Current Affairs Update – 30th June, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the Important Current Affairs of 30th June, 2016. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains  & UBI PO PGDBF Exams  2016.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) H
  R Khan on 24 June 2016 announced that it will soon set up a committee to study
  the use of Blockchain technology.
• The technology will be used to reduce
  the use of paper currency.

• The Blockchain database consists
  of blocks that hold time-stamped batches of valid transactions.
• Then, digital records are put
  together into blocks and then leaped together cryptographically and
  chronologically into a chain using complex mathematical algorithms. The
  encryption process is termed as ‘hashing’.
• The linked blocks form a chain,
  with each additional block reinforcing those before it, thus giving the
  technology its name.
• Hashing is carried out by
  different computers. If they all agree on the answer, each block receives a
  unique digital signature.
• Once updated, the ledger cannot
  be altered or tampered with.
• The Blockchain is seen as the
  main technical innovation of bitcoin.

• HDFC Bank today launched SM@Bank,
  touted as India’s full fledged banking service for small and medium enterprises
  (SME). The new entity would allow clients access full bouquet of services
  instantly on 24×7 basis over personal computers or mobile phones.
• The existing brick-and-mortar
  service format for the SMEs would coexist with SM@Bank and it would be the sole
  discretion of customers to choose between the two formats, HDFC Bank Group Head
  (Business Banking) Aseem Dhru told Business Standard over a video-conference
  call.
• He informed HDFC Bank’s SME loan
  portfolio was about Rs 70,000 crore, which corresponded to roughly 7% of the
  consolidated SME banking space in India.
• Replying to another question,
  Dhru noted the prevailing environment was enabling the entrepreneurial space in
  the country and HDFC Bank wanted to make it easier and more convenient for the
  SMEs get institutional finance.

• The World Bank Group has agreed
  to provide a loan of over $1 billion to support India’s ambitious initiatives
  to expand solar through investments in solar generation.
• The announcement came as the
  World Bank President Jim Yong Kim met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who
  emphasized the importance of adequate climate change financing for countries
  like India, which are consciously choosing to follow an environmentally
  sustainable path.
• In keeping with the Bank’s
  commitment to support India’s solar energy programme, the Government of India
  and the World Bank on Thursday signed an agreement for the $625 million Grid
  Connected Rooftop Solar Program, said the World Bank statement adding that the
  project will finance the installation of at least 400 MW of solar Photovoltaic
  (PV) installations that will provide clean, renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse
  gas emissions by displacing thermal generation.
• The development of a $200 million
  shared infrastructure for solar parks project under a public-private
  partnership model is also under preparation.
• Besides, the World Bank Group
  also signed an agreement with the International Solar Alliance (ISA),
  consisting of 121 countries led by India, to collaborate on increasing solar
  energy use around the world, with the goal of mobilising $1 trillion in
  investments by 2030.

• The Union Government on 28 June
  2016 revised the financial limits of departments and ministries for appraisal
  and approval of Non-Plan Schemes or Projects by competent authorities.
• With this, appraisal and approval
  process in the Central Government Ministries and Departments will be expedited.

• As per the revised delegation,
  the Committee on Non-Plan Expenditure (CNE) will now appraise proposals
  involving expenditure of 300 crore rupees and above. The earlier limit for this
  was 75 crore rupees.
• Non-plan Schemes/projects of less
  than 300 crore rupees can now be appraised by Ministry or the Standing Finance
  Committee of the Ministry concerned.
• The financial power of the
  Minister-in-charge of the administrative Ministry can now approve Non-Plan
  schemes costing less than 500 crore rupees. The earlier limit for this was 150
  crore rupees.
• Finance Minister shall be
  competent financial authority for approving scheme/projects having financial
  implications of 500 crore rupees and above and upto 1000 crore rupees.
• Proposal having financial limits
  of 1000 crore rupees and above shall require approval of the Union
  Cabinet/Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

• Indigenously developed
  heavyweight torpedo Varunastra was inducted in the Indian Navy on 29 June 2016.
  It was handed to the Indian Navy by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
• With this India joined a select
  group of eight countries having the capability to design and develop
  heavyweight torpedoes.

