Current Affairs Update – 20th June, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 20th June, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming SBI PO 2015 Mains Exam and also RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• The Union Government on 19 June 2015 released the Draft Outline of Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme. The government invited comments till 2 July 2015 on it.
• The scheme is aimed at reducing the demand for physical gold and to shift part of the estimated 300 tons of physical bars and coins purchased every year for investment into demat gold bonds.

• Bonds will be issued on payment of money and would be linked to the price of gold.
• The sell would be restricted to resident Indian entities and each entity cannot buy more than 500 grams per person per year.
• The bonds will be issued in denominations of 2, 5 and 10 grams of gold or other denominations.
• The bonds will be issued with a nominal rate of interest (which will be linked to international rate for gold borrowing).
• The rate of interest on the bonds will be payable in terms of grams of gold. The interest will be calculated on 10000 at a certain per cent say 2 or 3 percent.
• On maturity, the investor receives the equivalent of the face value of gold in rupee terms.
• Bonds will be issued on behalf of the Government of India by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• The bond will be marketed through post offices and by various brokers/agents who may need to be paid a commission (like for Kisan Vikas Patra).

• Union Ministry of Finance on 5 June 2015 constituted a Task Force on Financial Redress Agency (FRA). The 10-member task force will be headed by Dhirendra Swarup who served as the first chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in 2004.
• The Task Force was set up to begin the preparatory work for FRA that was recommended by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC). FRA would act as a unified redress agency for financial consumers across the country.

• India and Tanzania on 19 June 2015 signed six MoUs in the field of tourism, education and hydrography to deepen bilateral cooperation.
• The agreement was inked in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of Tanzania Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. President of Tanzania is on a five-day tour to India from 17 June to 21 June 2015.

1. MOU on establishing a collaborative program in official statistics: It was inked between the East Africa Statistical Training Center (EASTC) in Tanzania and the National Statistical System Training Academy (NSSTA) in India and will include capacity building for Staff of EASTC and other African Countries in Official Statistics.
2. MOU on cooperation in Agricultural Statistics, Computer Applications and Bio-informatics: It was inked between EASTC and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) for capacity building of Staff
3. MOU on Cooperation in the field of Tourism: To enhance bilateral cooperation in Tourism and hospitality sectors.
4. Loan agreement to operationalise the LoC: The agreement was signed between Exim Bank and Government of Tanzania on LOC for 268.35 million US dollar for extension of Lake Victoria pipeline project.
5. Agreement for appointing the former as PMC: The agreement was signed between WAPCOS (PSU under M/o Water) and Government of Tanzania for preparation of DPR for Lake Victoria pipeline project
6. MOU for Cooperation in the field of Hydrography & Protocol on exchange of Hydrographic Data: To promote development and cooperation in the field of Hydrography through conducting surveys, exchange of data, capacity building and infrastructure strengthening.

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on 12 June 2015 set up an Expert Group on Salt, Sugar and Fat in Indian Food Products. The 11-member Expert Group will be headed by Dr. D Prabhakaran, Director, Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries and Vice-President, Public Health Foundation of India.
• The Group will examine Foods with High in Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS), also called Junk Food, on the health of consumers, especially on school going children. The decision to set up the group was taken after the Delhi High Court asked the FSSAI to issue guidelines in this regard.
• The Expert Group will advise FSSAI on potential health risks to vulnerable groups from consumption of Foods products with HFSS.
• Further, it will also recommend FSSAI on prescription of regulations for display of fat, sugar and salt on food products sold and served in eating joints or catering facilities besides labelling requirements for packaged food.

• Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) celebrated the 350th foundation day of Shri Anandpur Sahib from 17 June to 19 June 2015 at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib located in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. The holy city was founded by the 9th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1665.
• Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib situated amid Shivalik hills on the bank of River Satluj is the birthplace of the Khalsa. It is the place that commemorates the miracle of 'celebrating the scum of humanity' and a wonder of the divine and transcendent guru-disciple matrix.
• Guru Teg Bahadar was father of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, who was the 10th Guru of Sikhs. Later, Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 created Khalsa Panth.
• Anandpur Sahib is the new name of Chak Nanki, the name designated by Guru Tegh Bahadur after he purchased land of Makhowal.

• The CB Richard Ellis Group (CBRE) Research on 18 June 2015 released the Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey. CBRE is an American commercial real estate company based in Seattle.
• The survey listed out top 50 expensive office market spaces by surveying 127 markets around the globe.
• In the survey, while London’s West End continued to be the world’s highest-priced office market, Connaught Place (CP) –Central Business District (CBD) in New Delhi was the fifth costliest office market in the world.
• The cost of office space represents office rents and occupancy costs that include rent, plus local taxes and service charges per square feet per year as of 31 March 2015.

