Current Affairs Update – 1st June, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 1st June, 2016. These are important for the upcoming UIIC AO 2016, SBI Clerk & SBI PO Mains 2016 Exams.

• The government on Wednesday
  cleared a proposal to set up the India Post payments bank with a corpus of
  Rs.800 crore and has plans to have 650 branches operational by September 2017,
  telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
• “The Cabinet has cleared proposal
  of postal payments bank. We have 1.54 lakh post offices of which 1.39 lakh are
  rural post offices. 650 branches of postal payments bank will be established in
  the country which will be linked to rural post offices,” Prasad said.
• The minister said the payments
  bank, which will be run by a chief executive officer, will be professionally
  managed and there will be a representation from various other government
  departments including the Department of Posts, Department of Expenditure,
  Department of Economic Services etc.
• “Total architecture of postal
  payments bank is of Rs 800 crore which will have Rs 400 crore equity and Rs 400
  crore grant. By September 2017, all 650 branches of postal payments bank will
  become operational. This we had planned for three years but now we will be doing
  it in a year,” Prasad said.
• He said that all rural post
  offices will be given handheld devices by March 2017.

• The union cabinet chaired by
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved an investment of Rs 3,770
  crore for development of the first phase of the Chennai Metro Rail project.
• The 9.051 km corridor between
  Washermanpet and Wimconagar will be executed by Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL),
  the existing special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the centre and the state government
  with equal share of equity.
• The centre will have a share of
  Rs 713 crore in the total project cost while the state government’s share would
  stand at Rs 916 crore.The state’s share includes Rs 203 crore as cost of land
  acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R).
• The balance amount of Rs 2,141
  crore for the project would be sourced as loan from domestic or multi-lateral
  funding agencies. The project is estimated to have a ridership of 160,000
  passengers per day in the first year of operation.

• The Central Statistical Office
  (CSO) on 31 May 2016 released the provisional estimates of national GDP for
  2015-16. It pegged GDP growth at 7.9 percent in Quarter 4 of 2015-16 and 7.6
  percent in the whole of 2015-16.
• India continued to remain a
  bright spot in world economy with robust macro-economic and fiscal parameters.

• Fiscal Deficit: It stands at 3.9
  percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015-16 as estimated both in Budget
  Expenditure (BE) and Revenue Expenditure (RE) of 2015-16. This is a significant
  improvement over the Fiscal Deficit of 4.1 percent in 2014-15 and 4.7 percent
  in 2013-14.
• Revenue Deficit: It also showed a
  significant improvement due to increase in Capital Expenditure of the Central
  Government. Revenue Deficit which stood at 3.2 percent of GDP in 2013-14 has
  improved to 2.9 percent in 2014-15 and 2.5 percent in 2015-16.
• Plan Expenditure: It is 471081
  crore rupees in 2015-16 which is 8437 crore rupees higher over 2014-15 despite
  substantial increase in share of tax devolution to the States.
• Gross tax collection: It showed
  17 percent growth as compared to Fiscal 2014-15 and also showed an improvement
  up to 10.74 percent of GDP (tax-GDP ratio) in 2015-16 as compared to 10.06
  percent in 2013-14.
• Non Tax Receipts: These also
  showed improvement with 250744 crore in 2015-16 when compared to 197766 crore
  in 2014-15 and 198865 crore in 2013-14.

• The Government of India and the
  World Bank on 31 May 2016 signed a 9.2 million US dollar grant agreement under
  the World Bank-Global Environment Facility (GEF) Programme for the Efficient
  and Sustainable City Bus Service Project.
• The project aims at improving the
  efficiency and attractiveness of bus services in select Indian cities.
• The project will complement the
  Government of India’s Bus Funding Scheme launched to promote public transport
  by supporting cities to modernize their bus services.
• Demonstration cities where the
  various initiatives for improving city bus services will be undertaken are Mira
  Bhayandar in Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Bhopal.

• The project will demonstrate low
  cost high impact initiatives in efficient bus operations.
• It will focus on modernizing city
  bus services through modern depots for improving the maintenance of buses.
• It will introduce modern
  Intelligent Transport Systems and Management Information Systems for better
  planning and management of operations.

