai green corridor project is a 273 km, Rs 10,000

crore eight lane green corridor connecting Salem and Chennai

with the Centre Government ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’

scheme. The project will reduce the travel time between the two

cities by 50%. The project will pass through reserved forest and

water bodies.

―The Madras High Court held that the project required

compulsory environment clearance because it negatively

affected the environment.

―The appeal has been accepted by the vacation bank of the

Supreme Court.

―Earlier, the Madras High Court had said that environmental

clearance was mandatory since the project would have an

adverse impact on the environment, including water bodies.

STATES

SP-BSP have announced that they will contest the upcoming

by polls in the Uttar Pradesh separately.

―SP-BSP alliance failed miserably during the recently

concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state.

―Both the parties have clarified that this break is not a

permanent break and that both the parties can come together

in future if needed.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet has taken a decision to increase

penalties for traffic violations by 100 percent.

―The fines for using mobile phone while driving or being on

a two-wheeler without helmet have been increased from Rs

500 to Rs 1,000.

―Similarly, the fine to violators driving without license has

been doubled to Rs 1,000 (earlier Rs 500), driving without

number plate will attract a fine of Rs 500 (earlier Rs 300).

―The UP cabinet has also given permission to proposal

allowing vehicle owners in the state to port the registration

number of their vehicles.

The Midday Meal Schem e for 51 drought-hit tehsils in

Gujarat during summer vacation

in schools has been stopped.

―The decision has been taken

because the Drought

Declaration Certificates of

these tehsils have ended on May

31, and the Revenue

Department has not taken any

steps for renewing them.

―The Revenue Department had

issued certificates declaring

moderate to severe drought in 51 tehsils of Ahmedabad,

Banaskantha, Bhavnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Kutch,

Mehsana, Morbi, Patan, Rajkot and Surendranagar districts.

Odisha Government has held talks with the Centre

Government for looking into the feasibility of implementing the

Ayushman Bharat Yojana in the state.

― According to Indu Bhushan, the CEO Ayushman Bharat,

the main challenge for the state is integration of the state health

assurance scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) with

the national scheme.

―Implementation of the scheme in the state will lead to Centre

bearing a part of the burden of the scheme. This will reduce

budgetary pressure for the state government.

―State government announced various populist schemes

during the run-up to the elections. Reducing budgetary pressures

will help the state in meeting these needs.

―Till now the Odisha Government has been reluctant to

implement the scheme in the state.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

United States has finally taken India out of the

Generalised System of Preferences Scheme (GSP).

―The benefits under the scheme which included duty free

imports of Indian goods to US worth $6 billion or more will end

on June 5. India has been part of the GSP program since 1975.

India was the largest GSP beneficiary.

Missing IAF plane AN-32

―Withdrawal of GSP benefits is likely to impact the exports of

approximately 1,900 products.

―Approximately 11 percent of the total Indian exports to US

were under GSP. US is one of the largest trading partners of

India. India’s goods trade surplus with US was $21.3 billion in

2018. Indian Government has termed this development as

“unfortunate”.

―United States had announced that India’s access to the

scheme will be removed, but it did not issue notification for the

same due to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in India.

―Tensions between India and USA have been slowly rising in

the past two years due to many actions of the Indian

government. India has cut the maximum retail prices of life

saving cardiac stents and essential knee implants by more than

65 percent.

―India imposes high tariffs on information and technology

products.

―USA is claiming that these actions along with many others do

not provide equitable and reasonable access to Indian

markets.

Director General GST (Pune) has raised a tax demand of

Rs 4,002 crore and 346 crore against Indian Oil Corporation

(IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL)

respectively. ―The tax demand has been raised for alleged non-payment of

excise duty on the ethanol which the companies mixes with

petrol.

―Both IOC and HPCL are contesting this demand claiming

that use of sugarcane extract ethanol for mixing with fuel is

exempt from tax.

―Oil refiners in India add 5 to 10 percent ethanol into petrol

as per the government directive.

―The directive has been issued by the government with the

view of reducing India’s dependence on oil imports.

―IOC is one of the largest tax payers in India. In 2018-19

alone it paid taxes to the tune of Rs 1.93 lakh crore.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has increased the

US’s GDP growth forecast for 2019 to 2.6 percent.

―IMF expects US’s GDP growth in 2020 to fall to 2 percent.

―According to the IMF, US economy will grow slightly faster

in 2019, than it was projected in past, but there are material

risks associated with the economy.

―These material risks include the risk of damage from the

ongoing US-China trade wars, widening inequalities and

rising debt levels.

―IMF also says that the US-China trade war should be sorted

out at the earliest because the war is significantly threatening

the global economy.

―IMF had earlier reduced its estimates of China’s GDP

growth rate to 6.2 percent.

Union Ministry of Mines has decided to invite tenders for

auctioning of 48 operating non-captive iron and manganese

ore mines whose leases will expire in March 2020.

―The distribution of these mines is as following: Odisha (24),

Jharkhand (6), Karnataka (6), Gujarat (5), Andhra Pradesh (3),

Rajasthan (2), Himachal Pradesh (1) and Madhya Pradesh (1).

―These mines cumulatively produce around 45 million tonnes

of iron and manganese ores.

―The lease of 329 merchant mines in total is expiring in March

2020. 281 of these 329 merchant mines are non-working mines.

―The Ministry has also instituted a committee for looking into

the post-auction issues that can emerge. For example, transition

from old to new lessee.

―This invitation for sending tenders is expected to help steel

companies like JSW Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL).

―The tenders will be issued towards the end of July.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

Garuda 2019 is set to start from July 1 in France, and will

continue for two weeks.

―Garuda 2019 will be one of the largest air exercises between

France and India.

―The exercise will involve engagement between Indian

contingent of 30 Sukhoi fighters and French Rafale aircrafts.

―These exercises will also involve use of other supporting

assets like mid-air refuellers.

―These exercises will help Indian Air Force personnel to get

an idea about the Rafale fighters.

―India is purchasing 36 Rafale fighters at the approximate cost

of Rs 58,000 crore. The first of these aircrafts is expected to be

delivered in September.

―Indo-French defence ties have been steadily improving for

some time now.

Indo-French navy exercises Varuna were held in May this

year.

―In 2019 India and France signed an agreement allowing the

use of each other’s military facilities

including opening naval bases to

warships.

―There are Indo-French

discussions on the possibility of

holding tri-services military

exercise between the armed forces

of the two nations.

On 2nd June, 2019, Indian Navy

successfully conducted live mating

exercise between the new Deep

Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs) with and Indian Navy submarine Sindhudvaj.

―In the exercise personnel from INS Sindhudvaj were

successfully transferred from the submarine to the DSRV.

―DSRVs are equipped with sophisticated radar and a

remotely operated vehicle.

―DSRVs with a crew of 3 personnel can rescue upto 14

personnel from the disabled submarines.

―The maiden trials of the DSRV were conducted on October

15, 2018 and it was inducted into Navy in December 2018.

―The current exercise has ended the training phase of DSRV

on the East Coast.

―This is an historical achievement for the Indian Navy. This

achievement will allow Indian Navy to emerge as Submarine

Rescue Provider in the region.

POLICY AND GOVERNMENT

INITIATIVES

The Governing Council of

the NITI Aayog is set to meet

on June 15.

―This will be the first

meeting of the Governing

Council under the newly

formed Government.

―This will be the fifth council

meeting since the inception

of the Niti Aayog.

―The meeting of the

Governing Council – chaired by PM Modi – will include

discussion on issues like water management, agriculture,

security etc.

―Governing Council of Niti Aayog is made up of all the Chief

Ministers of states, Lieutenant Governors of Union

Territories, relevant Union Ministers and Senior Government

Officers.

Centre Government is considering re-introduction of the

Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill in the Parliament.

―The BJP government was unable to get the bill passed through

the Rajya Sabha during the government’s last term.

―The previous BJP government did not have majority in the

Rajya Sabha. Therefore, the bill passed through Lok Sabha but

it was not able to get it through the Rajya Sabha.

―The opposition parties claimed that the Bill was interfering

with the power of the states and as such was not federal in

nature. The Amendment Bill proposes stricter punishments for

traffic violations, simplification of the vehicle registration

processes and overhauling of the traffic and transport

framework of India.

The Government of India is planning to provide One kg

sugar to approximately 16.3 crore additional families.

―The sugar will be provided at the subsidised rate at the

approximate cost of Rs 4,727 crore.

―The distribution of this additional sugar will be done through

the public distribution system (PDS). The government is also

thinking about reducing its buffer stock of food grains before

the monsoon. At present the Food Corporation of India has

large buffer stocks of wheat and rice. Some of these stocks are

being kept in open space due to lack of storing facility.

―The overflowing of stock was due to procurement of wheat

and rice during last five years coupled with the bumper

production. Food Corporation of India is trying to sell the stock

to bulk customer, but they are not willing to buy at high rates

when cheaper options are available in the open market.

―Currently the government is distributing sugar under the

Antyodaya Anna Yojana at the rate of Rs 13.5 per kg.

Approximately 2.5 crore families benefit from this.

―Currently the government distributes food grain under the

National Food Security Act. Wheat is supplied at Rs 2 per kg

and rice is supplied at Rs 3 per kg. Approximately 80 crore

individuals benefit from this.

Madhya Pradesh Government is bringing a new gun

licensing rule in Gwalior-Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh.

―Individuals seeking gun licence in the region will have to

plant at least 10 tree saplings.

―The saplings can be planted on the earmarked revenue land,

in cases where the individual seeking licence does not own land.

―The individuals seeking license will have to click a selfie with

the planted sapling at the time of planting and after one month

of the planting. Both the selfies will have to be attached with the

licence application.

―In addition, a Patwari will have to confirm the planting of the

saplings. The exemption is available only if the license is sought

because of an immediate threat to the applicant’s life. In such

cases the planting of the saplings will have to be done after

obtaining the licence.

―The Gwalior-Chambal region is known for its infatuation

with firearms.

