Current Affairs Update – 18th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 18th June, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains 2015 and RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• Country’s second-largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank on Thursday launched a 10-second paperless instant loan plan for its existing customers.
• HDFC Bank will now disburse personal loans to its customers in just 10 seconds. With this product, existing customers will have a pre-approved loan amount available to them 24x7.
• The entire process of availing the loan is completely paperless, and users can simply log into their bank account via net-banking or mobile banking and avail of this loan at a click, it added.
• The loan is completely hassle-free and transparent. Users will no longer have to wait for disbursement of funds, particularly in medical or other types of emergencies.

• The Union Cabinet on 17 June 2015 gave its approval for Housing for All by 2022 Mission aimed at providing housing facilities to all eligible people in urban areas by 2022.
• It will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and the States and Union Territories (UTs) are given greater autonomy in execution of the mission.
• A detailed PDF will be given soon.

• Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17 June 2015 approved the agreement between India and Spain on abolishing visa requirements for the holders of diplomatic passports.
• The Agreement will facilitate visa-free travel for holders of diplomatic passport of one country while entering into, transiting through, exiting from or staying for up to 90 days in the territory of the other country with additional safeguards.
• In order to prevent the misuse of this facility certain safeguards have also been proposed.
• Similar agreements on abolishing visa requirements for diplomatic passports holders have been signed by India with 40 countries.

• Senior IAS officer G Gurucharan was on 17 June 2015 given additional charge as Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for three months. He will hold the additional charge till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders.
• Gurucharan is a 1982-batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre. Presently, he is serving as an Additional Secretary in Department of Food and Public Distribution.
• The post of Director General has been lying vacant since MJ Joseph resigned and assumed the charge of Director of Controller General of Accounts on 15 May 2015. Joseph was appointed as DG of BIS on 6 January 2015.

• Journalist and writer Aakar Patel has joined Amnesty International India as its new Executive Director from today.
• Patel will head Amnesty International India's operations.
• As the organisation's chief political advisor, strategist and spokesperson, he will give direction to its goal of being an independent, effective and deep-rooted organisation in India, the London-based global rights body said in a statement.

• 10th Navlekhan Award of Bharatiya Jnanpith was awarded to Hindi writers Babusha Kohli and Upasana on 16 June 2015. They were awarded for poem Prem Gilhari Dil Akhrot and novel Ek Zindagi Ek Ek Script Bhar respectively.
• The awards ceremony held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi saw discussion on Contemporary Modern Poetry and Fiction Writing by writers Upasana & Jitendra Biseria and poetry recital by Babusha Kohli & Dilip Shakya.
• Navlekhan Award was instituted with an objective to award young authors writing in Hindi.

• Book titled Bikhare Khyalat written by Prof Abdul Haq was presented to the Vice-President M Hamid Ansari on 18 June 2015. The book is an Urdu translation of Mohammed Iqbal’s writing in English tilted Stray Reflections.
• The book contains old jottings based on Iqbal’s impressions of the books he was reading at that time, his thoughts and feelings about the environment in which he lived, and reminiscences of his student days.
• According to this book, Iqbal started writing it on 27 April 1910 but stopped writing after several months for some unknown reason.
• Prof Abdul Haq is the former head of the Department of Urdu at Delhi University.

• India may be considered a sporting minnow but in terms of doping by its athletes, it has been ranked third behind Russia and Turkey in a World Anti-Doping Agency Report for 2013 with as many as 91 from the country testing positive for banned substances in that year.
• According to the 2013 Anti-Doping Rule Violations Report released by the WADA on June 15, Russia has maximum number of dope offenders with 212 testing positive while the figures for Turkey and India were 155 and 91 respectively. Of the 91 Indians, 20 were women athletes.
• France came a close fourth with 90 dope cheats in the report compiled by the WADA based mainly on the information received from National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs). The comprehensive report, which dealt with testing of 207513 samples, covered 115 nationalities and 89 sports.
• If the four non-analytical Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) are taken into account, India has 95 ADRVs, fourth in the WADA list behind Russia (225), Turkey (188) and France (108). Russia had 13 non-analytical ADRVs, while the corresponding figures for Turkey and France were 33 and 18 respectively.

Current Affairs Portal, Current Affairs Archive Page will be updated after the Prelims. All the best.

Regards



Team ExamPundit

Sponsored
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams