(i) June 26th of every year is celebrated as International day against Drug Abuse and Illicit trafficking.

(ii) This day is celebrated as a reminder of the goals agreed to by the member states of creating an International Society free of drug abuse.

(iii) To deal with the menace of alcohol and drug abuse the Government has undertaken measures such as Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts (IRCA) which provides counselling, treatment and rehabilitation services to victims.

2. Banks can borrow without the RBI nod

(i) The RBI on Thursday announced that the banks would be free to borrow from International/ Multilateral financial institutions without its approval. This step was taken by the RBI to provide greater flexibility to banks seeking access to overseas funds.

(ii) Such activities the RBI clarified, should be for the purpose of general banking business and not for capital augmentation.

3. Rate cut, structural reforms and thrust to infrastructure investment will aid growth – Jayant Sinha

(i) The Union Minister of State for Finance announced on Thursday that 75 basis points rate cut announced by the RBI since January, along with structural reforms and thrust on infrastructure investments will help boost growth.

(ii) He added, structural reforms such as higher foreign investment caps in insurance, defence and other sectors and progress on GST will also help attain higher growth. In addition, increased focus on infrastructure investment, under which the government has increased the gross budgetary support to public infrastructure projects by a whopping Rs 70,000 crore this year, shall also aid the growth process

(iii) As the government intends to make growth sustainable over a period of time, the key focus for government will be road, rail and power sectors.

4. The New Development Bank promoted by BRICS to operationalize from April 2016

(i) The New Development Bank (NDB) promoted by Brazil, Russia, India,China and South Africa (BRICS) is expected to begin its operation in April 2016, informed K.V Kamath, its first President.

(ii) K V Kamath, will be taking over as the President of the NDB at its Headquarters at Shanghai next month.

5. World trade registers 0.7% growth in January – March quarter

(i) The volume of world merchandise trade increased modestly in the first quarter of 2015, with both exports and imports registering slower growth than the previous six months World Trade Organization (WTO) reported.

(ii) World trade as measured by the average of exports and imports, grew 0.7 percent in the first three months of 2015, based on the seasonally adjusted data.

(iii) According to a WTO forecast, global trade is set to expand by 3.3 percent this year and by 4 percent in 2016, less than previous forecast due to sluggish growth in the global GDP.

6. Sachin Tendulkar voted as best player of the 21st century

(i) Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has been voted as the ‘best test player’ in the 21st century in an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia.

(ii) Tendulkar got the highest number of votes, leaving Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara in the second spot.

(iii) Tendulkar earned 23 percent of the votes followed by Sangakkara with 14 percent and former Australian wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist with 13 percent.

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