SPORTS

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has issued a

warning against the use of performance enhancing drugs.

―WFI has made it clear that is has zero tolerance policy

against the use of performance enhancing drug.

―Recently Asian Championship silver medallist Reena failed

to clear the drug test and was put under provisional suspension.

INTERNATIONAL

The United States visa application now requires entering of

data like social media usernames, email addresses and phone

numbers held in past etc.

―These new requirements are part of US Governments drive

to enhance screening of potential immigrants and visitors.

―The revised visa application forms with the additional data

requirement have been approved.

―Approximately 15 million foreigners annually are expected

to be affected by this change.

―In past these additional identifiers were only taken from

people who were shortlisted for additional scrutiny, for

example, people who have travelled to terrorist-controlled

areas.

―Almost all the applicants of immigrants and non-immigrant

visas will have to provide this additional information.

―Certain diplomatic and official visa applicants are exempted

from the new requirements.

―The new changes have been made for strengthening the

process of vetting applicants and confirming their identity.

―The change in the data requirements was first purposed in

March 2018.

Taiwan has been trying to purchase more defence equipment

from USA.

―The new equipment under consideration includes 66 F-16

fighter jets, 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks, 1,240 TOW anti-armor

missiles, 409 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 250 Stinger man-

portable air defence systems.

―America is the main defence supplier of Taiwan.

―China regards Taiwan as its territory.

―Clearing of these purchases will create more tension in the

already tense American-Chinese relationship.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The American Government has announced its decision of

significantly reduce the federal spending on medical research

that uses tissues from aborted foetuses.

―The reduction will be achieved by terminating all such

researches within the National Institute of Health.

―This decision placates the anti-abortion groups that have

been lobbying hard for this.

―The scientists are not happy about this and they claim that the

research has helped millions of individuals across the globe.

―While taking this step, the Department of Health and

Human Services said that the current US government’s top

priority includes promotion of dignity of human life from

conception to natural death.

―The Department has clarified that the ongoing 200 research

projects (with NIH grants) that involve foetal tissue will not be

stopped. But their renewal will be considered by the newly

instituted ethics advisory board.

SUMMIT & ORGANIZTION

United Nation’s General

Assembly has elected Tijjani

Muhammad-Bande as its next

president. ―Tijjani will preside over the 47th

session of the General Assembly

scheduled to start in September, 2019

―Tijjani is the Nigeria’s

Ambassador to the UN.

―Tijjani will replace the current

General Assembly President Maria

Fernanda Espinosa. Tijjani wants to hasten the reform process Tijjani Muhammad-Bande

of the United Nations Security Council for making it more

democratic and efficient.

―There are many high-level meetings scheduled during the 74th

session of the General Assembly. These include a high-level

Political Forum, the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, the

high-level events on Universal Health Coverage, etc.

―Tijjani’s candidature was supported by India.

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

According to the recent India Meteorological Department

(IMD) data, North and South India will receive below normal

monsoon in 2019.

―IMD expects monsoon in these areas to be below normal in

July and normal in August. IMD said that there was a 41 percent

possibility of a normal monsoon.

―The El-Nino will continue during the rainy season and this

can negatively impact the monsoon in India. IMD also clarified

that the El-Nino effect can end towards the end of the monsoon

season. El-Nino phenomena deals with the heating of water in

the Pacific Ocean.

―The Long Period Average rainfall over India as a whole from

1951-2000 is 89 centimeters.

―Rainfall over 110 percent of the Long Period Average is

regarded as excess. Rainfall within 96-104 percent of the Long

Period Average is regarded as normal. Rainfall within 90-96

percent of the Long Period Average is regarded as below

normal.

―Rainfall less than 90 percent of the Long Period Average is

regarded as deficient. According to IMD India is likely to

receive 95 percent and 99 percent of its LPA in July and August

respectively.

―According to IMD the North West India is expected to

receive 94 percent of LPA, central India is expected to receive

100 percent of LPA, southern peninsula is expected to receive

97 percent of the LPA and North East India is expected to

receive 91 percent of LPA. There is 8 percent plus or minus

model error chances. The monsoon is expected to hit Kerala

around June 6.

Nepali climbers have completed a cleaning drive on Mount

Everest. The cleaning drive has resulted in removal of four

bodies and almost 11 tonnes of garbage from the area from the

Mount Everest to its approach below the base camp.

―The people returning from the Mount Everest say that its

slopes are littered with human excrement, oxygen bottles, tents,

ropes, ladders, cans, plastic wrappers etc.

―During the clean up drive a team of 20 sherpa climbers

collected five tonnes of garbage from different camp sites

above the base camp and six tonnes of garbage from the area

below the base camp. 2019 season is the deadliest Mount

Everest climbing season since 2015. In May, 2019 nine and two

climbers died on the Nepali and Tibetan side of the Mountain.

―A permit to scale Mount Everest from Nepal side cost

$11,000. This year 381 permits were issued by the Nepali

government.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

BOOKS & AUTHORS The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for Human

Future at the New Frontier of Power―by Shoshana Zuboff

Art Attacks: Violence and Offence-Taking in India―by

Malvika Maheshwari

Global Capitalism and the Great Crisis―by Ernesto

Screpanti

An American Marriage―by Tayari Jones.

AWARDS AND HONOURS Former President of India

Pratibha Patil has been honoured

with Mexico’s “Orden Mexicana

del Aguila Azteca” (Order of the

Aztec Eagle). ―Order of the Aztec Eagle is the

highest Mexico’s civilian award

that can be presented to foreigners.

―The award is given to foreigners

for their contributions in improving

the bilateral ties of Mexico; their

outstanding services to Mexico or their outstanding services to

humanity.

―Pratibha is the first Indian woman President and the second

Indian President to receive the honour.

―S. Radhakrishnan was the first Indian President to receive

the honour.

―Other Indian recipients of the honour include Rajju Shroff,

Amartya Sen, Satish Gujral, Raghupati Singhania etc.

APPOINTMENTS Reserve Bank of India has

approved the appointment of Rakesh

Makhija as the Chairperson of the

Axis Bank.

―Rakesh will sever Axis Bank for a

period of three years as a non-

executive, part time chairperson. ―Rakesh is known for his

contribution to industry and

technology.

―Rakesh has held various

management positions in the SKF Group. He has also acted as

the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Tata

Honeywell Ltd.

Gianni Infantino has been re-elected as the FIFA’s President

unopposed. Gianni is a Swiss-Italian and a law yer by

profession. His new term will be of four years. Gianni has been

the President of FIFA since February 2016.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

Jaspal Inder Singh Kalra died in Delhi on June 4, 2019 at

the age of 71.

―Kalra was suffering from a prolonged illness.

―Jiggs Kalra has a number of achievements under his name.

―He was the first Asian to be inducted into the International

Food and Beverage Gourmet Hall of Fame.

―He was regarded as the first to bring lost north-Indian recipes

into limelight.

―Kalra’s book Prashad: Cooking with Indian Masters is

used as a textbook in hospitality schools across India.

Brij Mohan Khaitan passed away on 2nd June, 2019 at the

age of 92.

―Brij Mohan founded one of the world’s largest bulk tea

producer Mcleod Russel.

―Mohan is survived by his younger son Aditya Khaitan and

daughter Divya Jalan.

Harish Kumar passed away on 2nd June, 2019 in an accident.

―He died along with three other folk artists in a car accident

when their SUV collided with a stationary truck.

―They were travelling from Jodhpur in Rajasthan to Ajmer.

―Harish was best known for Rajasthani fold dance forms like

ghoomar, kalbelia,, bhawai etc.

Mrs. Pratibha Patil

Rakesh Makhija

―Harish rose to fame after his appearance on India’s Got

Talent in 2010.

―Kumar is survived by his wife and sons aged 8 and 10.

Rajesh Patnekar has been appointed as the Speaker of the

Goa Legislative Assembly.

―Rakesh is a BJP MLA from Goa.

―The office of the Speaker of the Goa had been lying vacant

since the death of Manohar Parrikar in March, 2019.

―Rajesh was nominated to the post of Speaker after the

officiating Speaker refused to take up the post full time.

Prakash Pant died on June 5, 2019 at the age of 58 in USA

where he was staying for treatment.

―Prakash had been suffering from prolonged illness.

―Prakash was Uttarakhand’s minister for parliamentary

affairs and finance.

―Prakash was a BJP MLA from Pithoragarh.

―Prakash was regarded as one of the most important and

knowledgeable members of the Uttarakhand’s cabinet.

―Prakash was also one of the contenders to the post of the

Chief Minister in 2017.

MUST-KNOW

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

IAF: Indian Air Force

ISRO: Indian Space Research Organisation

SP: Samajwadi Party

BSP: Bahujan Samaj Party

GSP: General System of Preferences Scheme

IOCL: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

IMF: International Monetary Fund

DSRV: Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles

PDS: Public Distribution System

WFI: Wrestling Federation of India

UNSC: United Nations Security Council

IMD: Indian Meteorological Department

DAYS/ANNIVERSARIES

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated across the world on

May 31st,

―The World No Tobacco Day 2019 focused on tobacco and

lung health.

―Smoking causes direct and indirect deaths of approximately

seven million individuals across the globe annually.

3rd June every year is celebrated as the World Bicycle Day.

―The General Assembly of the United States declared 3rd June

as the World Bicycle day for acknowledging the uniqueness,

longevity and versatility of the bicycle which has been in use

for two centuries now.

―The first World Bicycle Day was celebrated in 2018.

June 5 every year is celebrated across the globe as the World

Environment Day.

―World Environment Day is a United Nation’s initiative for

creating global awareness about the environment and for

encouraging actions for protecting the environment.

―The World Environment Day was first celebrated in 1974.

Today the day is celebrated in more than 100 countries of the

world.

―The World Environment Day is celebrated every year with a

different theme.

―“Air Pollution” is the theme of the World Environment Day,

2019.

