GK & Current Affairs June 2016

Additional Solicitor General of India and former Parliamentarian SatyaPal Jain was on 10 June 2016 appointed as a part-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India.
•    The appointment will be in addition to his charge as an Additional Solicitor General of India.
•    He is a noted constitution lawyer and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
•    He has been the Dean of the Law Faculty of Punjab University and is a Member of the Punjab University Senate for the last 40 years.
•    The President constituted the 21st Law Commission of India on 1 September 2015 and will end on 31 August 2018.
•    Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan, retired Judge of the Supreme Court, is the Chairman of the Commission and Justice Ravi R Tripathi, retired judge of Gujarat High Court and Bimal N Patel Director, GNLU are the other nominated members of the Commission.
•    The Secretary Department of Legal Affairs & Secretary, Legislature Department of Ministry of Law & Justice of the Government of India are ex-officio members of the Commission.
•    It is an executive body established by an order of the Government of India in 1955.
•    It works for legal reforms and its members will be primarily legal experts, who are entrusted a mandate by the Union Government.
•    The Commission is established for a fixed tenure of three years and works as an advisory body to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
•    The First Law Commission was established in 1955 with the then Attorney-General of India MC Setalvad as its Chairman.

Sikkim became the first state in India to have an open government data portal linked ‘sikkim.data.gov.in’. 
•    The portal was launched by Lok Sabha MP, P D Rai and also launched Open Government Data Platform (Sikkim). 
•    The portal has been developed by Government of Sikkim’s Information Technology Department and NIC team from Delhi. 
•    The open government data portal facilitates free use, reuse and redistribution of data produced or commissioned by the government or government controlled entities by anyone.
•    Sikkim is a landlocked state of India, the last to give up its monarchy and fully integrate into India, in 1975. 
•    Located in the Himalayan Mountains, the state is bordered by Nepal to the west, China's Tibet Autonomous Region to the north and east, and Bhutan to the east. 
•    The Indian state of West Bengal lies to the south.

Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V Vaithilingam was on Friday unanimously elected as Speaker of the 14th Puducherry Assembly. 
•    As soon as the proceedings began, Protem Speaker V P Sivakolundhu announced that Vaithilingam has been elected unanimously as Speaker as he was the only candidate who had filed papers when the deadline ended on Friday afternoon.
•    66 year old Vaithilingam was escorted to the chair by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, his ministerial colleagues, DMK legislator R Siva and opposition AIADMK legislature wing leader A Anbalagan.
•    All eight legislators of the opposition AINRC, including former Chief Minister N Rangasamy, were conspicuous by their absence throughout the day’s sitting of the House. 
•    After assuming office Vaithilingam announced that Protem Speaker Sivakolundhu was elected unanimously as Deputy Speaker as his was the only nomination filed for the post.
•    V. Vaithilingam is an Indian politician who is the former Chief Minister of Puducherry.
•    He held that position from 1991 to 1996 and has been Chief Minister again from 2008-2011. 
•    Vaithilingam is credited with leading a stable and efficient government in Puducherry State through a complete five-year term during his prior period in office. 
•    He is a senior legislator serving six consecutive terms.

The legendary Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe was died on 10 June 2016 after a lengthy illness. He was 88.
He was nicknamed as Mr. Hockey and is considered to be one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time.
• He was born in 1928 in Floral, Saskatchewan.
• He played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA).
• He led the Detroit Red Wings to four Stanley Cup titles.
• He was the all-time leader in career goals and points.
• He retired in 1971 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1972.
• He was the inaugural recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
• He continues to hold NHL records for most games and seasons played.

A new U.S. spy satellite roared into orbit Saturday (June 11) atop the most powerful rocket currently in operation.
•    The National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) NROL-37 satellite launched Saturday at 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida riding a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket to space. 
•    The NRO is responsible for designing, building and operating the United States' fleet of spy satellites. 
•    As is the case with most NRO payloads, NROL-37's activities are classified; a brief description on ULA's website states that the mission is "in support of national defense." 
•    At launch, the Delta IV Heavy generates about 2.1 million lbs. (950,000 kilograms) of thrust, making it the most powerful rocket in use today. 
•    That's a lot, but far shy of the all-time record; NASA's Saturn V rocket, which blasted the Apollo astronauts toward the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, produced 7.5 million lbs. (3.4 million kg) of thrust at liftoff. 

