Current Affairs – June 19, 2018
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NATIONAL
Manipur
SAIL Steel for World’s Tallest Girder Rail Bridge
- Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has supplied around 60,000 tonnes of steel material for the 111-km-long Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal new broad gauge railway project in Manipur.
Tamilnadu
NPTEL ties up with IBM
- The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) along with IBM, the multinational technology firm, will offer a 12-week online course on blockchain architecture, design and uses.
INTERNATIONAL
Airline adopts biofuel in green push
- A brand new Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which flew from the French city of Toulouse to Hong Kong, was partly powered by a sugarcane-based biofuel.
SCIENCE
Government to team up with Google for flood forecasting
- Central Water Commission (CWC), India’s apex technical organization in the field of Water Resources, has entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Google for effective management of water resources particularly in the field of flood forecasting and dissemination of flood related information to the masses.
New type of photosynthesis discovered
- The new study shows that many cyanobacteria or blue-green algae can carry out photosynthesis in the far red light or near infrared light of 750 nm. All photosynthetic organisms use chlorophyll-a for the process, but the researchers found that when cyanobacteria was grown in near- infrared light, chlorophyll a shuts down and a special chlorophyll, chlorophyll-f, performs the same task.
World’s oldest Sumatran orangutan dies
- The world’s oldest known critically endangered species Sumatran orangutan, Puan has died in an Australian zoo aged 62. It was described as the “grand old lady” of Perth Zoo euthanised due to age-related complications.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Government declares national targets for off-shore wind power
- Medium term target of 5 GW by 2022 and long term target of 30 GW by 2030 declared.
- Offshore wind power to add a new element to the already existing basket of renewable energy for the country.
Google announces training programme for journalists
- Technology giant Google announced the launch of a training programme for journalists, aimed at raising awareness against misinformation and providing new tools to the fourth estate against fake news.
- The Google News Initiative India Training Network will provide training to 8,000 journalists in English and six other Indian languages in the next one year.
MOU, AGREEMENTS & CABINET APPROVALS
MoU to adopt Amazon Web Services Educate program
- The Indian Institute of Technology – Banaras Hindu University -IIT-BHU and Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop cloud-ready job skills by providing access to the AWS Educate program and to help establish a Cloud Research Lab on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
SUMMITS & CONFERENCES
Conference on “International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028”
- “International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028” on 20-21 June 2018 in Tajikistan. United Nations and Government of Republic of Tajikistan are jointly organizing the Conference to discuss key water related issues of sustainable development goals adopted by UN member countries.
DEFENCE
Cyber Security Framework workshop
- A workshop on Cyber Security Framework for Department of Defence was organised by DDP, Ministry of Defence. The workshop was inaugurated by RakshaMantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman.
SCHEMES
National Strategy for Standardization
- Commerce Minister releases National Strategy for Standardization at the 5th National Standards Conclave – Implementing the Indian National Strategy for Standardization, being held in New Delhi on 19-20 June 2018, organized by Department of Commerce and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
National Health Profile-2018
- Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare released the National Health Profile (NHP)-2018 prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI).
- Also launched the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) – India’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardized and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments.
National Digital Library of India
- The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched the new digital initiative of HRD Ministry ‘National Digital Library of India’ developed by IIT Kharagpur on the occasion of National Reading Day in New Delhi
- It is a project of the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT).
Chief Ministers Subgroup Constituted
- The Prime Minister nominated the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh to convene a Sub-Group of seven Chief Ministers for coordinated policy approach on the Agriculture Sector and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
RANKINGS & INDEXES
Risk of cardiovascular disease
- Kerala across sexes were most at risk of cardiovascular diseases while those in Jharkhand were least likely to have the condition. A gender break down, puts the women of Goa at highest mean cardiovascular risk at 16.73% while men in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland were most vulnerable with mean cardiovascular risk of 24.23%.
BOOKS & AUTHORS
- Kazhimugam (delta or the place where a river meets the sea) – Perumal Murugan
Handbook on legal processes for Police
- Union Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD), Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi launched the “Handbook on legal processes for Police in respect of Crime against Children” at a function in New Delhi.
AWARDS
- Manisha Varun – Mrs. India Universe 2018 pageant
APPOINTMENTS
- Sandeep Bakhshi – Chief operating officer of ICICI Bank
APP & WEBPORTAL
‘Cop Connect’, the mobile-based application
- The Telangana police have launched a mobile-based messenger application ‘Cop Connect’, to provide real time information to over 60,000 police officers across the State.
SPORTS
Cricket
England post new ODI record total
- England broke the record for the highest score in a men’s one-day international cricket for the second time in two years at Trent Bridge by scoring 481 for six against Australia.
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