Daily GK Updates - 30th June, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Mumbai in top 20 most expensive cities in Asia for expatriates: Mumbai is India's most expensive city and included in the list of top 20 most expensive cities in Asia. The residential housing prices remain the highest in the world according to a recent survey done by the global consulting leader- Mercer.  As per Mercer's 25th Annual Cost of Living Survey, Mumbai dropped down to 12 spots. It ranked at the 67th position out of the total 209 cities that were surveyed. The other Indian cities included in the list are New Delhi at 118th place. Chennai is ranked 154th position. Bengaluru stands at 179th position. Kolkata obtained the 189th place.

2. Social welfare schemes awareness at Noksen village: The Government of India is implementing One Stop Centre (OSC) scheme for setting up One Stop Centre since 1st April 2015 to support women affected by violence. About the scheme: Popularly known as Sakhi,Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has formulated this Centrally Sponsored Scheme. It is a subscheme of Umbrella Scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana. Under the scheme, One Stop Centres are being established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces in a phased manner. The OSC will support all women including girls below 18 years of age affected by violence, irrespective of caste, class, religion, region, sexual orientation or marital status. The Scheme will be funded through the Nirbhaya Fund. The Central Government will provide 100% financial assistance to the State Government /UT Administrations under the Scheme.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Nirmala Sitharaman among 100 most influential women driving UK-India relationship: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is among the 100 most influential women driving the UK-India relationship forward alongside one of Britain’s senior-most Cabinet ministers Penny Mordaunt. The ‘100 Most Influential in UK-India Relations: Celebrating Women’ list was launched by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to mark India Day in the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday.

2. India welcomes ASEAN's outlook on Indo-Pacific: India welcomed the ASEAN’s outlook on the Indo-Pacific by saying that it sees important elements of convergence with its own perspective on the region. The ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has adopted the ‘ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’ after more than a year of negotiations in the recently concluded (20th to 23rd June 2019) ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Note: ASEAN was established in 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration); Secretariat: Jakarta; Membership: 10 countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

3. NASA to send 'Dragonfly' drone to Saturn moon Titan: US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that it will send a multi-rotor vehicle called 'Dragonfly' to Saturn moon Titan (Saturn's largest moon). Dragonfly will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. Dragonfly has eight rotors and flies like a large drone. This will be the first time NASA will fly a multi-rotor vehicle for science on another planet.  The mission will be launched in 2026 and arrive in 2034. Dragonfly took advantage of 13 years' worth of Cassini (a joint mission between Nasa, ESA and Italy that studied Saturn) data to choose a calm weather period to land, along with a safe initial landing site and scientifically interesting targets.

  

4. Indian scientist to be Co-I for NASA’s PUNCH mission: Dipankar Banerjee, an Indian solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics has been selected as a Co-Investigator of PUNCH mission by NASA. PUNCH stands for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere”. Mission Objective: It will image regions beyond the Sun’s outer corona. It will image and track the solar wind and also the coronal mass ejections – which are huge masses of plasma that get thrown out of the Sun’s atmosphere. The coronal mass ejections can affect and drive space weather events near the Earth. PUNCH will consist of a ‘constellation’ of four suitcase-sized microsats that will orbit the Earth in the formation and study how the corona, which is the atmosphere of the Sun, connects with the interplanetary medium. The mission is expected to be launched in 2022.

5. Social Media Day: 30 June: Social Media Day is observed annually on June 30th. Mashable launched Social Media Day as a way to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. Mashable is a digital media website founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005.

6. International Day of Parliamentarism: 30 June: International Day of Parliamentarism is observed on June 30. It is also the date, in 1889, on which the Inter-Parliamentary Union — the global organization of parliaments — was established. This Day celebrates parliaments and the ways in which parliamentary systems of government improve the day-to-day lives of people the world over. It is also an opportunity for parliaments to take stock, identify challenges, and ways to address them effectively

7. International Asteroid Day: 30 June: International Asteroid Day on 30th June is an annual global event which is held on the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event. The Siberian Tunguska event that took place on June 30, 1908, the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history. Tunguska event is believed to have been caused by an incoming asteroid (or comet), which never actually struck Earth but instead exploded in the atmosphere, causing what is known as an air burst, three to six miles (5–10 Kms) above Earth’s surface.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. Indian Crypto Exchange Koinex Shuts down its operation: India's Largest cryptocurrency exchange, Koinex terminating its digital asset trading set-vices and other crypto-related operations citing regulatory uncertainty and disruption. It was facing problems with its payment services and gateways, along with non-crypto related transactions like payment of salaries, rent, and purchase of equipment.  It started its digital assets exchange services in August 2017. It executed over 20 million orders in trading volume on its platform so far. The country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), barred banks from serving companies dealing in cryptocurrency exchanges.

Note: Koinex Founders:Rahul Raj, Rakesh Yadav, Aditya Naik

2. Sarada Kumar Hota took over as NHB MD: Government of India, Canara Bank General Manager (GM) Sarada Kumar Hota assumed charge as the National Housing Bank (NHB) Managing Director. It lasted for a period of three years. He succeeds Sriram Kalyanaraman. Earlier he served as the managing director of Can Fin Homes, a subsidiary of Canara Bank. NHB is now 100% owned by the government.

Note: NHB Founded: 9 July 1988; Headquarters: New Delhi

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. NALCO to get President’s award for excellent CSR in social development: Odisha-based Navaratna Company NALCO has been selected for President's award for utilization of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund in social development. In 2015, NALCO started "Aliali Jhia", a new scheme on the line of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao to promote the education of Girls of BPL families. Under this scheme, 416 girls from BPL families of 66 villages of Anugul, Damanjodi and Potangi area in Anugul and Koraput districts have been adopted by Company. These girls are reading in 45 different schools. NALCO is bearing all the expenditure for education and promotion of talent from 8th to 10th class