• The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in collaboration with IMRB International on 17 June 2015 released the Social Media in India 2014 report.
• The report analysed the trends in using social media across the country between March 2014 and April 2015.

• There are 143 million social media users in India as on April 2015.
• For many people accessing the Internet for the first time, social media was the reason they embraced Internet.
• Usage of social media in rural India has grown by an impressive 100 percent to reach 25 million users during April 2014 and March 2015.
• Urban India registered a relatively lower growth of 35 percent with the total number of users at 118 million as on April 2015.
• The top 4 metros continue to account for almost half of the social media users in urban India.
• College going students and young men still form the 60 percent of the social media users in urban India.
• Facebook was leading social media website with 96 per cent of users in urban areas accessing it, followed by Google Plus (61 per cent), Twitter (43 per cent) and LinkedIn (24 per cent).

• Aiming to raise awareness about the plight of refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today held series of programmes across the country to mark the World Refugee Day.
• The theme for the celebrations this year was "With courage let us all combine", aiming to bring the public closer to the human side of the refugee stories by sharing stories of hope and resilience of displaced people, showing them as "ordinary humans living in extraordinary circumstances.
• Delhi marked the Refugee Day with an exhibition of renowned photographer Raghu Rai's photographs depicting refugees' daily struggle to restore their lives, organised at Rajiv Chowk metro station in collaboration with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
• A Youth Meet was also organised in Delhi earlier this week featuring wide range of activities of UNHCR, including film screening, food kiosks, painting exhibition, dance programmes and other traditional cultural activities.

• Historian-author Ramachandra Guha has been selected for Japan’s prestigious Fukuoka Prize in the Academic category.
• Guha's fellow winners this year are Thant Myint-U (Grand Prize) and Minh Hanh (Arts and Culture). Fukuoka Prize honours those who have made outstanding contributions to academia, arts and culture across Asia.
• The awards will be presented on September 17 at the Fukuoka International Congress Centre. On September 19, Guha will also give a lecture on "Gandhi, India and the World". Previous winners of Fukuoka Awards include Mohammad Yunus, Romila Thapar, Ashis Nandy and Mo Yan.

• China on 19 June 2015 launched the world’s first electric passenger aircraft named BX1E that could be used in pilot training, tourism, meteorology and rescue operations.
• The aircraft was designed together by Shenyang Aerospace University and Liaoning General Aviation Academy located in the northeastern Liaoning Province of China.
• The first two BX1E aircrafts were handed over to Liaoning Ruixiang General Aviation Co. Ltd. Each aircraft is priced at about 163000 US dollars. They will be used for training the pilots.

• India-born former Google executive Nikesh Arora has been appointed the president of Japan’s telecommunications giant SoftBank Corp that paid the “rising star” a whopping USD 135 million for the financial year 2014.
• Mr. Arora was appointed company president and chief operating officer at a general meeting of shareholders in Tokyo on Friday.
• In a management reshuffle in May, Mr. Arora — then investments head — was named as a potential successor to company chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.
• He was previously chief business officer of Google Inc., which he entered in 2004 as a telecom industry analyst before being recruited by Mr. Son.

• Nemanja Maksimovic scored an 118th-minute goal on the counterattack to give Serbia a 2-1 victory over Brazil in extra time in the Under-20 World Cup final at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday.
• The game had been locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes, with Stanisa Mandic giving Serbia hope of their first title as an independent nation with 20 minutes remaining but Andreas Pereira equalised three minutes later.
• Heavy rain and strong cold winds had pounded New Zealand for the past three days and while fans were soaked during the earlier match for third place, the rain had stopped by the time the sold-out final kicked off.
• In the earlier match for third place, Adama Traoré produced two sensational long-range strikes to help Mali beat 10-man Senegal 3-1, first equalising with a curling left-footed free-kick in the 74th minute, 10 minutes after Senegal’s Ibrahima Wadji had opened the scoring.

• Former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel died on 17 June 2015 following a heart failure and a respiratory tract infection. He was 90. Demirel was one of the dominant figures in Turkey's politics for over half a century.
• He served as the President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000, but before that he also held the post of Prime Minister of the country several times in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Demirel launched his political career in the aftermath of the 1960 military coup that deposed the Government of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. He came to power with a landslide win in 1965 as the Prime Minister of Turkey.

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