Weekly Current Affairs 15th To 21st June 2019

International News

The Sultan of Oman grants 'Royal Pardon' to 17 Indians

• On the occasion of Eid ul Fitr, Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said granted a royal pardon to 17 Indians serving various jail sentences in Oman.
• An Indian consulate was opened in Muscat in February 1955 which was upgraded to a consulate general in 1960 and later into a full-fledged embassy in 1971.
• Oman established its embassy in New Delhi in 1972 and a consulate general in Mumbai in 1976.
• India and Oman have had trade and people-to-people ties for several millennia.

UK Government banned Commercial that Reinforces Gender Prejudices

• Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), UK's advertising watchdog introduced the ban because it found evidence suggesting that adverse stereotypes could restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults.
• These kinds of stereotypes can be reinforced by some advertisements that play a part in unequal gender outcomes.

India to be Guest at Guadalajara International Book Fair

• India pavilion at the fair will showcase over 35 Indian authors and artists, along with 15 publishing houses.
• Ancient and rare manuscripts including "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" will be put on exhibition, along with photo books, handicrafts, and paintings.
• The "Festival of India" will showcase folk, classical and contemporary cultural programmes.

Adani Group gets approval for Coal Mine Project in Australia

• The plan was approved by the central government in April, 2019.
• Background:
• Adani Group's mining project in Australia faced various controversies for almost nine years as the environmentalists warned it of the severe damage it might cause to the Great Barrier Reef.
• It cited the reason as the project threatened the Yakka Skink, Australia's native lizard and a species of ornamental snake found in the area.

Iraq allowed by US to import Iranian gas

• The United States has allowed Iraq to import Iranian gas for its power grid for another three months by extending a waiver to sanctions.
• Iraq has had several extensions to the waiver first granted in 2018 after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran's oil sector forbidding countries from purchasing Iranian energy.
• One must know:
• US reimposed sanctions on Iran's oil industry in November, citing concerns about its nuclear programme and its meddling in the Middle East.

"AWaRe" campaign Launched by WHO to handle AMR

• The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global campaign named "AWaRe" urging governments to adopt a tool to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), adverse events and costs.
• It classifies antibiotics into three groups - Access, Watch and Reserve.
• The main aim is to increase the proportion of global consumption of antibiotics in the Access group to at least 60% and to reduce the usage of the antibiotics from the Watch and Reserve groups.

Ireland to ban the sale of New Petrol and Diesel Vehicles

• Ireland decided to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 as part of a major strategy to protect the environment.
• They plan to have 950,000 electric vehicles on Irish roads supported by a network of charging stations.
• This plan also includes the elimination of non-recyclable plastic and higher fees for plastic items which are difficult to recycle.

National News

Amasebailu becomes First 100% Solar Powered Village in Karnataka

• The village is tagged as a Solar Gram Panchayat with about 1858 houses illuminated with solar lamps.
• The ratio 30:20 and the rest was paid by the Panchayat and charitable organizations.
• The installation cost of one solar lamp lies around Rs. 5000 but they were given to household at a subsidized rate of Rs. 1500.

Tripura to set up Museum to showcase R.D. Burman's Work

• Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb has decided to set up a museum dedicated to noted music composer and director Rahul Dev Burman, popularly known as R.D. Burman or 'Pancham Da'.
• The museum will have rare collections of Pancham Da's music, photographs, recordings and books.
• R.D. Burman's wife and singer Asha Bhosle has been invited for the inauguration.
• In 1980, R.D. Burman married singer Asha Bhosle and both of them recorded several hit songs and staged many live performances.

HP Government Makes GPS mandatory for Trekkers

• The announcement also added that it is important that trekking and other yatras must be restricted during adverse weather.
• About Himachal Pradesh:
• Himachal Pradesh got its statehood on 25th January 1971.
• Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh is Jai Ram Thakur.

Unemployed Graduates to get up to Rs 3,500 in Rajasthan

• Unemployed youth who have completed their graduation or equivalent degree will be given unemployment allowance by the Rajasthan government.
• Male applicants will get Rs 3,000/month.
• The women and differently-abled will get Rs 3,500/month under the Chief Minister Yuva Sambal Yojana.

Banking

Enhanced Disclosure Guidelines introduced by SEBI

• Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced enhanced disclosure guidelines for credit rating agencies (CRA).
• Reason for the move:
• The recent Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd's (IL&FS) liquidity crisis among non-bank lenders in India has focused attention again on credit rating agencies.
• The Guidelines:
• The rating companies must create a uniform probability of default benchmark for each rating category on their website, for one-year, two-year and three-year cumulative default rates, both for the short term and long term.
• They should use marginal default methodology to arrive at default rates.

RBI asks banks to grout their ATMs to a structure

• The Reserve Bank of India has asked the banks to ensure their ATMs are grouted to a wall, pillar, or floor by the end of September month, except those installed in high secured premises such as airports.
• The ATMs shall be operated for cash replenishment only with digital One Time Combination (OTC) locks.
• All banks can also roll out a comprehensive e-surveillance mechanism at the ATMs.
• About the Committee on Currency Movement (CCM):
• The RBI had set up a Committee on Currency Movement (CCM) in 2016.