―The World Environment Day is hosted by a different

country every year. The idea is to draw attention to the

environment challenges faces by the country and to raise

worldwide support for tackling them.

. NEWS BULLETIN―23 Week-3, June 2019

NATIONAL

International Commission

of Jurists (ICJ) has released

report and recommendations

related to the discrimination

faced by the LGBTQ

community in terms of

housing, employment and

use of common spaces.

―ICJ conducted 65 interviews across six states of India as part

of its study. ―The study found that persons belonging to LGBTQ

community often struggle for getting accommodation. ―They

were regularly denied rentals and they faced regular

harassment and violence from family, neighbours, landlords

etc.

―These individuals found getting jobs difficult. On getting jobs

the gendered working conditions and lack of job security

further complicated the issue.

―The ICJ has recommended enactment of a “comprehensive

anti-discrimination law, based on nationwide consultations

with the aim of prohibiting discrimination on protected

grounds including sexual orientation, gender identity and

gender expression…”.

―The ICJ has also recommended the amendment of the IPC

provisions on “sexual assault, sexual harassment, disrobing,

voyeurism, stalking, rape and gang rape to introduce gender

neutrality for victims in conformity with international law

standards, and the recommendations made by Justice Verma

Committee, in 2013.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has informed

that it is awaiting sanction for prosecuting 123 government

employees for more than four months.

―The current regulation states that the decision on sanctions

have to be made within four months of receiving the request.

―57 of these sanction requests are pending from the

government organisations/ departments.

―The list of government employees includes Bank officers,

IAS officers, CBI personnel, ED officers, Income Tax

Department employees etc.

―As many as 45 names on the list belong to officers of the

public sector banks.

―Eight sanction requests are pending with Minister of

Personnel, five with Ministry of Railways and five with UP

Government.

BJP’s Virendra Kumar has

been appointed as the pro-tem

Speaker for the 17th Lok Sabha. ―Pro-tem Speaker is appointed

for temporarily conducting the

proceedings of the National or

State Legislature in cases

where the results of the legislative elections are over but

elections to the office of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the

Legislatures are pending.

―Virendra is a Dalit leader from Tikamgarh in the state of

Madhya Pradesh. He has been elected to Lok Sabha for his

seventh term.

―In past Varinder served in the Indian Government as the

Minister of State in both Ministry of Minority Affairs and

Ministry of Women and Child Development.

―Varinder served as the convenor of the ABVP is Sagar,

Madhya Pradesh during the period of 1977-79.

―Varinder has a Master’s degree in Economics and a PhD in

Child Labour.

―The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will be held from June

17 to July 26, 2019.

The wreckage of the missing Indian Air Force AN-32

transport aircraft was located after eight days of extensive search

and rescue operations in Arunachal Pradesh.

―The wreckage was found in a remote location 16 km North

of Lipo, North East of Tato at an approximate elevation of 12000

ft. The area is close to the Indo-Chinese border.

―Tato is the headquarter of Shi Yomi district.

―Shi Yomi borders China to the north and is one of the

remotest locations in the Himalayan state.

―The teams of IAF, Army and Civil administration personnel

had been formed for looking for survivors and other items.

―AN-32 went missing on June 3. It took off from Jorhat base

in Assam around 12:30 PM but it never made it to the Mechuka

Advanced Landing Ground in Shi Yomi district.

―The aircraft with 13 individuals lost contact with the ground

staff at 1 pm.

―The personnel of Army, ITBP, Indian Navy, ISRO, state

police and district administration, had been looking for the

plane since June 3rd.

―In addition, C-130J aircraft, Su-30MKI aircraft, P8i long-

range reconnaissance aircrafts and MI-17 and Cheetah

helicopters were being used for the search and rescue mission.

―The wreckage was spotted by one of the MI-17 helicopters.

Malaysia has clarified that

it has every right to not

extradite Islamic preacher

Zakir Naik to India in case there

is doubt that he will not get

justice. ―Malaysia also said that Zakir

Naik is apprehensive about his

chances of getting a fair trial in India.

―Zakir Naik is a controversial Islamic preacher who is being

probed by both National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the

Enforcement Directorate (ED).

―Zakir’s NGO – Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) – was

declared illegal in 2016. The organisation is being probed for

money laundering to the tune of Rs 18 crore.

―The probe against Zakir is being conducted because his

sermons on Peace TV were cited by Bangladesh to be a reason

for the Dhaka attack in 2016.

―Zakir left India in 2016. He was granted permanent

residency by Malaysia.

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such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

―In 2018 India formally requested extradition of Zakir to India;

through diplomatic channels. Till now Malaysian authorities

have refused to send Zakir back.

LAW The Supreme Court in its recent judgement has reaffirmed

its position that fundamental rights guaranteed in the

Constitution of India and in particular Articles 19 and 21 are

non-negotiable.

―This was done by the Supreme Court while ordering the

immediate release of the freelance journalist Prashant

Kanojia ―Prashant was arrested by the UP Police for allegedly making

objectionable comments against Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath.

―The Supreme Court took a strong stance and said that

Prashant’s arrest was excessive.

―While passing the order Supreme Court judges also clarified

that this order did not approve the social media posts made by

him. The Court said that the UP State was free to proceed

against Prashant in accordance with law.

―UP Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee argued

that the petitioner should not have approached the Supreme

Court directly and rather should have first approached the

High Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.

―The Bench of the Supreme Court did not agree with

Banerjee’s argument. The Court clarified that as a matter of self-

imposed discipline and considering the pressure of mounting

cases on SC, it has become the practice of SC to ordinarily

direct that the High Court first be approached even in cases of

violation of fundamental rights. But this was not a requirement

under Article 32 which in itself is a fundamental right.

―The Court further added that in this particular case the

jurisdictional Magistrate had passed an order of remand on

Prashant till 22nd June, 2019. This meant that Prashant was to

remain in jail for about 13/14 days for putting up posts/tweets

on social media. The Court asked if anyone has come across a

11 days remand? The Court further asked if it was a social

media violation or murder charges?

On May 10th the Collegium of the Supreme Court of India

recommended the name of Justice A A Kureshi for the post of

Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.

―Justice Kureshi is the senior most judge in the parent High

Court of Gujarat. ―The incumbent Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh Justice

Sanjay Kumar Seth at that time was due for retirement on June

9th.

―On 7th June 2019 the Central Government notified that under

“the powers conferred by Article 223 of the Constitution of

India, the President is pleased to appoint Justice Ravi Shanker

Jha, seniormost judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, to

perform the duties of the office of Chief Justice of that High

Court with effect from 10 June, 2019 consequent upon the

retirement of Justice Sanjay Kumar Seth, Chief Justice,

Madhya Pradesh High Court”.

―The transfer of Justice Kureshi to the Bombay High Court

in November 2018 had also created a stir in the Gujarat High

Court, and many of its members observed a strike protesting

against the transfer.

On 10th June the Supreme Court refused to entertain a

petition for modifying its June 4 order dealing with the post-

graduate medical admissions in Maharashtra.

―The medical admission process in Maharashtra has been

substantially delayed this year due to the Government’s

decision to implement new reservation system for PG medical

colleges.

―The two separate reservation systems involve 10 per cent

reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and 16

per cent reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward

Caste (SEBC).

―In its June 4 order the SC scrapped the EWS reservation for

this year admissions saying that the reservation could not be

applied retrospectively.

STATES

The Karnataka

Poultry Farmers

and Breeders

Association (KPFBA) has urged

the Government of

India to take back

the recently notified ‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (egg-

laying hens) Rules 2019′. ―The newly notified rules will be applicable from 2020. The

poultry farm owners have been granted a period of five years

to switch over to the new system.

―The new rules specify that the cages for poultry should not be

less than 55 square centimetre per bird and a cage should not

contain more than 6-8 birds.

―The new rules restrict the use of antibiotics to therapeutic

needs. The rules further state that all use of antibiotics should

be under the supervision of a veterinarian.

―The new rules also call for regular inspections of poultry

farms by personnel strictly adhering to bio-security protocols.

―The association says that adoption of the notification will

negatively impact the whole industry and will lead to

abandoning of poultry farming by the farmers.

The Chhattisgarh government has halted all work at the

Adani mines in Bailadila and is reviewing various permissions

already given for the project. This step has been taken by the

government after the adivasi’s protest in Dantewada region.

―The adivasis from Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur

districts of Chhattisgarh gathered together under the banner of

the Sanyukt Panchayat Jan Sangharsh Samiti for protesting

against the mines.

Puducherry Government has informed that it is ready for

tackling Nipah virus if the need arises.

―The government started preparations for tackling the issue

after an individual from Tamil Nadu was admitted with Nipah

virus symptoms.

―The 50 years old patient in question had recently visited

Guruvayoor in Kerala where the cases of Nipah virus were

reported.

―The government has also sent the fluids collected from the

patient to the Virology Research Institute, Pune for testing.

―The Puducherry Government has set up isolation wards in a

specific hospital for restricting the spreading of disease.

―Different hospitals in the region have been directed to report

the cases with Acute Encephalitis syndrome to the government

for further actions.

―Steps have been taken so that the sick travellers from certain

high-risk areas can be identified.

―Help is being taken from volunteers for keeping check of bus

terminals and railway stations.

The Special Court in Pathankot, Punjab have announced

verdict in the Kathua Rape-Murder case.

―Sanji Ram (caretaker of the temple where the rape and

murder were committed) was sentenced to life imprisonment.

―Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria was sentenced to

life imprisonment,

―Parvesh Kumar, a civilian was also sentenced to life

imprisonment.

―The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on these

three individuals.

―In addition, Sub Inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable

Tilak Raj and special police officer Surender Verma were

sentenced to five years in imprisonment.

―These three accomplices aided the main accused by

destroying evidence.

―The Court acquitted the seventh accused, Vishal.

―In this specific case an eight years old girl was kidnapped

on 10th January, 2018.

―She was allegedly kept in a sedated condition in a village

temple in Kathua district for a period of four days.

―She was raped and then bludgeoned to death.