• The torpedo was designed and
  developed by Naval Science and Technological Laboratory of the DRDO for the
  Indian Navy. It carries 95 percent of indigenous content.
• It weighs around 1.25 tonnes and is
  capable of carrying about 250 kg of explosives at a speed of around 40 nautical
  miles an hour.
• Varunastra, a versatile naval
  weapon can be fired from the Rajput class destroyers, Delhi class and all
  future Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) ships capable of firing heavy weight
  torpedoes.
• It is capable of targeting quiet
  and stealthy submarines both in deep and littoral waters even in intense
  countermeasure atmosphere.

• India’s first integrated defence
  communication network was launched on Thursday, enabling the army, air force,
  navy and the Special Forces Command to share situational awareness for a faster
  decision-making process.
• The Defence Communication Network
  (DCN), a strategic, highly secure and scalable system, has a pan-India reach —
  from Ladakh to the North East to island territories.
• Defence Minister Manohar
  Parrikar, who inaugurated the network at South Block, emphasised on the need to
  keep the network completely secure all the time.

• India has signed an over Rs 262
  crore deal with Germany’s ThyssenkKrupp Marine Systems to retrofit anti-ship
  American Harpoon missiles on two Shishumar Class submarines.
• The retrofitting of the new
  weapon suite will be carried out on INS Shankush and INS Shalki at Naval
  Dockyard, Mumbai and is backed by a training package to support and operate the
  system.
• The company, which is also eyeing
  the over Rs 60,000 crore P75 (I) project under which six conventional
  submarines are to be built in India, said it has successfully carried out such
  integration on similar boats for other navies across the world.
• Emphasising on the company’s
  commitment towards India, Sodhi said ThyssenKrupp is also ready to integrate
  any weapon system, including ‘Brahmos’ on to the latest 214 Class Submarines
  for the upcoming project P75 (I) project.

• The last ship in the series of
  four Water Jet Fast Attack Crafts (WJFAC) being built by the Garden Reach
  Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) for the Indian Navy was launched here on
  Thursday.
• Christened INS Tarasa, after an
  island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, the ship was launched by Aruna
  Korde, wife of Vice Admiral Jaywant Korde, the navy’s Controller of Logistics.
• An improved variant of the Car
  Nicobar-class high-speed offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), INS Tarasa will be
  fitted out at the GRSE’s Raja Bagan Dockyard and handed over to the navy after
  sea trials.
• With a 315 tonne displacement,
  the ship is designed for a maximum speed of 35 knots, with an endurance of
  nearly 2,000 nautical miles at 12-14 knots.

• India on 30 June 2016
  successfully test-fired a medium range surface-to-air missile (MR-SAM) from a
  mobile launcher in the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off the Odisha
  coast.
• The MR-SAM was co-developed by
  the Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL) of DRDO in partnership with
  Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

• Apart from the missile, the
  system includes a Multi Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MF
  STAR) for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile.
• The missile, along with MF—STAR,
  will provide the users with the capability to neutralise any aerial threats.
• The missile will be produced at
  the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in Hyderabad.
• Along with the long range
  surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM), it would be inducted in all the three Services
  once the user’s trials are completed.

• India Post in June 2016 opened up
  the ongoing scheme of customized printing of ‘My Stamp’ for individuals and
  corporate also. Under the scheme an individual or a corporate entity can get
  their photo or logo printed inside the postage stamp at a price of 12 lakh
  rupees.
• As per reports, this time there
  will be 5000 sheets comprising 60000 postage stamps. These stamps can be used
  for general postal mail.
• The plan to go ahead with the
  scheme of ‘My Stamp’ was reached on specific demands of several like Western
  Union, SNDT Women’s University, Allahabad High Court and others.
• Earlier, India Post only allowed
  printing of photo or design next to postage stamp on a 300 rupees ‘My Stamp’
  sheet.
• So far the department has issued
  customised My Stamp for e-commerce platform Amazon India, Hindustan Aeronautics
  Limited.
• My Stamp has helped India Post to
  receive two crore rupees in fiscal 2016-17. Total revenue from My Stamp fiscal
  in 2015-16 was of 2.83 crore rupees.

• It is the brand name for
  personalized sheets of Postage Stamps of India Post.
• The personalization is achieved
  by printing a thumb nail photograph of the customer images and logos alongside
  the selected Commemorative Postage Stamp.
• It was first introduced in India
  during the World Philatelic Exhibition, ‘INDIPEX-2011’.
• The scheme is available in
  selected Philatelic Bureaux and counters /Important Post offices/Post Offices
  situated at tourist places.

