1. ICCG’s 23rd annual conference
of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) was
held in Athens, Greece. TERI, the New Delhi-based The Energy Resources
Institute was ranked number two under the category ‘2016 Top
Climate Think Tanks in the Rest of the World-Absolute Global Rankings’
among world’s best climate think tank by the International Centre for
Climate Governance (ICCG).
2. Senior IPS officer Sanjay
Kumar (1985-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Himachal
Pradesh cadre) was appointed as Director General (DG) of National
Disaster Response Force (NDRF). He will succeed R K Pachnanda who was
has taken charge as DG the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
3. Maitree 2017 (A
joint military training exercise) between Indian Army and Royal
Thailand Army commenced at Bakloh in Chamba district in
Himachal Pradesh. A 14 day long exercise is aimed to build and promote
closer relations while exchanging skills and experiences between the two
armies. The previous
edition of the exercise was held at Krabi in Thailand in 2016
Earlier, a joint training exercise between the Indian Army
and the Royal Army of Oman, named Al Nagah-II 2017, was held at Bakloh
in March 2017.
4. India became 11th
country whose citizens are now eligible to enroll in the Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) initiative. The United States of America
(USA) has rolled out pre-approved expedited entry clearance for low-risk
Indian travellers under its Global Entry programme (GEP). Under
this initiative, international GEP member traveller can enter in US through
automatic kiosks, rather than queuing up to clear immigration check by meeting
an immigration officer at selected airports.Indian Ambassador to US Navtej
Sarna was the first Indian national to enroll in the
programme.
5. Under the Ujwal DISCOM
Assurance Yojana (UDAY) about 97% of the total outstanding
debt of all state power distribution companies (discoms) has been covered as
per the announcement of the Union Ministry of Power.
6. Hwasong-14 the North Korea’s
first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has successfully
test-fired into waters near Sea of Japan . It was claimed by North Korea
and the claim was confirmed by United States. The launch appeared to be North
Korea’s most successful missile test since its ballistic missile programme.
7. MERIT app (Merit
Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency)’ and
the e-bidding portal for offering an e-Bidding solution to States
has been launched by Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of State for
Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines. The app and the portal would
help the states to select Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for
procurement of power by transferring their domestic coal under the scheme of
flexibility in utilisation of domestic coal.
8. For the first time in
the Nilgiris a rare ‘white tiger’ with a pale skin was
spotted by a photographer named Nilanjan Ray. The discovery has aroused interest
among conservationists and forest officials to whether the white tiger is
a true genetic mutant. According to the scientists, white tigers lack
pheomelanin, which is responsible for the red-yellow hue in the skin coat . The
tiger which was spotted does not seem to be albino and was found to
be whitish with golden brown patches.
9. At present due to lack
of a parliamentary law, there is no transparency in the
eligibility, criteria required for a person to be appointed
as an election commissioner. So The Supreme Court has
asked the Union government to formalise appointment of election
commissioners through law.
10. The reason for unprecedented heavy rainfall in
Chennai for three days between November 30th to December 2nd
in 2015 has been found out by a study conducted by the
scientists of University of Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of
Technology – Bombay and the reason behind it was that the extreme
El Nino conditions and warming of the Bay of Bengal. Based
on several experiments, the scientists have attributed around 21% of
the intensity of the extreme Chennai rainfall to the extreme El Nino
condition. El Nino usually causes less than normal rainfall in the case of
south-west monsoon. However, it does the reverse in the case of the northeast
monsoon. It causes above-normal rainfall during the northeast monsoon.
This is due to the difference in seasonal wind patterns between the two
monsoons.
11. This is the first time the EPFO(The
Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation ) has roped in private
banks, namely, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak
Mahindra Bank and Bank of Baroda for the purpose of collection of
provident fund dues from the employers and payments to its subscribers. This move of the
EPFO will help the organisation to save nearly Rs 300 crore
per year as the five banks have agreed to zero transaction charges.
Already the EPFO had tied up with five other banks. The five other
banks are State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank,
Allahabad Bank, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India.
12. An emergency meeting of the UNSC was
called by the United States, Japan and South Korea to agree on a
response to the North Korea’s ICBM test. In the emergency meeting, the
US has said that the launch of an ICBM by the North Korea is a clear and sharp
escalation. Under the new sanctions, the US has decided to use trade
restrictions targeting those countries that continue to have dealings with
North Korea. France has expressed its support for a new resolution.
13. The Indian national football has
managed to secure the 96th spot as per the updated FIFA
world football rankings. At present, Germany leads the rankings and
among Asian countries, Iran leads at No. 23.
14. For the second time, RP
Sanjiv Goenka Group Chairman, Sanjiv Goenka, has been named as
the Chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT-Kharagpur He
will serve as the Chairman for three years. He held his previous
stint between 2002 and 2007.
15. The 2017 Asian Athletics Championship is
the 22nd edition and will be held from 6 July to 9 July 2017 at the Kalinga
Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. Manpreet Kaur and Govindan Laxman has managed to win
gold medals on the opening day of Asian Athletics
Championships. Vikas Gowda, though failed to defend his title in
the men’s discus throw has managed to win a bronze medal in
the men’s discus throw.
16. India is expected to register a
growth of 6.9% in this financial year according to BMI
Research, a Fitch group company.
17. RBI has issued the revised directions
on ‘Customer Protection – Limiting Liability of Customers
in unauthorised Electronic Banking Transactions’ amidst a
recent increase in customer grievances related to un
authorised transactions. The bank has to credit the amount involved in
the unauthorised electronic transaction to the customer’s account
within 10 working days of reporting of fraud. The bank has to do this without
waiting for settlement of insurance claim if any. The banks should ask its
customers to mandatorily register for SMS alerts and e-mail for email alerts
for electronic banking transactions.
18. Under the Right to Education Act, no child
will be detained or held back in any class or expelled till the
completion of elementary education covering classes 1 to 8 from next
academic year said by the HRD ministry .
19. India has become the fourth
largest foreign investor into the UK in 2016-17 as per the
official figures published by the UK’s Department for
International Trade. The US remains the top most investor in the UK, China (2nd),
France ( 3rd)
20. As per the Index has been released by
the UN telecommunications agency International Telecommunication Union
(ITU), India has been ranked 23rd out of 165
nations in the second Global Cyber security Index (GCI) that
measures the commitment of nations across the world to cyber security. Singapore has topped
the index followed
by United States (2nd), Malaysia (3rd),
Oman (4th), Estonia (5th), Mauritius (6th),
Australia (7th), Georgia (8th),
France (9th), Canada (10th) and Russia (11th). China
has been placed at 34th. Equatorial Guinea is the worst performer among all
nations with a score of zero.
21. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee acting
on a proposal brought by Palestine has put the West
Bank city of Hebron on its list of world heritage in danger. The inclusion of the Old
City of West Bank into the list of World Heritage in danger is aimed
at drawing world’s attention to the situation in Hebron.
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