―This rape case led to an outrage across India. Some groups

also came in support of the accused.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Adani Group has

received final regulatory

clearance for starting work

on the Carmichael coal

mine project in Australia. ―The relevant authority has

approved Adani group’s

groundwater management

plan.

―The Adani Group had

been struggling to get clearance for its billion dollars mega coal

project for some time.

―The Adani Group was helped by the fact that in recent

Australian elections pro-coal coalition has come into power.

―Adani Group will start construction at the site in a few days.

―Adani Carmichael mine will be the largest coal mine in

Australia and one of the biggest coal mines in the world.

―Adani Group has received clearance for extracting up to 60

million tonnes of coal annually and 2.3 billion tonnes over the

life of the mine.

Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive Co. have

been asked to pay $10 million in damages to a woman suing

them.

―The woman claims that she contacted a rare form of cancer

due to her usage of the company’s talc based products.

―This is the 11th case that J&J has lost over the cancer claims

linked to its talc based powder. The company was sued for the

first time on the issue in 2016.

―The jury in the current case has ruled that the use of J&J’s

body powder caused the applicant to develop mesothelioma, a

cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

―While awarding the claim, punitive damages were denied

because the jury did not find evidence of malice and fraud on

the part of the companies.

The Goods and Services

Tax Council is going to get the

capability of real-time

capturing of relevant

transactions of large B2B

businesses. ―The implementation will be

done in phases. The first phase will involve relatively large

companies involved in the B2B businesses.

―The move is expected to reduce cases of tax evasions by

making inflating of input tax credits almost impossible.

―The Central Government is concerned about the lower GST

collections.

―The actual GST collection in 2018-19 was approximately Rs

60,000 crore less than the revised estimates which were in turn

Rs 1 lakh crore lower than the original budgeted estimates.

―The GST collection in April-May 2019 was Rs 1.06 lakh

crore against the target of Rs 1.14 lakh crore.

―The invoice matching system is an important anti-evasion

tool but it allows for fraud detections only at the end of the

monthly payment cycle. This leaves room for habitual

evaders and fly-by-night operators to escape.

―The e-invoicing system allows real time reporting that helps

in dealing with habitual evaders and fly-by-night operators.

―e-invoicing system is also expected to eventually replace the

e-way bill generation system that is being currently used.

―e-invoicing system is used by many countries using GST.

―Indian government is planning to introduce the e-invoicing

system used by South Korea.

―Two committees have been formed to help with the adoption

of this system.

―The first committee will deal with the policy and legal

aspects of the e-invoicing system.

―The second committee will deal with the technical aspects

of the e-invoicing system.

―Nationwide invoice matching system is expected to take

more time.

Different state governments are asking for GST rate cuts

for various products (including two wheelers and cement)

falling the 28% tax category.

―The proponents of the rate cut are arguing that neither two-

wheelers nor cement can be regarded as the luxury item in any

sense.

―They are further saying that the rate cut in these essential

items will encourage consumption and boost economic growth.

―The Centre Government agrees to the demand but is

concerned about the revenue implications of the move.

―The rate cut to 18% on two-wheelers and cement alone will

reduce annual GST collection by Rs 8,400 crore and 12,000

crore respectively.

―The GST rate cuts do not have significant effect on state

revenues. The GST Act assures 14% year on year growth in

revenues for the first five years.

―The Centre Government on the other hand has to bear the

impact of lower GST collection.

―The current GST collections are not matching the

government targets. Last year collections were significantly

lower than the originally budgeted estimates.

―The GST rationalisation since November 2017 has already

caused an estimated loss of Rs 80,000 crore annually.

Indian Government is

considering phasing out of the

Merchandise Exports from

India Scheme (MEIS) over

the period of two to three

years. MEIS scheme currently

costs Indian tax payers around

Rs 30,810 crore annually.

―MEIS scheme was started in 2015 by merging five existing

schemes.

―The existing system will be replaced with a WTO compliant

export subsidy scheme with provisions for offsetting of both

state and central input taxes. ―Centre Government has already implemented a similar

scheme for garments export. The scheme will be expanded to

include the other key sectors as well.

―The export subsidy program is being challenged by multiple

countries (including USA) at the World Trade Organisation

(WTO)

Gautam Adani, Chairman Adani Group

―USA is claiming that India uses illegal export subsidies

through which Indian companies are benefitting to the tune of

USD 7 billion annually.

―The special and differential provisions in the WTO’s

Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures uses

the per capita gross national income (GNI) as the yardstick for

allowing export subsidies.

―The yardstick states that the country who attains the per capita

GNI of USD 1,000 or more (based on the 1990 exchange rate)

for three consecutive years will have to withdraw export

subsidies.

―India crossed the limit of USD 1000 from 2013 to 2015.

―Some of the other countries were provided an eight years

window for removing the export subsidies. India is arguing for

the same.

United Nation has released United

Nations Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) World

Investment Report 2019. According

to the report: ―The FDI inflows into South Asia

touched USD 54 billion in 2018. This

is an increase of 3.5 percent over 2017.

―India accounted for 77% of the total FDI inflow into South

Asia in 2018.

―During 2018, total foreign direct investments (FDI) into India

touched USD 42 billion. This is a 6 percent increase over 2017.

―Manufacturing, communication and financial services

received a lion’s share of FDI inflows into India.

―The FDI inflows into South Asia is more or less determined

by the performance of India economy,

―The cross-border mergers and acquisitions in India touched

USD 33 billion in 2018. This figure was USD 23 billion in 2017.

―The major cross border mergers and acquisition during 2018

included the purchase of Flipkart by Walmart and the deal

between Vodafone UK and American Tower (US).

―The FDI inflows into Bangladesh and Sri Lanka touched

USD 3.6 and USD 1.6 billion respectively. These are the highest

FDIs inflows into the countries.

―The FDI inflows into Pakistan declined to USD 2.4 billion.

This is a 27 percent decline over the 2017 figures.

―The total FDI into Asia rose by 3.9 percent to touch USD 512

billion in 2018.

―There are more than 5,400 Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

situated across the globe.

―4,000 of the 5,400 SEZs are located in Asia. China alone has

2,543 SEZs followed by Philippines (528), India (373) Turkey

(102), Thailand (74) Korea (47) and Malaysia (45).

―The number of SEZs in South Asia are expected to see

substantial growth in the coming years.

―The number of upcoming SEZs include 60 in Bangladesh, 39

in Pakistan and 12 in Nepal.

―India, Korea, Philippines and Turkey are projecting

themselves as information and technology zones.

―West Asia and South East Asia is focusing on

manufacturing.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

Defence Research and

Development Organisation (DRDO)

has achieved a new milestone towards

creating hypersonic cruise missile

systems. ―DRDO successfully tested an

indigenously developed Hypersonic

Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) at supersonic

flight speeds on 12th June, 2019.

―The HSTDV demonstrated the use of scramjet technology

for achieving hypersonic speeds for approximate period of 20

seconds.

―The test was conducted at Dr. Abdul kalam Island in the Bay

of Bengal.

Indian Government has decided to fast-track integration

of Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles with Sukhoi fighters.

―40 Sukhoi fighter jets have been shortlisted for the closely

guarded project.

―The Sukhoi Brahmos integration project was announced in

2016 and actual work started towards the end of 2017, but the

process is extremally slow.

―The decision of fast tracking the integration was taken after

the Balakot air strikes.

―Deadline of December, 2020 has been set for completing the

project.

―The air version of Brahmos has a top speed of Mach 2.8 and

effective range of 290 km which can be extended to 400 km.

―At 2.5 ton, Brahmos is the heaviest missile to be deployed on

Sukhoi 30 fighters.

―The implementation of the project is being done by the

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the BrahMos Aerospace

Pvt Ltd (BAPL).

―BAPL is an Indo-Russia joint venture.

―HAL is a public sector unit.

USA has stopped training Turkish pilots of F-35 fighter jets.

―This step has been taken on account of Turkey’s purchase of

Russian S-400 defence system.

―United States says that S-400 air defence system are a threat

for Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 stealthy fighters.

―Turkey had entered into an agreement for purchasing F-35

fighters from USA. USA is saying that Turkey can have either

F-35s or S-400 air defence system but not both.

―The removal of Turkey from the F-35 program will be the

one of the most significant negative events in the recent

America Turkey relationship.

POLICY AND GOVERNMENT

INITIATIVES

The Government of India has taken a decision to restrict the

term of Private Secretary (PS) and Officer on Special Duty

(OSD) with a specific Union minister to five years.

―The Prime Minister Office has been turning down requests

for approvals to continue with their PS and OSD from the

previous Government.

―The approvals are only being granted for allowing the PS

and OSD to serve for the balance period of five years from the

date on which they took charge.

―The Government is also considering to restrict the officer’s

total tenure as personal staff of Union Ministers to 10 years.

This 10 year will even include informal appointments.

―The personal staff of the Prime Minister are exempt from

this requirement.

The Government has announced that it will geo-tag all the

waqf board properties in India.

―In addition, all the information related to these properties

will be digitalised and the government will provide 100 percent

funding for developing educational institutions and hospitals

on such properties for the welfare of society.

―The funding will be provided under the Pradhanmantri Jan

Vikas Karykram (PMJVK) scheme.

―The Centre government will take this up on war footing. The

idea is to leverage these properties for substantially boosting

the education of the students (especially girls) belonging to the

deprived sections of the society.

SPORTS

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)

has extended the ban against Rusaf (Russia’s athletics

federation).

―IAAF also announced its

decision to look into the

Reuters findings that two

Russian athletics coaches

and one doctor banned for

doping were still involved in training and advising the athletes

in Russia.

―IAAF further clarified that reinstatement of Rusaf cannot be

done when there is an ongoing investigation into whether

Russian athletics federation officials allegedly attempted to

help cover up an anti-doping violation by an athlete or not.

―The Russian athletic federation was originally suspended in

November 2015.

―The suspension was done based on the report commissioned

by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that found

evidence of widespread doping in sports in Russia.

