Current Affairs 25 th 13th June to 19th June 2016

Best of Current Affairs Desk

20 June 2016

IN THIS WEEK

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Following are the important current terms important for exams, discussions
and interview.
Why following Terms and Events are important

The Insurance Self-Network Platform (ISNP)

Know Peter Thomson?

How is Inder Malhotra?

Sports Person KL Rahul.

The biggest-ever consolidation in the countrys private insurance sector.

New chemical elements Periodic table

What do you mean by?

Google Street View

Orlando (Florida)

HTT-40

Microsoft Inc. and LinkedIn

Merger of five associate banks

IDB Bank

Welspun Renewables.

Coffee as a cancer

IUPAC

platform

Important Terms for Discussion and interviews

How methane emissions associated with NASA?

What is mother-to-child transmission of HIV

Who is Mudrarakshasha?

What is Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)?

Civil Aviation Policy

 Report

Road Accidents in India 2015

Which city once again led with highest number of deaths in road accidents?
Delhi

To Know: The national capital Delhi witnessed 1,622 road deaths during
2015. However the total number of road accidents in Delhi was 8,085, which
was much less than that in Mumbai 23,468. But road accident related deaths
in Mumbai were 611 during the year. This clearly established the fact that
Delhis road accidents were much serious.

The number of road accidents in India rose to 501,423 in 2015 from 489,400
in the previous year.

A total of 146,133 people died in road accidents in 2015, up from 139,671 in

2014.

1,374 accidents and 400 deaths occurred every day on Indian roads which
translates into about 57 accidents and 17 deaths per hour.

Thirteen States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,

Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, accounted for the highest number of
accidents.

Road accidents killed an average of 216 people in the 15-34 age groups
every day in 2015, accounting for 54.1% of all deaths on roads.

Information Technology
Policy
Google Street View

Indian Government declined to give the security clearance to which state-ofthe-art service of Internet giant Google which allows users to have a
panoramic view of places in cities.

To Know: Google Street View service allows users to have a panoramic view
of places in cities, as they would look in real life. It had proposed to establish
the service in India and had asked for the security clearance from the Indian
Government.

In April 2015, Google representatives had made a presentation on Street

View for the Ministry of Home Affairs. They had told the officials then that the
platform would be useful for tourism and disaster management.

According to media reports a technical committee of the Defence Ministry,

which comprises officials from Indian Air Force, Military Intelligence, Navy,
Army and Intelligence Bureau, had unanimously opposed the service.

The main concern was security of sensitive defence installations. The

Defence Ministry said it was not possible to monitor the service once it was
launched and it would be detrimental to national security.

Health
Thailand to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV

To Know: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on 7 June 2016 declared

Thailand as the country that has successfully eliminated mother-to-child
transmission of HIV. In its announcement the WHO observed that Thailands
routine screening and universal free medication for pregnant women with HIV
was crucial in stopping the virus being passed to new generations.

Belarus and Armenia were also declared free of mother-to-baby HIV

transmissions Wednesday, but both nations had a much lower prevalence of
the HIV virus as compared to Thailand.

Previously Cuba was the only other country to have eliminated mother-tochild transmission under the WHOs criteria back in July 2015.

Coffee as a cancer No Conclusive evidence for as Cancer Causing

Agent

To Know: WHOs cancer agency the International Agency for Research on

Cancer (IARC) had classified coffee as possibly carcinogenic to humans
(Group 2B) in 1991.

But on 15 June 2016 IARC accepted that after reviewing more than 1,000
studies in humans and animals had found that there was inadequate evidence
to show that drinking coffee causes cancer.

Many studies showed that coffee drinking had no carcinogenic effects for
cancers of the pancreas, female breast, and prostate, and in fact, reduced
risks were seen for cancers of the liver and uterine endometrium.

But the WHO agency also declared that drinking very hot beverages,
specifically 65C or more, probably causes cancer of the oesophagus.