• India and Morocco on 31 May 2016
  launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IMCCI) in Rabat,
  Morocco.
• The chamber was jointly launched
  by visiting Vice President Hamid Ansari and Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah
  Benkirane.
• The IMCCI was launched to
  accelerate the pace of economic development between the two nations.
• Morocco has recently emerged as a
  favoured destination for investments by Indian firms that Indian companies have
  cumulatively invested more than 320 million US dollars in Morocco, including in
  the flagship project, the Indo-Maroc Phosphore SA joint venture.

• The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government
  on 31 May 2016 approved the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Varanasi Metro
  rail project. The DPR will now be sent to the Union government for approval.
• The responsibility of
  coordination for preparation of DPR for Metros in Kanpur, Varanasi, Meerut and
  Agra was assigned to Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) by state government.

• According to the DPR, the 29.23
  km Metro will have two corridors that include from BHEL to Banaras Hindu
  University (19.35 km) and Benia Bagh to Sarnath (9.885 km).
• There will be 26 stations, 20
  underground and six elevated in the two corridors.
• Out of the total length, 23.467
  km will be elevated, while 5.768 km will be underground.
• The estimated cost of the project
  is 13133 crore rupees.

• The Direct Tax Dispute Resolution
  Scheme 2016 came into effect on 1 June 2016. The scheme was incorporated as
  Chapter X of the Finance Act, 2016.
• The declarations under this
  Scheme may be made on or before the 31 December 2016 in respect of tax arrears
  & specified tax.

• Declarant to file declaration to
  the designated authority not below the rank of Commissioner in Form-1 to the
  designated authority and verified in the manner specified therein.
• The designated authority shall
  within 60 days from the date of receipt of declaration, determine the amount
  payable by the declarant.
• The declarant shall pay the sum
  within 30 days of passing such order and furnish a proof of the sum.
• Any amount paid in pursuance of
  declaration shall not be refundable.

1. Cases where prosecution has been
   initiated before 29.02.2016.
2. Search or survey cases where the
   declaration is in respect of tax arrears
3. Cases relating to undisclosed
   foreign income and assets

• Union Government approved the
  proposal of extending age of superannuation of all doctors of Central Health
  Services to 65 years with effect from 31 May 2016.
• The proposal was made by the
  Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to strengthen the healthcare sector in
  the country.

• It will help in providing
  additional doctors in the health pool of the country.
• This will enable the government
  to retain experienced doctors for a longer period and to provide better
  services in its public health facilities.
• The decision is likely to benefit
  about 4000 doctors. As of now, the retirement age of doctors in government
  hospitals 62yeas in some others and is 60 years in others.

• Bengaluru, India’s technology hub
  is witnessing a larger inflow of qualified professionals than it is losing
  talent to other cities in the country, according to social network firm
  Linkedin that compiled data based on changes users made on their profiles on
  its platform.
• Nearly a third of its 2.3 million
  users in the IT capital of the country were working in the technology sector,
  while financial services, manufacturing and engineering, and hospitals and
  health care were also big employers of LinkedIn users in the city.
• The biggest inflow of
  professionals into Bengaluru came from Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune,
  cities which have a presence in technology, financial services and engineering.
• While the largest recruiters on
  the platform continued to be large IT services companies, e-commerce giant
  Flipkart made it to the list for top ten recruiters in the country.
• With Bengaluru becoming a
  preferred destination for professionals, the city’s infrastructure has come
  under tremendous strain. Bengaluru, with a population of 10 million has over
  six million vehicles on roads, according to March 2016 data by the Karnataka
  transport department.

• To make the country
  disaster-resilient and reduce loss of lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
  Wednesday released a National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP).
• “This is the first ever national
  plan prepared in the country,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s
  Office.
• The plan is based on four
  priority themes outlined by the United Nation’s ‘Sendai Framework,’ —
  understanding disaster risk, improving disaster risk governance, investing in
  disaster risk reduction (through structural and non-structural measures) and
  disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath
  of a disaster.
• The Framework was adopted by
  member-states on March 18, 2015, at the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk
  Reduction in Sendai, Japan.
• The plan, designed to be scalable
  at all levels, will cover disaster prevention, mitigation, response and
  recovery. It provides for horizontal and vertical integration among all the
  agencies and departments of the government, the statement read.

