Daily GK Updates - 7th June, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Delhi Metro Becomes India's 1st Project to Receive Power from Waste-To-Energy: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has become the first ever project in the country to receive power generated from a waste-to-energy plant. It has started receiving 2 MW power from a 12 MW capacity waste-to-energy plant set up in Ghazipur. The waste-to-energy plant set up by East Delhi Waste Processing Company Limited (EDWPCL) is based on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving the Delhi government and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), besides the EDWPCL.

2. Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel Takes Oath As New CJ Of Delhi High Court: Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Lt Governor Anil Baijal administered the oath of office to Justice Patel at a function held at Raj Niwas. Earlier, Justice Patel was posted at the Jharkhand High Court. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended his name for the appointment as Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

3. Azim Premji to Retire as Executive Chairman of Wipro in July: IT Industry icon Azim Premji will retire as Executive Chairman of Wipro with effect from 30th July 2019. He led the company for 53 years. He will continue to serve on the board as Non-Executive Director and founder Chairman. His son Rishad Premji, Chief Strategy Officer and a board member will take over as the Executive Chairman of the company. 

4. Traffic Index-2018: Mumbai ‘Most Congested’, Delhi Ranks 4^th: Mumbai ranked first in the study, ‘Traffic Index-2018’, compiled by location technology specialist TomTom, with a congestion level of 65%, while New Delhi ranked fourth with congestion of 58%. The study covered 403 cities in 56 countries and defined congestion as the extra time added to road travel when traffic doesn’t flow freely.

5. PM Modi approves reconstitution of NITI Aayog: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the reconstitution of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog). Mr Modi will be the Chairperson of the Aayog and Rajiv Kumar will be the Vice Chairman. An official release said V K Saraswat (former DRDO Chief), Ramesh Chand (Agriculture Expert) and Dr V K Paul (Public Health expert) will be the full-time members of the NITI Aayog. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will be the Ex-Officio Members. Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot, Rail Minister Piyush Goyal and Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Rao Inderjit Singh will be the special invitees of NITI Aayog.

Note: The ‘NITI Aayog’ established (in 2015) with the aim to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and to enhance cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.

6. Preparations underway for seventh Economic Census: Preparations for 7th Economic Census are underway In New Delhi. The Common Service Centres (CSCs) are being partnered in the census for the first time, providing quality training to the workforce of CSCs is the responsibility of the Ministry so that data collected by them is effective and of better quality. The Economic Census provides disaggregated information on various operational and structural variables of all establishments of the country. The Census also provides valuable insight into geographical spread and clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern, persons engaged in all economic establishments of the country. The output of the census will be released in January 2020.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Food Safety Day: 7 June: World Food Safety Day is observed every year on 7th June. The theme for World Food Safety Day 2019 is 'Food Safety, Everyone’s Business'. 

2. Nigeria's envoy to UN elected President of the 74th session of UNGA: Nigeria's Ambassador to the United Nations Tijjani Muhammad-Bande (61-year) has been elected as President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). He succeeds Ecuadorian María Fernanda Espinosa, whose term ends in September 2019. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande had been nominated by Nigeria and endorsed by the African group, at the election by acclamation. In accordance with the rules, the President of the 74th session of the General Assembly (193-member) should be elected from among the African States. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN).

Note: The President of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted for by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The President presides over the sessions of the General Assembly.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Starts in France: The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is the 8th edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship contested by the women's national teams between 7 June and 7 July 2019. The Championship will be held in nine cities across France. In March 2015, France won the right to host the event, the first time the country will host the tournament. 

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. CII Launches New Index to Measure Fiscal Performance: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched a Fiscal Performance Index (FPI) to assess state and central budgets. The Index incorporates qualitative assessments of revenue expenditure, capital expenditure, revenues, fiscal prudence and the level of public debt arrive at a more holistic picture of fiscal performance than the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio according to the CII.

DEFENCE

1. India-France to Hold Mega Air Exercise “Garuda VI” in July: The Air Forces of India and France will carry out a two-week-longmega air exercise “Garuda VI” beginning July 1, 2019, at an air base in France. “Garuda VI” will boost the military-to-military ties between the two countries. From the Indian side, a fleet of Sukhoi 30 fighter jets will engage in dogfights with France’s Rafale multirole aircraft in simulated scenarios as part of the exercise.

OBITUARIES

1. Six-Time Grammy-Winning Musician Dr John Passes Away: Six-time Grammy-winning musician Malcolm John Rebennack, better known as Dr John, passed away aged 77. The singer-songwriter suffered from a heart attack. He started his career as a pianist in the 1950s.

2. Sweden's former UEFA president Lennart Johansson passes away: Former President of UEFA ‘Lennart Johansson’ (89-years) passed away following a short illness. Lennart Johansson was president of European football body UEFA from 1990 to 2007. Johansson's long reign at the head of UEFA coincided with a transformation in the finances of football as the game became big business and saw a huge increase in TV revenue. In 1998, he was defeated by Sepp Blatter in his bid to become head of football's global federation FIFA.