J&K Bank to now comes under the RTI Act, CVC guidelines

• The decision is after the removal of Parvez Ahmed as the Chairman of the J&K Bank.
• He was accused of alleged corruption, nepotism and favouritism.
• CVC:
• Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is an apex Indian governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption.

Rs.1 Crore Penalty Imposed on HDFC Bank by RBI

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed Rs.1 crore penalty on private sector lender HDFC Bank for violating Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) norms.
• RBI had received a reference from customs' authorities regarding submission of forged bill of entries (BoEs) by certain importers to the bank for remittance of foreign currency.
• RBI said that the penalties are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
• RBI said that a notice was issued to HDFC Bank on why monetary penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with the directions.

Appointments

Name of the Person	Designation
Lt. General Faiz Hameed	Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence
Inger Andersen	Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme
Jagat Prakash Nadda	BJP's working President
Zuzana Caputova	Slovakia's First Female President
Om Birla	17th Lok Sabha Speaker
Resigns
Sarah Huckabee Sanders	White House Press Secretary

Awards and Honours

Award	Awardee
54th Jnanpith Award	Amitav Ghosh
BBC World Service Global Champion	Akshaya Patra
Femina Miss India World 2019	Suman Rao
'Save Water Hero Award'	Makarand Tilloo

Important Days

Date	Day	Theme
14th June 2019	World Blood Donor Day	Theme: Blood Donation and Universal Access to Safe Blood Transfusion.
17th June 2019	World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought	Theme: "Let's grow the future together."
20th June 2019	World Refugee Day	Theme: Take A Step on World Refugee Day.

Science and Technology

World’s Highest Weather Stations installed on Mt Everest

• Scientists from National Geographic Society and Tribhuvan University have installed two highest weather stations in the world in an expedition to Mount Everest that wrapped up in June 2019.
• The two weather monitoring stations are located at an altitude of 8,430 meters (27,657 feet) and 7,945 meters (26,066 feet).
• The data gathered from the stations will help scientists to understand how rising global temperatures impacts the rapidly melting glaciers.
• The team also collected the world highest ice core sample at 8,020 meters, which will help the scientists study the deep record of precipitation on the mountain and composition of the atmosphere during pre-industrial times.

Facebook Unveils Details About its Cryptocurrency 'Libra'

• Using Libra people can buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees.
• More about Libra:
• Libra is a global currency and financial infrastructure.
• Facebook aims to reach 1.7 billion people around the world who do not have access to a bank account.
• This new technology threatens to change the landscape of banking.

Sports

Peter Gilchrist wins Pacific International Billiards Championship

• Peter Gilchrist has won the Pacific International Billiards Championship 2019 at the Yarraville Club in Melbourne, Australia.
• About Peter Gilchrist:
• Peter Gilchrist is an English-born Singaporean English billiards player.
• He also set the world record for highest break in billiards (1346) under modern rules, at the New Zealand Open Billiards Championships.
• He is the only player of the modern era who scored more than one 1000 points in tournament break.

Virat Kohli becomes Fastest Cricketer to score 11,000 ODI runs

• Kohli got there in 222 innings, 54 innings are fewer than the previous record holder, Sachin Tendulkar.
• Tendulkar broke the record in his 276th ODI innings, in 2002 in Kanpur against England.
• Kohli has the distinction of being the fastest to 8000, 9000 and 10,000 ODI runs as well.

Bangladesh record 2nd Highest Successful Chase in World Cup history

• The Bangladesh cricket team chased down the target of 322 against West Indies.
• The previous second highest successful chase in World Cup was also recorded by Bangladesh when they chased down the target of 319 against Scotland in 2015.
• Notably, it is also Bangladesh's highest ever chase in ODI cricket.

World Record for Most Sixes in an ODI Set by England Captain

• England captain Eoin Morgan set the world record for most sixes (17) in a One Day International (ODI).
• He achieved this record during his 71-ball 148-run knock against Afghanistan in the World Cup on 18th June 2019.
• Previous record:
• The previous record for most sixes (16 sixes) was jointly held by Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers.

P. U. Chitra wins Gold at the Folksam Grand Prix 2019

• India's P.U. Chitra won gold medal in women's 1500m at Folksam Grand Prix 2019 held in Sollentuna, Sweden.
• Chitra finished first in Folksam Grand Prix ahead of Kenya's Mercy Cherono, who won 5000m gold in Commonwealth Games 2014.
• She is also a gold medal winner in Asian Championships held in Doha, Qatar in April 2019.
• Other Indian performances:
• Jinson Johnson from India won silver medal in men's 1500m at Folksam Grand Prix by clocking 3:39.69
• Other Indian performance at another event:
• In another separate competition, National record holder Murali Sreeshankar won gold in men's long jump, at the Copenhagen Athletics Games in Denmark.

Summits and Conferences

India to host Conference of Parties of UNCCD

• India will be hosting the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the first time.
• COP-14 will be held between September 2nd and 14th in Delhi.
• The Centre launched a flagship project, part of a larger international initiative called the 'Bonn Challenge' ahead of the COP-14.
• About United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):
• UNCCD aims to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.
• There are 197 parties to it (196 states + the European Union).