―Russia has denied the presence of a state-sponsored doping

program in Russia. But it has accepted that some of the senior

officers were involved in these doping attempts.

―According to the rules and guidelines of the World Anti-

Doping Agency (WADA), the athletes must not receive training,

strategy, nutritional or medical advice from banned coaches or

medical staff.

―Breaking of the above rule can lead to serious sanctions.

FRENCH OPEN 2019

Winner List Men's Singles― Rafael Nadal

Women's Singles―Ashleigh Barty

Men's Doubles―Kevin Krawietz/Andreas Mies

Women's Doubles―Tímea Babos/Kristina Mladenovic

Mixed Doubles―Latisha Chan/Ivan Dodig

Boys' Singles―Holger Vitus Nødskov Rune

Girls' Singles― Leylah Annie Fernandez

Boys' Doubles―Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida/Thiago Agustín

Tirante

Girls' Doubles―Chloe Beck/Emma Navarro

Legends Under 45 Doubles―Sébastien Grosjean/Michaël Llodra

Women's Legends Doubles―Nathalie Dechy/Amélie Mauresmo

Legends Over 45 Doubles―Sergi Bruguera/Goran Ivanišević

Wheelchair Men's Singles―Gustavo Fernández

Wheelchair Women's Singles―Diede de Groot

Wheelchair Quad Singles―Dylan Alcott

Wheelchair Men's Doubles―Gustavo Fernández/Shingo Kunieda

Wheelchair Women's Doubles―Diede de Groot/Aniek van Koot

Wheelchair Quad Doubles―Dylan Alcott/David Wagner

Spanish Rafel Nadal

defeated Dominic Thiem by

6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 to win French

Open 2019 Championship. ―This was the 12th French

Open title won by Rafael.

French Open 2019

Women’s double title was

won by Hungary’s Timea

Babos and France’s Kristina

Mladenovic by defeating China’s Duan Yingying and Zheng

Saisai 6-2 6-3 in the final.

―This was the second Grand Slam title won by the duo

together. In 2018, they had won the Australian Open title.

Yuvraj Singh has ended his international cricket career by

announcing his retirement. ―Yuvraj started his 18

years career in 2000

against Kenya in Nairobi.

―In international cricket,

Yuvraj has made total of

11,778 runs. 8,701 of these

were made in 304 One Day

International matches. 1,900 of these were made in 40 test

matches and 1,177 in 58 T20s.

―Yuvraj has also taken 111 wickets in ODIs.

Yuvraj’s Career statistics Test debut India v New Zealand at Mohali, Oct 16-20, 2003

Last Test India v England at Kolkata, Dec 5-9, 2012

ODI debut Kenya v India at Nairobi, Oct 3, 2000

Last ODI West Indies v India at North Sound, Jun 30,

2017

T20I debut India v Scotland at Durban, Sep 13, 2007

Last T20I India v England at Bengaluru, Feb 1, 2017

First-class debut 1996/97

Last First-class Bengal v Punjab at Kolkata, Jan 7-10, 2019

List A debut 1999/00

Last List A Karnataka v Punjab at Bengaluru, Oct 8, 2018

T20s debut Yorkshire v Derbyshire at Leeds, Jun 14, 2003

Last T20s Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings at

Mumbai, Apr 3, 2019

Batting and fielding averages

Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct

Tests 40 62 6 1900 169 33.92 3 11 31

ODIs 304 278 40 8701 150 36.55 14 52 94

T20Is 58 51 9 1177 77* 28.02 0 8 12

First-class 139 221 18 8965 260 44.16 26 36 118

List A 423 389 55 1266

3

172 37.91 19 78 132

T20s 231 216 27 4857 83 25.69 0 27 53

Bowling averages

Mat Inns Wkts Best Bowling

in an Inning

Best Bowling

in a Match Ave

Tests 40 35 9 2/9 2/20 60.77

ODIs 304 161 111 5/31 5/31 38.68

T20Is 58 31 28 3/17 3/17 17.82

First-class 139 ― 41 5/94 48.24

List A 423 __― 166 5/31 5/31 36.20

T20s 231 130 80 4/29 4/29 24.86

INTERNATIONAL

Pakistan’s assessment by the Joint Group of Asia Pacific

Group (APG) has found its compliance on 18 of 27 action

plans unsatisfactory.

―The assessment was being done for the action plan against

eight proscribed terror outfits (including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba

and Jaish-e-Muhammad), after it was grey-listed by the

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for terror financing.

―APG is asking for stringent actionable steps against Da’esh,

Al Qaeda, Jamaat-ud Dawa, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation,

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Haqqani Network,

and persons affiliated with the Taliban.

Yuvraj Singh

Rafael Nadal

―APG is also asking for more concrete outcomes from the law

enforcement agencies in their fight against money laundering

and terror-financing.

―The FATE Action plan will conclude in September 2019.

―Pakistan can be either downgraded to the blacklist or it can

be removed from the grey funding list.

―Blacklisting and grey listing by FATE can have serious

economic consequences for Pakistan.

―Pakistan has been talking with IMF for a USD 6 billion

bailout package for dealing with the low foreign exchange

reserves.

―IMF has made FATE clearance mandatory for Pakistan’s

loan package.

―Pakistan was placed on the FATE’s grey list for terror

financing in June 2018.

―FATE is a global organisation which deals with anti-money

laundering and restricting terror financing initiatives.

United Kingdom has announced its intention to become the

first major economy of the world to reach zero carbon

emissions by 2050.

―United Kingdom in past has already set a 2050 target for

reducing emissions by 80 percent under the Climate Change

Act 2008. The present announcement sets a much stricter goal

for the nation.

―The new law being enacted will make UK the first G7 nation

with legally binding plans for net zero emissions.

―The new zero emission plan will require elimination of

emissions from all the sections of society i.e. residential,

transportation, agriculture and industrial or the offsetting of the

emissions by creating carbon sinks.

―The UK government report on the law says that there was a

50-50 chance of staying below the recommended 1.5 C

temperature rise by 2100 if other countries also followed the

example set by UK.

―A 1.5 degree Celsius rise is considered the threshold

temperature. Most of the scientists think that rise beyond this

number will be irrevocably disastrous for our planet.

―The estimated cost of the goal is 1 trillion pounds.

―It is not clear if the financial cost of achieving zero emission

will be paid by the tax payers, bill payers, fossil fuel firms or a

mixture of all of them.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

India’s moon mission

Chandrayaan 2 is

expected to take off on

July 15 at 2.51 AM. ―Chandrayaan-2 is set to

explore the southern

part of the Moon and

involve use of 13

scientific satellites.

―On successful

completion India will

become the first country

in the world to

successfully explore

southern part of the

moon.

―Chandrayaan-2 will

involve three modules;

the orbiter, the Lander

(Vikram) and Rover

(Pragyan).

―The project will use GSLV MK III as the launch vehicle.

―Chandrayaan-2 is an advanced version of the previous

Chandrayaan-1 mission, which was launched about 10 years

ago.

This is the most complex project in the history of ISRO

(Indian Space and Research Organisation).

BASIC GK ASPECTS

BOOKS & AUTHORS In Beyond the Boulevard―by Aditi Sriram

The Farm―by Joanne Ramos

The Hungryalists: The Poets Who Sparked a

Revolution―by Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury

AWARDS AND HONOURS Amitav Ghosh has been honoured

with the 2018’s Jnanpith Award for

his outstanding contribution towards

literature.

―Amitav will receive the award on

June 12 at a function in Delhi. ―Amitav was born in Kolkata, West

Bengal. He spent early part of his life

in three countries of India,

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

―Amitav had studied in Delhi,

Oxford and Alexandria.

―Amitav was earlier honoured with the Sahitya Akademi

Award for his novel The Shadow Lines (1988).

The Maldivian government

has announced its decision to

honour Prime Minister Narendra

Modi with the Order of the

Distinguished Rule of Nishan

Izzuddeen.

―This is the highest Maldivian

honour that can be conferred on

foreign dignitaries. The

prestigious award was presented

to Modi by President Ibrahim

Mohamed Solih during a

ceremony.

APPOINTMENTS Vigilance Commissioner Sharad Kumar has been

appointed as the interim

Chief Vigilance

Commissioner (CVC)

―Sharad will occupy the

position until the new CVC

is selected by a selection

profile headed by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi.

―Both Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K V

Chowdary and Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin have

completed their tenure at the vigilance commission.

―Shard is a former Director of National Investigation

Agency. Sharad was given charge as Vigilance Commissioner

on 12th June 2018. Sharad will remain in the Central Vigilance

Commission until October 2020; he is due to retire then.

―The Personnel Ministry has started shortlisting candidates

for the position of CVC and Vigilance Commissioner.

―The Central Vigilance Commission is made up of a Central

Vigilance Commissioner and two Vigilance Commissioners.

GSLV-Mk III / Chandrayan-2 Mission

Amitav Ghosh

Maldives confers its highest honour on Indian PM

Narendra Modi

Sharad Kumar - Interim CVC

―CVC and Vigilance Commissioners are selected by a High

Level Committee comprising of the PM, the Home Minister

and the Leader of Opposition or a leader of the single largest

opposition party in Lok Sabha.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

Senior Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former

Chief Minister of Puducherry R V

Janakiraman died on 10th June, 2018

at the age of 79. Janakiraman will be

honoured with a state funeral. His

last rites will be held in Alathur

Tamil Nadu. ―Janakiraman represented the

Nellithope segment for five

consecutive terms from 1985.

Janakiraman was Chief Minister of

Puducherry between 1996 and 2000. Janakiraman had served

in different capacities including that of Leader of the

opposition, whip of the DMK, PWD Minister etc.

Gabriele Grunewald passed

away on 19th June, 2019 at the age of

32. Gabriele was suffering from a

rare metastatic cancer.

