GK & Current Affairs June 2016

The Indian mixed recurve team of Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das on 19 June 2016 won silver at the Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.
•    In the final clash at Konyaalti Beach Park, the Indian team lost to South Korea 1-5.
•    Indian team trailed 0-2 in the first set against the top-seed Korean pair of Choi Misun and Ku Bonchan and went down 1-5 in the final.
•    The Sixth seeded Indian duo reached final after beating second-seeded pair of Mauro Nespoli Guendalina Sartori 5-1 in straight sets in the semi-finals.
•    Earlier, the women's recurve team of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi also went down in the bronze medal clash to Italy 1-5.

The Union Cabinet has approved a bill seeking to amend the debt recovery laws with an overall objective of improving the ease of doing business.
•    Cabinet approves ex facto 'The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 2016.
•    The bill aims to improve ease of doing business, facilitate investment leading to higher economic growth and development, it added.
•    Introduced in Lok Sabha last month, the bill seeks to amend four legislations — Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, 2002, the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993, the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and the Depositories Act, 1996.
•    A parliamentary joint committee has invited views and suggestions from various stakeholders and public on the provisions of the bill by June 22.
•    Around 70,000 cases are pending in debt recovery tribunals (DRT) and the proposed amendments would facilitate expeditious disposal of recovery applications

India-Bangladesh transit facility under the revised Inland Water Transit and Trade Protocol became operational between Kolkata-Ashuganj-Tripura on 16 June 2016.

The transit facility was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka in June 2015 to boost trade and facilitate seamless movement of goods in the Bangladesh region.
The trans-shipment operations were launched at the Ashuganj port with a cargo vessel unloading the maiden consignment to be transported to Tripura through Bangladeshi territory.
The first ship from Kolkata carrying 1000 tonnes of steel and iron sheets reached Ashuganj river port in Bangladesh.
•    The facility that runs through Bangladesh territory cuts the Kolkata-Agartala via Siliguri’s ‘chicken neck’ distance from 1600 kilometers to 800 kilometers.
•    It will reduce the time of the journey from 30 days to 10 days.
•    It will reduce the transportation costs from 67 US dollars to 35 US dollars per tonne while transporting from mainland India to the north-eastern states.
•    India pays transit fees of 192.25 dollars per tonne as negotiated between India and Bangladesh.
•    Inland Water Transit & Trade Protocol
•    The revised Inland Water Transit & Trade Protocol under India-Bangladesh Bilateral Trade Agreement gives India and Bangladesh the right to each other’s territory for transiting goods to third countries.
•    The Kolkata-Ashuganj-Tripura transit route gives mainland India easier and cheaper access to the seven northeastern states.
•    Bangladesh can use Indian Territory to transit goods to Nepal and Bhutan while India can access Myanmar via Bangladesh.
•    The protocol facilitates trade and development not only between India and Bangladesh but in the entire sub-region facilitating trade and development in the sub-region.

The founder chairman of Bharti Enterprises Sunil Mittal was on 15 June 2016 elected as the chairman of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The voting for the election of chairman was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
•    With this, he became the 51st chairman of the ICC and the third Indian business leader to be elected as the chief of the ICC in its near 100-year history.
•    Mittal succeed Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of S&P Global, who becomes ICC's Honorary Chairman.
•    ICC also announced that John Denton, Partner and CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has been elected succeed Mittal as the organisation's First Vice-Chair.
•    The International Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business organisation with over 6.5 million members in over 130 countries.
•    It was founded in 1919 under the leadership of its first president Etienne Clementel, a former French minister of commerce. Clementel was also instrumental in creating the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 1923.
•    ICC was awarded the highest level consultative status with the United Nations (UN) in 1946,
•    ICC was instrumental in drawing up international treaty of war reparations in 1924 which was drawn up on the recommendations of Dawes Commission.

Indian-origin diplomat Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir was on 17 June 2016 nominated as the next American Ambassador to Malaysia by US President Barack Obama.
•    Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir served as the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2011 to 2015.  
•    She served as the US Consul General in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom from 2009 to 2011. 
•    She previously worked in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as the Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia from 2007 to 2009.
•    From 2001 to 2005, Lakhdhir was a Political Officer at the US Embassy in Beijing, China.  
•    From 1998 to 2000, Lakhdhir was Deputy Coordinator of the Taiwan Coordination Staff in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.  
•    Since joining the Foreign Service in 1991, Lakhdhir served as a Political Officer in Indonesia and as a Consular Officer in Saudi Arabia.  
•    She received a BA from Harvard College and an MS from the National War College.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Anjan Dutta passed away on 16 June 2016 following cardiac arrest at the AIIMS hospital, New Delhi. He was 64.
Dutta donned many hats in his eventful political career.
•    Born in 1952, Dutta started his political career at an early age.
•    He was handpicked by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to lead the state Youth Congress in 1988 and then his son Rahul Gandhi to lead Assam PCC in December 2014.
•    The three-time legislator from Amguri in Sivasagar district, Dutta had literally worked overtime during the tenure of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
•    Dutta was a leading light of the state unit and the Opposition when the Congress lost elections in 1985 and 1996. 
•    He was also the chairperson of the Northeast Youth Congress Coordination Committee. 
•    He was credited with reviving the declining Assam State Transport Corporation when he was Minister in the first Tarun Gogoi cabinet (2001-2006).
•    He was also a Minister in the Hiteswar Saikia-led Congress government in 1991.
•    He also had an interest in writing, which led him to start a monthly magazine Anubhuti and a daily newspaper Ajir Dainik Batori.