Petroleum
India Third in Oil consumption

According to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy (released in

June 2016), India has become the worlds third-largest oil consumer during
2015. It replaced which country to take this place? Japan

To Know: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015, which was released

on 8 June 2016, disclosed that with demand of 4.1 million barrels per day,
India is the third-largest consumer behind US (19.39 million bpd) and China
(11.96 million bpd).

Japan slipped to the fourth spot after its oil usage contracted 3.9% to 4.15
million bpd in 2015. In 2014, it used 4.3 million bpd, ahead of Indias 3.84
million bpd.

Place
Orlando (Florida)

A terrorist shooting (allegedly by Islamic terror group Islamic State) at a gay

nightclub in the US left at least 50 people dead in the early hours of 12 June
2016. To Know: Pulse, a happening gay nightclub of Orlando (Florida), was
site of a suspected terrorist attack in the early hours of 12
June 2016. A lone IS gunman (named Omar Mir
Siddiqui Mateen) armed with assault-type
weapon, a handgun and some other weapon started
firing indiscriminately in the nightclub after barging into the premises.

That turned into a hostage drama for a while with many people inside the
nightclub. According to preliminary reports at least 50 persons died in this
shooting incident while the lone gunman was shot down by security forces.
Over 53 persons were injured in the attack.

This attack is said to be the worst mass shooting in the history of the United
States.

Islamic State later took responsibility for the shooting. The gunman involved
in the incident, Omar Mateen, is of Afghani origin. He was earlier investigated
by the FBI for suspected terror links.

Sikkim - The first Indian state to open a government data portal.

To Know: Sikkim State Governments open government data portal

Sikkim.data.gov.in was launched by Lok Sabha MP, P D Rai on 11 June
2016. Sikkim thus became Indias first state to have such portal.

It is worth mentioning that under the open government data portal, the data
produced or commissioned by the government or government controlled
entities can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone.

This first-of-its-kind state portal has been developed jointly by Information

Technology Department, Government of Sikkim and an NIC team from Delhi.

Insurance

 The biggest-ever consolidation in the countrys private insurance sector, by

HDFC Standard Life Insurance, with Max Life Insurance and Max
Financial Services

Explanation: The boards of directors of HDFC Standard Life Insurance

Company, Max Life Insurance Company Ltd and Max Financial Services Ltd
have approved a merger of Max Life Insurance Company Ltd and Max
Financial Services Ltd into HDFC Life.

This is thus the biggest-ever consolidation in countrys private insurance

sector.

Information Technology

Microsoft Inc. - will acquire professional social platform LinkedIn for $26.2
billion.

To Know: According to a deal approved by

both companies Boards of Directors on 13

June 2016, Microsoft Inc. will acquire social
platform LinkedIn in a cash deal of $26.2 billion. The deal is
expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

Under the deal Microsoft will pay $196 for each share of

LinkedIn. Jeff Weiner will stay on as CEO of LinkedIn and will report to
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Upon termination of merger agreement under some circumstances, co will

be required to pay Microsoft termination fee of $725 million.

LinkedIn has more than 9,700 full-time employees and is headquartered in

Mountain View, California. It has offices in 30 cities, including Bengaluru,
Beijing, Chicago, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong and London.

At $26.2 billion, this is the biggest-ever deal for Microsoft.

Science

Science Chemistry

New chemical elements found, being added to Periodic table by the

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Nihonium (Nh),
Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts), and Oganesson (Og)

To Know: All of these 4 elements are man-made,

created in labs by nuclear researchers. Those
researchers are from Japan, Russia and the United
States.

A group of Japanese researchers came up with the

name Nihonium. The word Nihon means Japan in Japanese. Moscovium is

named after Moscow, the Russian capital. Tennessine is named after the
American state of Tennessee. Oganesson is named in honor of the 83-yearold Russian researcher Yuri Oganessian. Oganesson is only the second
element to be named after a living scientist.

