1. Veteran actor Sulabha Deshpande passes away
a) Veteran Hindi and Marathi actor, Sulabha Deshpande has passed away at the age of 82.
b) Among her prominent films were Bhumika, Gaman, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyo Aata Hai, Vijeta, Virasat, English Vinglish, and Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Daastan. On stage, she acted in Marathi plays like Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe, Sakharam Binder, Baba Harvale Aahet, among many others.
c) She was a recipient of the 1987 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Hindi-Marathi theatre.
2. World Environment Day observed on 5th June
a) World Environment Day was observed on 5th June, 2016. This year’s was Zero tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife.
b) To reduce demand for illegal wildlife products, the campaign stresses that greed, fashion, ignorance, indifference, investment, corruption, pseudo medicinal use and cultural beliefs should not be allowed to endanger any species of animal or plant or tree.
c) The host country for the event is Angola. The year’s slogan “Go Wild for Life” encourages everyone to spread word about extensive damage caused by wildlife crime. It also asks people to challenge all to do what they can to prevent it.
d) Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off Tiger Express, a semi-luxury tourist train, from Safdarjung station New Delhi. It has been launched to spread awareness on tiger conservation.
3. Sasikumar takes charge as new MD of SBT
a) Senior official C R Sasikumar has taken over as as Managing Director of State Bank of Travancore.
b) Sasikumar started his career as a probationary officer with SBI in 1978 and has since held several key assignments along with overseas assignments.
4. V.O.Chidambaranar Port bags National Award For Excellence in Cost Management
a) V.O. Chidambaranar Port has won the National Award for Excellence in Cost Management for the year 2015 from the Institute of Cost Accountants of India under the category of Public Service Sector- Small. This is the third time the port has received the award, (earlier in 2008 and 2012).
b) He has been awarded for his exemplary performance toward optimisation of manpower, savings in electricity, implementation of solar energy systems, reduction of overall cost of handling by mechanisation and improving efficiency and logistics support.
c) Awards under various categories were selected by a jury headed by Justice Mr. V.N.Khare, former Chief Justice of India and other eminent persons from industry, government, judiciary and CMA profession.
5. ‘Jai Jawan Awas Yojna’ launched in Haryana to provide affordable housing to JCOs
a) Haryana CM has launched Jai Jawan Awas Yojna, an initiative to provide affordable housing to serving and retired Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and other ranks.
b) The project is being executed by the Army Welfare Housing Organisation. This housing project has been named in the memory of Late Major Rajiv Joon, recipient of Ashok Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, who had attained martyrdom fighting militants in Anantnag district of Jammu & Kashmir
6. World’s first 3D-printed aircraft THOR displayed at International Aerospace Exhibition
a) World first ever 3D printed aircraft called THOR by Airbus was recently displayed at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Schoenefeld.
b) THOR is the abbreviation of Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality. It is a 3-part windowless, 3D printed aircraft which weighs just 21 kg. It is less than 4 metres in length.
c) It has been printed using a substance called Polyamide. The giant aviation companies like Airbus and Boeing are already using 3D printing technology to create various parts used in their huge passenger planes.
7. Assam Ease of Doing Business Bill, 2016 passed
a) Assam Ease of Doing Business Bill was recently passed by the State Assembly. The bill aims to facilitate enterprises to attract most number of investors in the state just by using an easy computerized clearance system.
b) The bill provides speedy processing of applications and issue of clearance for setting up new industries. It also facilitate a pro investment environment in the Assam state.
c) The bill also provides establishment of Assam Bureau of Investment Promotion (ABIP) to supervise and administrate the speedy process of application clearance. This bureau will comprise Chief Minister as chairman, industry minister as vice-chairman, ministers and senior-most secretaries of all the line departments as members, At least three representatives from industry bodies, the CEO of the single window agency will be the member-secretary of the board.
8. Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act 2015 launched in Bihar
a) Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar recently launched “Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act – 2015” in the state on occasion of jayprakash Narayan’s Sampoorna Kranti Diwas.
b) This Act is aimed at empowering people to seek redressal of their grievances in time bound manner.
c) He also inaugurated the State Public Grievances Receipts Centre in Patna. The state government had already established Public Grievances Redressal Offices and Grievance Receipts centres in all 38 districts and 101 sub-divisional headquarters across the state.