• The Union Cabinet on 29 June 2016
  approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Union
  Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC),
  Bhutan.
• The MoU will strengthen the
  existing relationship between RCSC and UPSC. It will facilitate sharing of
  experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.
• The draft MoU between UPSC and
  RCSC, Bhutan will be signed to develop institutionalized linkage between the
  Public Service Commission of both the countries, which share the common ideals.
• The MoU covers the areas of
  cooperation that include
• Sharing of experience and
  expertise in Civil Service matters such as recruitment and selection, exchange
  of resource persons and development of professional skills of the officers and
  staff of the parties through attachment and training programs
• Sharing of expertise on use of
  Information Technology (IT) in examination processes, Computer Based
  Recruitment Tests and Examinations, sharing of experience in Single Window
  System for expeditious scrutiny and speedy disposal of cases, building merit
  based staffing system, etc.

• Goa government has appointed
  Saresh Lotlikar as the new Advocate General of the state.
• Governor Mridula Sinha had
  granted her assent to the appointment.
• In a notification issued by Under
  secretary (Law) Manuel Barreto, Lotlikar was yesterday appointed as the new
  Advocate General.
• The post was lying vacant after
  the resignation of Atmaram Nadkarni nearly a month back.
• The name of new AG was cleared by
  the state Cabinet earlier this month and was sent to Governor for finalisation.
• Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar
  had told reporters last week that Nadkarni will continue to represent Goa in
  sensitive matters such as mining before the Supreme court, and Mhadei river
  water dispute with Karnataka and other important cases before the National
  Green Tribunal.

• The Ministry of Human Resource
  Development (MHRD) has appointed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
  Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar as a member of the University Grants
  Commission.
• Kumar was a professor of
  Electrical Engineering at IIT-Delhi before he took over as the VC of JNU, after
  former VC S K Sopory’s term ended on January 27 this year.
• He is also a member of the
  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

• The Argentina women’s team on 27
  June 2016 won the 2016 Champions Trophy Hockey title. To win the title,
  Argentina defeated the reigning World and Olympic champions the Netherlands
  2-1.
• The final match was held at the
  Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London, the UK.
• For Argentina, it was the 3rd
  consecutive title and the 7th title overall.
• In the championship, while the
  Argentina captain Carla Rebecchi stood as the top scorer with 7 goals,
  Netherlands’ shot—stopper Joyce Sombroek was named as best goalkeeper.

• The 10th National Statistics Day
  was celebrated on 29 June 2016 across the country with the theme Agriculture
  and Farmers’ Welfare.
• The main function for the
  celebration was organised by the Ministry of Statistics Programme
  Implementation at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
• The National Statistics Day is
  celebrated annually on the occasion of birth anniversary of Late Prof PC
  Mahalanobis, India’s eminent statistician.
• Its objective is to create public
  awareness among people, especially the younger generation about the importance
  of statistics in daily life as well as in the process of planning and
  development.
• The 2015 National Statistics Day
  was celebrated with the theme social development.
• World Statistics Day is
  celebrated on 20 October 2010 worldwide.

• The 2016 Shanghai Cooperation
  Organization (SCO) summit concluded on 24 June 2016 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
• The 2-day meeting was conducted
  under the presidency of Uzbekistan.
• India and Pakistan signed the
  Memorandum of Obligations on 24 June 2016.
• The signing of Memorandum of
  Obligations by India and Pakistan started the formal process of joining the SCO
  as a full member. They are expected to become full members by the next meeting
  at Astana in 2017.

• China on 29 June 2016 launched
  its second Shijian-16 series satellite. The satellite was carried by a Long
  March-4B rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
• The Shijian-16 satellite will be
  used for space environment measurements, radiation and its effect as well as
  technology testing.
• The first Shijian-16 satellite
  was launched in October 2013.
• This launch was the 231st flight
  by a Long March rocket.

• Bud Spencer, Italian actor and
  filmmaker, passed away on 27 June 2016 in Italy following brief illness. He was
  86.
• Spencer was known among his fans
  as the big friendly giant of the screen because of his height and weight.

Regards

Team ExamPundit