The four new names will now be under consideration for five months to give
time for any possible objections.

Environment
Tata Power Renewable Energy

Indias largest renewable energy deal to acquire Welspun Renewables.

To Know: Tata Powers renewable energy unit Tata Power Renewable

Energy Ltd (TPREL) during June 2016 signed an agreement to acquire
Welspun Renewables Energy.

Welspun Renewables, a part of the $3 billion Welspun Group, has about

1,140 megawatts (MW) of solar and wind power assets across eight states in
India. Of this, about 990 MW is in solar projects and about 150 MW in wind
projects.

This transaction is the largest transaction in renewables space in India.

TPREL currently operates 294 MW of renewable power capacity and about

400 MW of solar and wind projects are under implementation.

Norway The first country to officially prohibit deforestation.

To Know: Norway has become the first country in the world to have a policy
to be deforestation-free and has imposed a ban on deforestation.

The ban is a part of the governments procurement policy and includes

eliminating the use of any product that contributes to deforestation as well as
a request that the government exercise due care for the protection of
biodiversity in its investments.

The ban will affect how Norway sources products such as palm oil, soy,
beef, and timber in order to leave little to no impact on their ecosystems.
These products are responsible for 40 percent of deforestation between 2000
and 2011 in several countries, including Argentina and Brazil.

Policy
Policy - First Civil Aviation Policy

Union Government cleared the Civil Aviation Policy on 15 June 2016 that is
expected to usher in a series of passenger-friendly measures in coming days.
What is the most important fare-related measure of this policy? Capping of
airfares at Rs 2,500 for an hour-long flight

To

Know: One important point in the newly cleared Civil Aviation

Policy is associated with capping of
airfares at Rs 2,500 for an hour-long flight.

The new policy has also proposed

tweaking the so-called 5/20 that

prevents Indian airlines from flying
overseas unless they have operated
for at least five years and have a fleet of 20 aircraft.

Other important points include provision such as auctioning of unilateral

traffic rights, tax incentives for airlines, maintenance and repair works of
aircraft besides mooting 2 per cent levy on all air tickets to fund regional
connectivity scheme and providing viability gap funding for airlines to
encourage operate on regional routes.

It is worth mentioning that the NDA government had for the first time
unveiled the policy draft in November 2014, subsequently replacing it with
another draft in October 2015.

Later the Civil Aviation Ministry had sent the civil aviation policy to Cabinet
for approval on 3 June 2016.

GST - the only state that has raised concerns against the GST rollout plan as
disclosed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and West Bengal Finance Minister
and Empowered Committee Chairman Amit Mitra. Tamil Nadu

To Know: At a meeting of GSTs Empowered

Committee held on 14 June 2016, it was disclosed
that, barring Tamil Nadu, all states are ready to
become part of the proposed GST regime.

According to media reports Tamil Nadu had concerns about revenue loss
and wanted a separate dispute-resolution body on GST.

The committee will meet again in July 2016 to discuss the revenue-neutral
rate and decide the fine-print of dual-control issues between the Centre and
the States.

Banking
Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 13 June 2016 offered relief to banks on
bad loans by announcing a new scheme that facilitates to convert up to half
the loans held by corporate borrowers into equity or equity-like securities.

To Know: Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) is an

optional framework prepared by the RBI for the resolution of large stressed
accounts.

Under S4A banks will be allowed to convert up to half the loans held by
corporate borrowers into equity or equity-like securities.

The scheme is intended to help restore the flow of credit to crucial sectors
such as infrastructure and iron and steel, among others, reduce the stress on
corporate borrowers and stanch bad loans across banks.

Banking - Merger of SBI Associate Banks

The Union Cabinet on 15 June 2016 approved the merger of five associate
banks as well as Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), State Bank of Saurashtra and
State Bank of Indore with State Bank of India (SBI). The merger will create Rs
37-lakh crore banking behemoth with over 50 crore customers.