She was born on June 25, 1986, in

Perham, Minnesota. ―Gabriel participated in the

Olympic trials in 2012. She was

unable to qualify as she finished

fourth. In 2013 Gabriele achieved

the distinction of being the 11th

fastest 1,500 meters runner in the

American history with timings of 4

minutes, 1.48 seconds. Gabriel won the U.S. indoor national

championship 2014 in the 3,000 meters category.

MUST-KNOW

UIDAI: Unique Identification Authority of India

SBI: State Bank of India

ICJ: International Commission of Jurists

LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender

DAYS/ANNIVERSARIES

The World’s first Food Safety Day was celebrated on 7th

June, 2019.

―The decision to adopt World Safety Day was taken in the

United Nations General Assembly in December 2018.

―The celebration of the day is done in collaboration with the

Food and Agriculture Organization.

―The theme for the 2019 was ‘Food safety, everyone’s

business’.

―The day has been adopted by the United Nations for raising

awareness regarding the importance of maintaining safe food

standards and for reducing the burden of deaths due to

foodborne diseases.

―The usage of bad quality or unsafe food predominantly

affects women and children.

World Brain Tumour Day is observed on the June 8 every

year.

―The objective of the World Tumour Day is to create

awareness and educate individuals regarding brain tumours.

―Brain tumours are fatal and most of the individuals

diagnosed with them die within 9 to 12 months of diagnosis.

―Around 40,000 to 50,000 individuals are diagnosed with

brain tumours annually. Around 20 percent of these

individuals are children.

RV Janakiraman

Gabriele Grunewald

. NEWS BULLETIN―24 Week-4, June 2019

NATIONAL

⚫ BJP nominee Om Birla was

unanimously elected as the Speaker of

Lok Sabha on 19th June, 2019. The

motion for electing Birla was moved

by the Prime Minister himself and

seconded by Defence Minister

Rajnath Singh. Pro-tem Speaker

Virendra Kumar allowed eleven

notices for moving motions for

election of Birla.

⚫ India’s Prasar Bharti has signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) with Bangladesh TV (BTV).

―The agreement will allow telecasting of DD India in

Bangladesh and telecasting of BTV World on the DD Free Dish

(Government owned DTH free-to-air platform).

―Prasar Bharti has also decided to co-produce a feature film on

the life of the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman directed by Shyam Benegal.

―In addition, Prasar Bharti will also produce a documentary on

Bangladesh Liberation War.

⚫ India’s Parsar Bharti has signed a Memorandum of

Understanding with South Korea that will allow telecasting of

DD India in South Korea and telecasting of South Korea’s KBC

World in India.

⚫ The National

Human Rights

Commission (NHRC)

has issued notice to the

Centre Government

regarding the

deplorable health

infrastructure in India. ―The notice has expressed serious concern over the recent loss

of lives in different parts of the country due to inadequate health

infrastructure.

―NHRC has also decided to send fact finding teams to the

hospitals in the vulnerable states.

―NHRC fact finding teams will include both doctors and

officers. These teams will investigate Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,

Punjab and Haryana in the first phase.

―NHRC has also taken suo motu cognizance of media reports

on the rising number of deaths of children due to Acute

Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.

―Based on this, NHRC has sent notices to the Union Ministry

of Health and Family Welfare, and the Chief Secretary of Bihar,

asking for detailed report on the incident.

NHRC has also asked for the status of implementation of the

National Programme for Prevention and Control of Japanese

Encephalitis Virus/Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (NPPCJA).

The death toll due to AES has touched 114 in Muzaffarpur

district alone.

⚫ On June 20, 2019 the Indian Air Force recovered six bodies

and seven mortal remains from the crash site of AN 32. Indian

Air Force’s An-32 aircraft crashed over Arunachal Pradesh on

3rd June, 2019.

―The Russian Origin aircraft took off from Jorhat is Assam but

it never reached its destination Mechukla, Arunachal Pradesh.

―The wreckage of the aircraft was spotted by an IAF chopper

near Gatte village on the border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts

of Arunachal Pradesh. The black box of the aircraft was

recovered from the crash site almost a week ago.

―Indian Air Force has ordered a court of inquiry into the

accident that is being termed as the worst air force aircraft

accidents in recent times.

―The deceased include Wing Commander GM Charles,

Squadron Leader H Vinod, Flight Lieutenant MK Garg, Flight

Lieutenant S Mohanty, Flight Lieutenant A Tanwar, Flight

Lieutenant R Thapa, Warrant Officer KK Mishra, Sergeant

Anoop Kumar, Corporal Sherin, Leading Aircraftman SK Singh

and Leading Aircraftman Pankaj.

―Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Civilian officers are

carrying out the rescue operations.

⚫ Jagat Prakash Nadda has been appointed as the working

president of the BJP.

―The appointment was made by the BJP Parliamentary Board.

―Prakash is a senior party leader and a former Union Minister

for Health and Family Affairs.

―Prakash enjoys good relationships with Amit Shah, PM Modi

and the RSS.

―Parkash has also worked as the secretary of the BJP

Parliamentary Board.

―Parkash has been part of the ABVP from his student’s days in

Patna.

―Prakash was the national general secretary of the ABVP from

1985 to 1989.

―Prakash was the national president of the Bharatiya Janta

Yuva Manch from 1991 to 1993.

―Prakash is a low profile leader who is known for his silent

style of working.

―Prakash contributed significantly in BJP’s 2014 General

Election victory.

―This is the first time that a BJP working president will lead

the party during both internal elections and assembly polls (three

state).

―The office of BJP’s national president will remain with Amit

Shah.

⚫ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been elected as the Leader of

Congress in Lok Sabha.

―Ranjan was selected at the meeting of Congress Parliamentary

Core Committee.

―Chowdhury has been the Chief of Congress in the West

Bengal and in past he has also occupied the office of the Union

Minister of State for Railways from 2012 to 2014.

―Chowdhury has been representing Berhampore constituency

since 1999.

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such violation would entail initiation of suitable legal proceedings.

Om Birla- 17th Speaker of the Lok Sabha

―Congress with 51 Lok Sabha MPS has failed to secure the

post of the Leader of the Opposition.

⚫ The Southern Railways, has issued an order stating that all

official communication between the Divisional Control Office

and the Station Masters should be either in Hindi or English

―The order also states that the use of regional languages should

be avoided. Railways is saying that this order was issued to

discourage misunderstandings.

LAW

⚫ IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and police officer Pravinsinh Zala

have been found guilty of murder in the 1990 custodial death

case by the Jamnagar District and Session Courts.

―The Court has sentenced both of them to life imprisonment

under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

―The other accused in the case were found guilty of under

section 323 and 506 of IPC for custodial torture.

―In 1990 Sanjiv Bhatt was posted as the additional

Superintendent of Police in Jamnagar.

―L. K Advani’s Rath Yatra during his posting caused

communal riot and Sanjiv detained more than 150 individuals

in this connection.

―Prabhudas Vaishnani was one of the detained individuals.

He died at the hospital post release allegedly due to torture.

―The brother of the deceased made a custodial death

complaint against eight police officers.

―In April 2019, the Gujarat High Court ordered a speedy trial

in the case and ordered daily hearings.

⚫ Special Court has rejected plea of the BJP MLA Pragya

Singh Thakur seeking exemption from appearance in the

Malegaon 2008 blast case.

―Pragya had been asking for the exemption based on multiple

grounds including distance between her base Bhopal and

Mumbai where the Court is, difficulty in travelling due to

different ailments, restriction on physical movements, public

inconvenience due to the security arrangements for her travel,

the problems with strict schedule of self-imposed sadhna etc.

―The Court has clarified that the blanket exemption cannot be

granted to Pragya.

―In its May order the Special Court asked each of the accused

to present itself before the court at least once a week.

⚫ Jammu and Kashmir Government has made two requests to

the Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal looking into the

three-day hearing related to the ban on the Jammat-e-Islami:

First is an in-camera proceedings and the second is redaction of

witnesses.

―Both of the requests were requested by the Unlawful

Activities Prevention Tribunal.

―The Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal has also issued

a notification saying that anyone from the public can come and

depose before the Tribunal.

―Delhi High Court judge Justice Chander Shekhar is

presiding over the Tribunal.

―Jammat-e-Islami was declared unlawful by the Ministry of

Home Affairs under section 3 of the Unlawful Activities

Prevention Act (UAPA).

―The ban was imposed for its close relationships with the

militant outfits and for being involved in anti-national and

subversive activities.

⚫ Supreme Court has agreed to hear the writ petition related to

the death of children in Muzzafarpur district of Bihar due to

outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

―The PIL filed by advocate Manohar Pratap seeks

constitution of a team of medical experts for treating the children

affected by AES in Bihar.

―The plea also asks the Centre to provide all the necessary

equipment required for the effective treatment of children.

―The plea also states that the deaths of children (from AES) are

a direct result of negligence and inaction on the part of the

respective state governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Union

of India in handling the epidemic situation which arises every

year due to the outbreak of AES.

―The petitioners have requested a compensation of Rs 10 lakh

to families of victims who lost their lives due to “negligence of

the state machinery”.

―The Bihar Government on the other hand had declared that

the medical facilities were adequate for dealing with the

situation. AES is a group of diseases that attack young children.

These diseases can be caused by viruses, bacteria or fungi.

STATES

⚫ Black tiger

shrimps are making a

comeback in the

Kerala’s aquaculture

farms after a gap of

more than a decade.

Black tiger shrimps

are endemic to southeast Asia. ―The Marine Products Export Development Authority

(MPEDA), that functions under the Union Ministry of

Commerce and Industry, has started a project for providing

special black tiger shrimp seeds to farmers.

―The seeds produced at the new nine-acre multispecies

aquaculture complex (MAC) at Vallarpadam near Kochi are of

disease-free variety.

―The initial feedback from the farmers is positive.

―MAC complex started working in December, 2018. MAC

complex was developed by MPEDA at the cost of Rs 7.26 crore.

―The hatchery at the MAC complex has the capacity to produce

20 million black tiger shrimps annually. The complex also

contains nurseries for four different fish types of fin-fish.