Baltimore’s National Aquarium on 15 June 2016 announced its plan to create an Oceanside dolphin sanctuary. This will be first of its kind sanctuary for the marine mammals in North America.
The aquarium will move its colony of eight Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to an outdoor facility with natural seawater by 2020. Of the eight bottlenose dolphins (six female and two male), only one has ever lived in the open ocean.
•    Decided venue for the dolphins will be a protected coastal habitat, where the animals will continue to live under human care.
•    The venue will lie in a tropical or subtropical location will also contain natural stimuli for the dolphins, such as fish and sea plants.
•    Bottlenose dolphins are the one of the most common species of marine mammals, with colors ranging from light gray to black.
•    They range in size from 6 feet (1.8 meters) to more than 12 feet (3.6 meters) in length, and adults can weigh up to 1,400 pounds (635 kg).
•    Of the eight bottlenose dolphins, only one dolphin, female named Nani, has ever lived in the open ocean as she was born in wild in 1972.
•    They have never felt the rain on their dorsal fins, neither they ever chased a mullet along a mangrove shore or teased a startled crab.
•    These dolphins will have to learn the acts of being ocean-dwelling dolphins with its sets of skills to fight against problems like pollution, noise, jellyfish and red tides.
•    They will have to learn to survive in the new habitat that will be much larger than their current habitat.
•    The new habitat will also have more fish and marine plants as compared to the present habitat.

Senior IAS officer Supriya Sahu was appointed as Director General of Doordarshan on 15 June 2016. She will be the full-time director general of the state-run broadcaster after two year as the post was lying vacant since July 2014.
•    The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved to appoint Sahu for the post.
•    She would replace Aparna Vaish who was acting head of Doordharsan. She was appointed after the board decided to appoint the senior-most additional director general (ADG) at Doordarshan.
•    Tripurari Sharan was the last full-time director general at Doordarshan who stepped down in July 2014.
•    She is a 1991 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.
•    At the time of the appointment, she is working in her cadre state Tamil Nadu.
•    She was the power behind the Say no to plastics campaign to protect the eco-system of the hill station, Ooty, during her tenure as District Collector of the Nilgiris district.
•    She has also worked as Joint Secretary for Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

The Rio 2016 organizing committee on 14 June 2016 revealed the official slogan, A New World, for the first Olympic and Paralympic Games in South America.
•    The slogan was unveiled by Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), at a special ceremony held at Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca, Brazil.
•    Besides, the organising committee also unveiled the designs for the 2488 gold, silver and bronze medals that ten thousand athletes will soon be competing for.
•    A new world will be the front and center message that will be transmitted around the world in the lead-up to and during the 2016 Games.
•    The slogan was chosen to show the desire of Rio 2016 for a better world.
•    The creation of a slogan is a tradition of each Olympic Games. Previous Olympic mottos included Welcome home for Athens in 2004, One world, one dream for Beijing in 2008, and Inspire a Generation for London in 2012.

The Union Cabinet on 15 June 2016 gave its approval for signing of a 15 years contract by the Ministry of Earth Sciences with the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
•    The contract seeks to undertake exploration and other developmental activities related to Polymetallic Sulphides in the allotted area of 10000 sq km.
•    Under the contract, exploration will be done in parts of Central and South - West Indian Ridges (SWIR), located in the Indian Ocean.
•    India's exclusive rights for exploration of Polymetallic Sulphides in the allotted area will be formalized.
•    It will enhance India's presence in the Indian Ocean where other players like China, Korea and Germany are active.
•    The exploration program will be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences with the participation from various national institutes and research laboratories and scientific establishments.
•    Deep seabed Poly-Metallic Sulphides (PMS) contain iron, copper, zinc, silver, gold, platinum in variable constitutions.
•    They are precipitates of hot fluids from upwelling hot magma from deep interior of the oceanic crust discharged through mineralized chimneys.
•    PMS in the Ocean Ridges have attracted worldwide attention for their long term commercial as well as strategic values.
•    It is an autonomous international organization that governs non-¬living resources of seabed lying in international waters.
•    It was set up under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
•    It primarily regulates deep seabed mining and gives special emphasis to ensuring that the marine environment is protected from any harmful effects which may arise during mining activities, including exploration.
•    It formulates regulations for prospecting and exploration for Polymetallic Nodules in order to ensure environmentally sustainable development of the precious resources.
•    Its headquarters is located in Kingston, Jamaica. Nii Allotey Odunton of Ghana is the Secretary-General of the authority.
•    It encourages marine scientific research in the international seabed area through its Endowment Fund. The fund supports the participation of qualified scientists and technical personnel from developing countries.