To Know: According to the proposal cleared by the Union Cabinet on 15 June

2016, five associate banks State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of
Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of
Hyderabad as well as Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will be merged with State
Bank of India (SBI).

Among the 5 SBI associate banks, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State
Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore are listed.

It is worth mentioning that SBI had first merged State Bank of Saurashtra
with itself in 2008. Two years later in 2010, State Bank of Indore was merged.

Defence
HTT-40 Hindustan Turbo Trainer 40

Indias first indigenous basic trainer aircraft.

To Know: Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40),

countrys first indigenous basic trainer aircraft has

been developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
(HAL). Its first test flight was conducted at HAL
Bangalore on 17 June 2016.

HTT-40 was launched in August 2013 with HALs internal funding and was
completed in May 2015. It had made its maiden flight after much delay on 31
May 2016.

The aircraft weighs about 2,800 kg and has turbo prop engine of 950 shp
class. It is aimed at being used for the first stage training for all flying cadets
of the three services.

Sports
EURO CUP 2016 France

The 2016 UEFA European Championship (UEFA Euro 2016), the most
prestigious mens football championship of Europe, started from 10 June
2016.

To Know: UEFA Euro 2016 is being hosted in France from 10

June to 10 July 2016. This is the 15th edition of the
tournament and it is the first time that as many as 24
European countries are participating in it.

It is the third time that France is hosting UEFA Euro Cup,

having hosted the tournament earlier in 1960 and 1984.

The first match of the tournament was held between hosts France and
Romania on 10 June 2016, in which France defeated Romania by 2-1.

Champions Trophy - Australia defeated India 3-1 in a controversial penalty

shootout to win their fourteenth Champions Trophy title for mens hockey on
17 June 2016. However, by finishing second, India won the silver medal for

the first time in this prestigious event. What was Indias best performance in
Champions Trophy before this? Bronze medal in 1982

To Know: Indias lone previous medal in the Champions Trophy came 34

years ago, when they got the bronze at Amsterdam in 1982.

On 17 June 2016 India created history by finishing runners-up in the

36th edition of Champions Trophy as they went down 1-3 to 13 time champions
Australia. India had earlier put up a sterling performance to hold might
Australians 0-0 till full time.

The match was then decided through penalty shootout in which Australia
pipped India 3-1. Only Harmanpreet Singh was able to score for India while
Australians converted three of their four attempts.

There was plenty of drama in the shootout as Daniel Beales shot was
retaken after he failed to score and sought a video review. The video umpire
asked the shot to be taken again despite protests from India.

The 36th Champions Trophy was held between 10 and 17 June 2016 in
London (UK). Germany finished the tournament at third place.

KL Rahul - Became first Indian cricketer to score a century on one day

international (ODI) debut.

To Know: KL Rahul became the first Indian player

to score a hundred on ODI debut on 11 June 2016 in

first of the three ODIs against Zimbabwe at Harare
Sports Club.

Before this, Robin Uthappas 86 against England at Indore in 2006

was the highest score by an Indian player on his ODI debut.

With Rahuls unbeaten 100, India defeated Zimbabwe by 9 wickets to take

1-0 lead in the ODI series.

Saina Nehwal Won Australian Open Super Series Womens Single title.

Q. Whom she defeated in the final? Sun Yu (China)

To Know: Saina Nehwal defeated Chinas Sun Yu in a thrilling three-game

final of the Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament. Nehwal,
presently world no. 8, defeated Sun Yu (world no. 12) by 11-21, 21-14, 21-19.

This was her second Australian Open title, having clinched the title in 2014
as well.

The title win also ended a rather long title drought for Nehwal, whose
previous title before this was at the India Super Series in New Delhi in
November 2015.