⚫ The deaths due to the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)

have reached 114 in Muzaffarpur, Uttar Pradesh.

―The Government has ordered a socio-economic survey of

more than 450 parents whose children are affected by or are dead

due to AES.

―The last massive outbreak of AES took place in 2014 that left

more than 355 dead in the region. Between 2011 and 2014 the

region reported total of 970 AES related deaths.

―NHRC has sent notice to the central and state governments

over the increasing number of AES related deaths in the region.

―The recent spurt in the cases of AES in the region are due to

extreme summer heat, lack of proper nutrition, lack of proper

awareness campaigns and lack of proper health care facilities.

―Experts fear that this regular outbreak of AES in the region

will continue unless something can be done for addressing the

reasons behind these outbreaks.

―The excessive heat in the region along with lack of rain have

contributed to the recent AES outbreak in Muzaffarpur.

⚫ Uttar Pradesh Government has taken a decision to issue

press releases and important speeches of Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath in Sanskrit in addition

to the current Hindi, English and

Urdu. ―The decision has been taken to

promote Sanskrit. UP

government is taking help from

the Lucknow-based Rashtriya

Sanskrit Sansthan in translating

chief minister’s speeches for public release.

Yogi Adityanath

⚫ The heatwave in Bihar has claimed more than 79 lives till

now. Gaya district administration has issued prohibitory orders

from 11 am to 4 pm.

―The order prohibits construction work, cultural events, public

gathering, MNREGA work etc. during the period. Similar orders

have been issues in Nalanda district of Bihar.

―The administration, while issuing the order, has stated that the

heatwave has already claimed multiple lives and that there is an

apprehension that the same may create law and order problems.

―The health care centres in the affected areas are on high alert

and the volunteers have been engaged for distribution of ORS

packets.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

⚫ The Centre Government has once again clarified that it will

not allow foreign companies to enter the multi-brand segment.

―The Government has also clarified that it will not allow

individuals or companies to engage in predatory pricing.

―This was announced by the Commerce and Industry Minister

Piyush Goyal.

―The clarification has been made at the time when the

government is in the process of finalising the draft e-commerce

policy.

―The Government has also clarified that the actual policy will

only get released after the scrutinizing of every suggestion

received by the Department for Promotion of Industry and

Internal Trade (DPIIT).

―India allows FDI in the multi brand retail sector as long as

their ownership is restricted to 51 percent.

⚫ India has offered a grant of USD 15 million to Niger for

helping in the organisation of the African Union Summit in July,

2019.

―The grant was provided against the specific request made by

Niger for the same. This is the first time that Niger is hosting the

AU summit. The Summit will be held in Niger’s capital Niamey.

―2019 African Union Summit will be a historical summit in the

sense that it will see the launch of African Continental Free trade

Area initiative ((AfCFTA) of African Union.

―India’s mission in Niamey was inaugurated in 2009. Since

then India has provided Niger with Lines of Credit (LOC) worth

approximately USD 97 million for different civilian projects.

―Niger occupies a strategic position as it allows formal and

informal exports of uranium. Indian aid to Africa follows the

Banjul formula. Banjul formula changed India’s status from the

aid receiver to the aid giver.

―Until now India has provided 180 Lines of Credit to 40

African countries. The total amount of these LOCs is USD 11

billion.

―India had held more than 25 high level bilateral meetings

between India and Africa in last five years alone.

―India will host the India-Africa Forum Summit 2019.

⚫ In the Financial Year 2019, United States has replaced

China as India’s top goods trade partner.

―Indo-American trade during FY 2019 was nearly USD 88

billion.

―India is the largest buyer of American Almonds and was

responsible for more than 50% of the total American almond

exports in 2018. India is the second largest buyer of American

Apples. India has recently raised tariffs on 28 items imported

from USA. This was done in retaliation of America’s

withdrawal of India’s preferential status.

―In Financial Year 2018 China was India’s largest trade

partner. In FY 19 India’s trade deficit with China reduced by

USD 10 billion to touch USD 53 billion.

―UAE, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany,

Republic of Korea and Indonesia are other important trading

partners of India.

―Government of India is planning to more than double the

number of petrol pumps in India.

―The three public sector oil marketing firms – Indian Oil Corp

(IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan

Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) – in November 2018 advertised for

the opening of 78,493 more petrol pumps in the country.

―There are total of 64,624 petrol pumps outlets operating in the

country currently.

These new petrol pumps will be in addition to the plans of

Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy of adding 2,000 petrol

pumps each in the next three years.

―Royal Dutch Shell Plc is also planning to add approximately

150 to 200 petrol pumps.

―CRISIL Research has in its recent report said that this plan is

not economically sensible as it will lead to cutting of each other

sales and making some of them unprofitable.

―CRISIL in its report states that India has at most a capacity

for 30,000 more petrol pumps if the current throughput levels

are to be maintained. ―CRISIL mentioned that even industrial nations like USA have

approximately 1.5 lakh petrol pumps. This was a decline from

approximately 2 lakh pumps in 1994. The reduction in fuel

demand and uneconomical status led to consolidation of petrol

pumps for achieving higher overall throughput.

―The government is also planning to substitute petrol/diesel

with compressed natural gas in the coming years. This

substitution will further restrict the growth in fuel demand. The

government is also pushing for electric vehicle adoptions.

―All of these developments will make it almost impossible for

all the additional petrol pumps to break even. Many of them will

be forced to close down due to economic pressure or they might

resort to unethical behaviour for remaining competitive.

⚫ The Banking lenders of the Jet Airways led by SBI have

decided to take the airlines to the National Company Law

Tribunal for initiating proceedings under the Insolvency and

Bankruptcy code.

―The group of 26 lenders have gone to the tribunal for speedy

recovery of the dues of over Rs 8,500 crore. The shares of Jet

Airways fell more than 29 percent post announcement due to

heavy shelling. The shares of Jet Airways have fallen by nearly

81 percent. Jet Airways was started by Naresh Goyal

approximately 25 years ago. Jet Airways stopped its operation

on April 17 this year.

―Both BSE and NSE has stopped options and future trading in

the script.

DEFENCE & SECURITY

⚫ India and Myanmar

armies have conducted a

coordinated military

operation – Operation

Sunshine 2 – against

Northeast based militant

camps inside the Myanmar

territories.

―This was a follow up of the

Operation Sunshine 1 that

was conducted between February 22 and 26 for dealing with the

Arakanese rebel camps inside India. ―The Myanmar army destroyed the camps in its territory and

Indian army caught the militants fleeing into India.

―Approximately 75 militants apprehended by the army have

been handed over to the local police forces for further actions.

―The coordinated actions took place between May and June 8

and are expected to act as serious deterrent for the future

insurgencies.

―Battalions of Indian Army, Special Forces, Assam Riffles and

Ghatakes participated in the operation from Indian side.

―Four brigades of Myanmar Army participated from Myanmar

side.

⚫ United States have announced its intension of helping

India’s defence forces with the latest technology and equipment.

―United States also clarified that India’s purchase of Russian

S-400 missile defence system will limit the scope of these helps.

―This statement has been released after a similar warning was

issued from the State Department that India’s purchase of S-400

missile system will have significant effect on India-American

defence ties.

―S-400 is Russia’s most advanced long-range surface to air

missile defence system. In 2014, China became the first foreign

country to procure the S-400 system from Russia.

―India agreed to purchase the S-400 air defence system at the

cost of USD 5 billion in October, 2018. Currently, USA engages

in more defence exercises with India than it does with any other

country in the world.

―Historically, India has had a serious dependence on Russia for

its defence needs. Indo-American defence ties have significantly

improved during the last decade. In the last ten years, India has

increased Indo-American defence trade from USD 0 to USD 18

billion.

―India and USA have taken a strategic step for improving their

defence ties by signing the COMCASA agreement. USA is not

providing any blanket waiver or country waiver to countries

purchasing S-400 system.

POLICY AND GOVERNMENT

INITIATIVES

⚫ The Centre Government has taken a strong stance against

corruption by dismissing 15 senior tax officers who are facing

probes in relation to corruption cases.

―This move comes a week after the June 11 decision of

dismissing 12 senior Indian Revenue Services officers due to

charges of corruption, extortion and professional misconduct

against them.

―The suspended officers include Ashok Agarwal (IRS 1985

batch), Joint Commissioner Income Tax, S K Srivastava (IRS

1989 batch), Commissioner (Appeal), Noida, Homi Rajvansh

(IRS 1985 batch), B B Rajendra Prasad, Ajoy Kumar Singh

(CIT) and B Arulappa (CIT).

―Transparency International’s global corruption index 2018

ranked India at 78 out of 180 countries,

⚫ Madhya Pradesh government is in talks with a foreign firm to

build 300 “smart gaushalas” (cow sheds) to house abandoned

cattle. The five years project will involve construction of 60

smart cow sheds per year.

―These smart cow sheds will be equipped with all modern

facilities including air conditioning.

―The Government is approaching NRIs for funding these

cowsheds.

―In addition to these 300, the government will also set up an

additional 1000 cow sheds on its own.

―Building of these cow sheds was one of the promises made by

the Congress government during the 2018 Assembly polls.

⚫ Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has

proposed banning of junk food advertisements in and around

school premises.

―FSSAI expects the move to promote healthy good eating

among school children. FSSAI has sent the draft proposal to the

Health Ministry for approval. The draft proposal will ban all

advertisements of unhealthy food in the 50 meters surrounding

of the school premises.

―In addition, the draft also defines healthy food based on

certain parameters. Delhi High Court had in past asked the

FSSAI to make regulations for promoting healthy food for

school children. This draft proposal is a step in this direction.

―The draft also proposes placing restrictions on the sale of

noodles, chips, carbonated drinks, confectionery etc. in and

around schools. The objective is to restrict or limit the

consumption and availability of junk food to the school children.

