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.

Regards

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