Sports - Person

Xhaka brothers (Granit and Taulant) made what footballing history on 11 June
2016? It was for the first time that two brothers played for opposing
sides in UEFA Euro championship

To Know: Granit Xhaka and his brother Taulant Xhaka made footballing
history as they clashed in their first international encounter on different teams
on 11 June 2016.

While Granit played for Switzerland, his older brother Taulant was member
of the opponent team of Albania. This was just for the first time in European
Championship history that two brothers played for opposing sides in a match.
The match was won by the Swiss team by 1-0 margin.

The Xhaka brothers were born in Basel, Switzerland to a Kosovar-Albanian

family. They both played for Swiss national youth teams before Taulant
decided to represent Albania at senior level. Granit opted to stay with
Switzerland.

Person

Peter Thomson (Fiji) - was elected as the President of the 71st edition of the
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

To Know: Peter Thomson of Fiji defeated Andreas

Mavroyiannis of Cyprus by a vote of 94 to 90 to get elected
as the President of the 71st edition of the United Nations
General Assembly (UNGA).

The selection of the Assembly President traditionally follows the

system of geographical rotation, with respective regional groups, putting
forward a consensus candidate each year. If a group cannot reach consensus
on a single nominee, the door is open for a rare secret-ballot vote.

Mogens Lykketoft (Denmark) was the President of the 70 th session of

General Assembly.

Death - Inder Malhotra

To Know: Inder Malhotra was known as one of Indias bestknown editors and political commentators. A vastly experienced
journalist, Malhotra knew the pulse of the interesting, intriguing
and often turbulent politics of this country. He had seen India,
and covered it extensively, from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru
down to Narendra Modi.

Some of the prominent newspapers he was associated with are The

Guardian (London), The Statesman, The Times of India and Indian
Express. He was earlier associated with the news agency United Press of
India (UPI), precursor to the UNI. He was Resident Editor of The Times of
India from 1978 to 1986.

He passed away on 11 June 2016 and was 86.

Person Death

Mudrarakshasha - a noted personality associated with Hindi literature and

drama

To Know: Mudrarakshasha was primarily a writer and

dramatist of Hindi language. His real name was Suhas
Verma. But he was a varied personality with interest also in
literary fields such as journalism, criticism, direction and
editing. He was also associated with Hindi literary magazine
Jnanodaya.

He had also tried his luck in politics and was associated with the erstwhile
Janata Dal of VP Singh and the communist parties.

Some of his noted literary works included Aaala Afsar, Shanti Bhang,
Hum Sab Mansaram, Tenduaa, Tilchatta, Kalateetaa and Dandvidhaan.

Person - Satya Pal Jain

Appointed as a part-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India on 10

June 2016.

To Know: Satya Pal Jain, the Additional Solicitor General of India and former
parliamentarian, was on 10 June 2016 appointed as a part-time member of
the Law Commission of India. This appointment is in addition to his charge as
an Additional Solicitor General of India.

Jain has been a two time Lok Sabha MP for the BJP representing
Chandigarh seat in 1996 and 1998. He is also a noted constitution lawyer and
has been active in numerous civil and criminal cases and enquiry committees.

The 21st Law Commission of India was constituted by the President on 14

September 2015 with Justice B.S. Chauhan as its Chairman. Justice Ravi R.
Tripathi, retired judge of Gujarat High Court and Bimal N. Patel Director,
GNLU are the other nominated members of this Commission.

Space

US space NASA was successful in making an important first-of-its-kind

breakthrough. What is it? It has measured the methane emissions from a
specific leaking facility on Earths surface

To Know: NASAs Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) instrument, in an important

breakthrough, has successfully measured the methane emissions from a
specific leaking facility on Earths surface. It is the first such observation ever.

This is the first time the methane emissions from a single facility have been
observed from space. The said leak occurred over Aliso Canyon near Porter
Ranch in California.

This observation is an important breakthrough in our ability to eventually

measure and monitor emissions of this potent greenhouse gas from space.