SPORTS

⚫ Virat Kohli has broken the previous

records set by Sachin Tendulkar to

become the fastest batsman in the

world to reach 11,000 runs in one day

international matches. ―Virat Kohli made 11,000 runs in

222 innings, this is followed by

Sachin Tendulkar who took 276

innings; Ricky Pointor who took 286

innings and Sourav Ganguly who

took 288 innings to reach 11,000 runs.

⚫ The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has lifted the

restrictions on India with regard to hosting of international sport

events.

―The restrictions have been lifter after the assurance from the

Indian Government that it will not deny visa to eligible athlete

on political grounds.

―The decision to suspend all discussions with India regarding

the hosting of global sports events was taken by IOC after

India’s refusal to provide visa to Pakistani shooters for the

Shooting World Cup in Delhi in February, 2019.

―The World Wrestling Body had shifted junior Asian

Wrestling championship venue from India due to this ban.

Operation Sunshine 2

Virat Kohli

―The hosting rights for junior Davis Cup and Fed Cup was also

undertaken due to the same reasons.

―Last year, India did not give visas to boxers from Kosovo for

the world women’s championships in Delhi. India does not have

diplomatic ties with Kosovo as of now.

⚫ Hashim Amla has become the second fastest player to make

8000 ODI runs. Amla made these runs in 176 innings.

―Amla is the fastest player in the world to make 2000, 3000,

4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 ODI runs. Virat Kohli holds the

record for making the fastest 8,000 ODI runs in 175 innings.

INTERNATIONAL

⚫ London Court will hear Julian

Assange’s extradition to US hearing in

February 2020. ―Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is

wanted by the United States in cases of

conspiring with the former Army

intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning

to access classified information on

computers of the US Department of

Defence in 2010.

―Assange is serving a 50-week

sentence in London’s Belmarsh Prison for skipping bail by

fleeing to the Ecuadorean embassy for avoiding extradition to

Sweden.

SUMMITS & ORGANIZATIONS

⚫ United Nations has

recently released a report

titled ‘The World

Population Prospects

2019’. According to the

report:

―India’s and China’s

estimated population in

2019 is 1.37 billion and

1.43 billion respectively. ―India will overtake

China to become the

world’s most populous

country by 2027.

―By 2050 India’s

population will increase

by 273 million.

―The global population will touch 9.7 billion by 2050. This will

be an approximate increase of 2 billion people over the current

estimated global population of 7.7 billion.

―By 2100 the global population is expected to touch 11 billion.

―Between 2010 and 2019, 27 countries have reported

population shrinkage of one percent or more.

―Between 2019 and 2050, 55 countries are expected to see

population shrinkage of one percent or more.

―China is the biggest country in the list of these 55 countries.

Its population is expected to shrink by 2.2 during the period.

―Low fertility level and high rate of emigration are two major

reasons for the negative population growth in these countries.

―Nine countries are expected to contribute jointly for more

than 50 percent of the population growth between 2019 and

2050, India is one of these countries.

―The top 5 most populous countries of the world in 2050 will

be India, China, Nigeria, United States and Pakistan with the

respective population of 1.6 billion, 1.4. billion, 401 million,

339 million and 339 million. These five countries are also the

five most populous countries of the world; but their order is

different.

―There will be a major change in the demographic structure of

the world by 2050. Currently one in 11 individuals on the planet

is aged 65 or above. This is set to increase to 1 in 6 by 2050.

―The report has been published by the Population Division of

the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

⚫ Members of the World Trade Organisation have raised

serious questions regarding the agriculture plans of United

States and India in the quarterly WTO Agriculture Committee.

World Trade Organisation has strict rules regarding the amount

and the nature of agriculture subsidies. Member states monitor

these closely and immediately report compliance issues.

―Both India and America have made agriculture sector the

priority sector for the coming years. America is claiming that it

is trying to balance the damage due to trade war with China.

―India is trying to deal with the slowdown of its agriculture-

dominated economy.

―European Union has raised questions regarding the Rs 25

trillion agriculture and rural development plan which wants to

double the farmer’s income by 2022. EU is asking how this will

be done in the context of global prices and established measures

for preventing excess production.

―United States on the other hand is questioning 5% export

subsidy for non-Basmati rice and the purchase of wheat at

increased MSP in the context of record harvests which are

expected to lead to record stockpiles of wheat.

―Australia and US also raised questions regarding the new

“transport and marketing assistance” for agriculture, they want

this to be eliminated as they regard this as an export subsidy.

―Australia, Canada, China, EU, Ukraine, New Zealand and

India have raised questions on America’s USD 16 billion

“market facilitation package”.

BASIC GK ASPECTS

BOOKS & AUTHORS Strawberry Thief―by Joanne Harris

The Library Book―by Susan Orlean

Arabia: A Journey Through the Heart of the Middle

East―by Levison Wood

The Blessed Girl―by Angela Makholwa.

The Last House Guest- by Megan Miranda.

Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love- Edited by Elsie

Chapman and Caroline Tung Richmond.

Roughhouse Friday: A Memoir- by Jaed Coffin

Empress of Forever – by Max Gladstone.

AWARDS AND HONOURS ⚫ Suman Rao from Rajasthan won the Femina Miss India World

2019 beauty pageant. Suman received her crown from the Miss

India 2018 Anukreethy Vas (Tamil Nadu).

Julian Assange

―Femina Miss Grand India 2019 title was won by Shivani

Jadav (Chhattisgarh). Femina Miss India United Continents

2019 title was won by Shreya Shanker (Bihar).

―Suman Rao will represent India in the Miss World 2019

competition in Thailand. Suman is a 20 years old college

student.

APPOINTMENTS ⚫ Lt General Faiz Hameed has been

appointed as the new director

general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services

Intelligence (ISI).

―ISI is Pakistan’s spy agency

which is controlled by military and

which has a significant say in

Pakistan’s national and foreign

policy. ―ISI is regarded as one of the

world’s most significant intelligence

agencies. The DG ISI is only

answerable to the Chief of Pakistani

Army. He is the defector number two in the Pakistani Army. Lt.

Gen Hameed will replace Lt. Gen Asim. Lt. Gen Asim’s 8-

months tenure was one of the shortest stints as the head of ISI.

―Hameed was leading the counter-intelligence wing of the ISI.

He is best known for brokering the deal that ended the siege on

Islamabad by protesters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, in November

2017. Pakistan is facing serious problems with the Financial

Action Task Force which is asking Pakistan to take steps against

terror groups and their financing.

―Pakistan is also facing problems in the northwest region with

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement. The movement has been declared

as a terrorist and anti-national movement allegedly under the

influence of Indian intelligence agencies.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

⚫ Renowned Indian Origin author and educationist Ahmed

Essop died on 9th June, 2019 at the age of 88.

―Ahmed was born in India in 1931. He emigrated to South

Africa as a child. Ahmed published 13 works on the role on

Indian community in the South African society.

―In 1979 his work ‘The Hajji and Other Stories’ won the Olive

Schreiner Prize from the English Academy of Southern Africa.

This book was later turned into a motion picture. In 2018, Essop

received the Lifetime Achievement Literary Award at the annual

South Africa Literary Awards.

⚫ Gloria Vanderbilt died on 17th June, 2019 at the age of 95.

Gloria was the great-great granddaughter of the 19th-century

railroad and steamship magnate Commodore Cornelius

Vanderbilt. Gloria was trust fund child. In her infancy she was

owner of a $2.5 million trust fund, equivalent to $37 million.

Gloria was not allowed to touch her trust fund until she

reached 21.

⚫ Egypt’s former President Mohammed

Morsi died on June 17, 2019 at the age of

67. Morsi collapsed during a court session

on his trial related to espionage charges

against him. ―Morsi had complete support from now

outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim

Brotherhood is Egypt’s largest Islamic

group. Morsi was elected as the President in the Egypt’s first

free elections in 2012.

―Morsi was ousted as President in 2013 after massive protests

and military actions that cracked down on the Muslim

Brotherhood.

⚫ Yashovardhan Birla has been declared as wilful defaulter for

non-payment of the amount due to the Public Sector Bank UCO.

―UCO Bank has started the process of recovering the amount

from the defaulter.

―On getting declared as a wilful defaulter the individuals stop

getting additional credit facilities from the banks or financial

institutions.

MUST-KNOW

ISI: Inter-Services Intelligence

NHRC: National Human Rights Commission

MPEDA: Marine Products Export Development Authority

AES: Acute Encephalitis Syndrome

AfCFTA: African Continental Free Trade Area

IOC: International Olympic Committee

COMCASA Agreement: Communications Compatibility and

Security Agreement

DPIIT: Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade

BSE: Bombay Stock Exchange

NSE: National Stock Exchange

IOC: Indian Oil Corporation

BPCL: Bharat Petroleum Corporation

HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation

MAC: Multispecies Aquaculture Complex

LOC: Line of Credit

FSSAI: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

DAYS/ANNIVERSARIES

⚫ Father’s Day is celebrated every year in the third week of

June. Father’s Day was celebrated on June 16, 2019. Father’s

Day celebrates the role of father in the life o fa child. Europeans

countries celebrate Father’s Day on St Joseph’s Day to

recognise the special role of the male parent in a child’s life.

⚫ June 18 is celebrated as the International Sushi Day

across the globe.

Celebration of the International Sushi Day was started in 2009

to encourage people to love and eat Sushi.

World Sickle Cell Day is celebrated on June 19th every year

across the globe.

June 19 was adopted as the World Sickle Cell Day by the United

Nations General Assembly on 22nd December, 2008.

The World Sickle Cell Day is held to create awareness about the

world’s foremost genetic disease.

Sickle Cell disorders are group of disorders affecting the red

blood cells.

This is a genetic condition i.e. this condition is inherited from

parents.

Sickle Cell disorders are chronic, painful and they often lead to

mortality.

India has the second largest population of individuals suffering

from sickle cell disorder.

Sickle Cell disorder cases are predominantly found in Central

India and Jammu and Kashmir Valley.

Faiz Hameed

Mohammed Morsi