• The Indian Cricket Board’s first
  ever CEO Rahul Johri, who was appointed on the recommendation of the Justice
  Lodha Committee, today took charge of the position in the BCCI headquarters
  here.
• Welcoming Johri on board, BCCI
  extended its warm wishes to the new Chief Executive Officer. “BCCI extends a
  warm welcome to CEO Mr. Rahul Johri who takes charge from today,” BCCI wrote on
  its twitter handle.
• Johri will be based at the Mumbai
  office, a statement from the Board had earlier stated.
• Before joining BCCI, Johri last
  served as Discovery Networks Asia Pacific’s Executive Vice-President and General
  Manager for South Asia.

• An IPS officer, Sudeep Lakhtakia
  (1984), currently serving as Additional Director-General (Law & Order) in
  Telangana, has been appointed Additional Director-General in the Central
  Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
• Orders from the competent
  authority said the appointment was from the date of his joining the post, upto
  July 31, 2019 (i.e., date of his retirement on superannuation) or till further
  orders, whichever event took place earlier.
• Among other positions that Mr.
  Lakhtakia occupied in his long career were Superrintendent of Police, Warangal,
  Deputy Commissioners of Police (Traffic) and in Hyderabad-West Zone,
  Commissioner –Vijayawada and Deputy Inspector General-Security.
• He was Inspector-General in the
  elite Special Protection Group for about eight years before he moved back to
  his home cadre as ADG-L & O.

• The President Pranab Mukherjee on
  31 May 2016 appointed Bhim Sain Bassi, IPS (Retd) as a member of Union Public
  Service Commission (UPSC).
• He will hold the constitutional
  post till February 2021, from the day when he enters the office.

• CEAT Cricket Awards 2016 were
  conferred on the players in a function of 20th edition of CEAT awards at Mumbai
  on 30 May 2016. Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar was conferred with the
  Lifetime Achievement Award.
• England batsman Joe Root was
  named as the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year and also International
  batsman of the Year 2016 while India’s test captain Virat Kohli was named CEAT
  T20 Player of the Year.

1. Lifetime Achievement Award –
   Dilip Vengsarkar
2. International Cricketer of the
   Year – Joe Root
3. International Batsman of the Year
   – Joe Root
4. International Bowler of the Year
   – Ravichandran Ashwin
5. Test Cricketer of the Year – Kane
   Williamson
6. ODI Cricketer of the Year –
   Martin Guptill
7. T20 Player of the Year – Virat
   Kohli
8. Indian Cricketer of the Year –
   Rohit Sharma

• Indian boxer Sonia Lather on 27
  May 2016 won the silver medal at the AIBA Women’s World Championships in
  Astana.
• Though she reached the finals in
  the 57kg category, she was defeated by the gold medalist Mesiano Alessia of
  Italy 2-1.
• India’s last gold at the
  bi-annual event came in 2010 when MC Mary Kom finished on top in the 48kg
  category to clinch her fifth world title.

• The world’s longest tunnel
  officially opened on Wednesday, with the trailblazing rail passage under the
  Swiss Alps aiming to ease transit through the heart of Europe.
• With political unity on the
  continent shaken by a massive influx of migrants and the looming threat of
  Britain’s European Union (EU) departure, Swiss President Johan Schneider-Amman
  said the tunnel would “join the people and the economies” of Europe. He spoke
  before the 57-kilometre Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) made its ceremonial first
  run with European leaders on board.
• The number of daily rail
  passengers is expected to increase from the current rate of 9,000 people to
  15,000 by 2020, according to the Swiss federal railway service.
• The rough design for a rail
  tunnel under the Gotthard Pass was first sketched by Swiss engineer Carl Eduard
  Gruner in 1947. But bureaucratic delays, concerns over the cost and other
  hurdles pushed back the start of construction until 1999.
• With its official opening, the
  Gotthard Base Tunnel has surpassed Japan’s 53.9-kilometre Seikan tunnel as the
  world’s longest train tunnel.

• The Global Day of Parents was
  observed globally on 1 June 2016. The Global Day provides an opportunity to
  appreciate all parents in all parts of the world for their selfless commitment
  to children and their lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship.
• The Day was proclaimed by the UN
  General Assembly in 2012 and honours parents throughout the world.
• In its resolution, the General
  Assembly also noted that the family has the primary responsibility for the
  nurturing and protection of children. It calls for a harmonious development of
  their personality.

Regards

Team ExamPundit