9. India, Qatar ink 7 agreements to boost cooperation
a) PM Narendra Modi finalised 7 major agreements with Qatar during his recent five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the United States and Mexico. The deals were inked in the presence of Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.
b) The MoU pertain to sectors including infrastructure investment, customs administration, financial intelligence unit, skill development, tourism, Health and Youth & sports.
c) These agreements will enable the countries to strengthen their bilateral ties.
10. NASA scientists find 39 unreported man-made sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions
a) Scientists at NASA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and two universities with the help a new satellite-based method, have located 39 unreported and major human-made sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions.
b) A known health hazard and contributor to acid rain, sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of six air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Current, sulfur dioxide monitoring activities include the use of emission inventories that are derived from ground-based measurements and factors, such as fuel usage.
c) The research team also located 75 natural sources of sulfur dioxide like non-erupting volcanoes slowly leaking the toxic gas throughout the year. The study was published in The Nature Geoscience journal on 30 May 2016.
11. HDFC Ergo buys L&T Insurance For Rs.551 crore
a) HDFC Ergo , a joint venture between home loan major HDFC and German insurer Ergo International, has acquired L&T General Insurance for Rs.551 crore in the first buyout in the country’s general insurance industry.
b) This acquisition will help HDFC Ergo become the third-largest private general insurer, after ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
c) The combined size and expertise will result in improved cost efficiencies in the merged entity and benefit policyholders and other stakeholders. The acquisition also aims to strengthen company’s position in the market.
12. Leander Paes wins to complete mixed doubles ‘Career Slam’
a) Mixed doubles team of India’s Leander paes and Switzerland’s Martina Hingis have clinched the French Open 2016 Mixed Double title by defeating the Indo-Croatian team of Sania Mirza & Ivan Dodig.
b) With this win, Leander Paes has become the 3rd man to to complete a double career Grand Slam (men’s and mixed).
c) The other winners of French Open 2016 are as follows :
Men’s Single : Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Women’s Single: Garbine Muguruza (Spain)
Men’s Double: Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez (both Spain)
Women’s Double: Caroline Garcia & Kristina Mladenovic (Both France)
13. Nita Ambani nominated to International Olympic Committee
a) Founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani has been nominated to be part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquartered at Lausanne, Switzerland.
b) The election will be held at the 129th IOC Session that will take place in Rio de Janeiro between 2nd and 4th August 2016. The independent selection process follows a new procedure for recruitment of IOC members based on the Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations. Once elected, she will continue to be a member until attaining 70 years of age.
c) The other seven members nominated are Sari Essayah (Finland), Ivo Ferriani (Italy), Luis Moreno (Colombia), Auvita, Rapilla (Papua New Guinea), Anant Singh (South Africa), Tricia Smith (Canada), Karl Stoss (Austria).
14. V Narayanaswamy named CM of Puducherry
a) V Narayanaswamy has been named as the Chief Minister of Puducherry after the grand old party held a legislature party meeting.
b) Hailing from Poornankuppam village, Narayanaswamy is an active Congress leader.
15. Large amount of ammonia gas detected on Jupiter
a) Massive amounts of ammonia gas has been observed by the researchers from The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).
b) The researchers used an upgraded version of Karl G Jansky very large array in New Mexico to measure radio emissions from Jupiter’s atmosphere.
c) The Jupiter’s thermal radio emissions are partially absorbed by ammonia gas. So, on the basis of the amount of absorption, the researchers can determine the amount of ammonia is present on Jupiter and it’s depth.
d) These observations will further help to learn the regions of Jupiter’s atmospheres, cloud formation and global circulation of Jupiter. The studies will also shed light on the other giant planets in the solar system.
e) Jupiter’s ammonia rich gases form upper cloud layers, where the ammonium hydrosulphide cloud (-73 degrees) & ammonia ice cloud (-113 degrees) are formed.
16. Desert Eagle II military exercise concluded
a) Desert Eagle II, which was the second in the series of bilateral exercises between Indian Air Force (IAF) and United Arab Emirates Air Force (UAE AF) was concluded recently.
b) It was a ten day air combat exercise which took place at Al-Dhafra Air Base, Abu Dhabi. India & UAE had signed a defence co-operation agreement called ‘Agreement of Defence Co-operation’ in 2003.
c) India’s IAF Su 30MKI & Mirage 2000-9 have participated in the exercise. From UAE Air Force F-16 block 60 took part. Both the countries previously took part in the Desert Eagle military exercise in 2008.