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on 12 June 2016 won the women’s title of the Australian Open Super Series Badminton tournament. In the final match played at Sydney, Saina defeated Chinese Sun Yu 11-21, 21-14, 21-19.
•    With this win, she also pocketed a cheque of 56250 US dollars.
•    This was first title of year 2016 for 29-year-old Saina and second Australian Open title of her career. She won her first Australian Open title in 2014.
•    Besides, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) announced a reward of 10 lakh rupees for Saina Nehwal for winning the Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament.
•    On the other hand, Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus won the men’s Australian Open Badminton Super series titles. 
•    Vittinghus defeated South Korean Jeon Hyeok-Jin to win his first Super series title.

Opener Lokesh Rahul created history when he became the first Indian to score a hundred on One-Day International debut. 
•    Overall, he became the 11th player to achieve the feat on debut.
•    Karnataka batsman Rahul took 115 balls to reach the landmark as he steadily carried India beyond the finish line, chasing 169 for a win in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare. 
•    His knock was studded with seven fours and a mighty six that was also the winning runs for the visiting side.
•    India began their chase with two debutant openers in Rahul and Karun Nair. 
•    The visitors were jolted early as Nair threw away his wicket playing a rash shot in the fifth over.
•    Ambati Rayudu joined Rahul and the two slowly but steadily carried forward as the pair put on an unbeaten 162-run partnership to see India home. Rahul remained not out on 100 while Rayudu scored an unbeaten 62.

International Master Visakh NR of Tamil Nadu broke a nine-year jinx to lead an Indian sweep in the Ninth Mumbai Mayor International Open chess tournament at Mount Litera School International, BKC.
•    The 17-year-old drew his final round match with GM Diptayan Ghosh, and was tied for the top place on eight points with Ghosh and Chandigarh’s Gusain Himal.
•    The arbiters declared Visakh champion on a better tie-break as he drew with GM Diptayan Ghosh, the mutual decision coming after 16 moves. 
•    Visakh is the first Indian to win this prestigious event in its nine-year history.
•    The game between Visakh and Ghosh started with a Queen's Indian and turned into a Dutch Defence. 
•    On the 9th move Ghosh sacrificed a pawn on d5 for better play but both players did not take any risk and agreed for a draw in just 16 moves. 

NASA's satellites also function as an observatory for climate change and weather behavior on Earth. 
•    These satellites were proven to be helpful in the recent findings by NASA scientists in partnership with the Environment and Climate Change Canada, who discovered that there are 39 unreported sources of toxic air pollution on Earth.
•    The findings of the recent study were published in the journal of in Nature Geosciences. 
•    The 39 unreported sources were found guilty of emitting toxic sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of the six air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 
•    Agencies concerned with monitoring these air pollutants need to locate the sources first  in order to measure and moderate them. 
•    The recent study managed to identify the "hotspots" where unreported toxic air pollutants are coming from. 
•    Experts are now hoping that they can alleviate the toxic air pollutants emitted by the newly identified sources.
•    To help scientists identify the sources, a new satellite-based process was developed to allow the scientist to pinpoint the exact location of the man-made toxic emissions, which is vital in regulating them. 
•    The newly identifies man-made sources of toxic air pollutants accounts for 12 percent of the total man-made sulfur dioxide emissions according to a report by Engadget. 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and partners have launched Anaconda-16 Exercise, the biggest ever joint military exercise in Poland.The drill is part of NATO's exercise program and is being held just weeks before NATO's summit in Warsaw that is expected to decide that significant numbers of NATO troops and equipment will be based in Poland and in the Baltic states.
The exercise was launched at the crucial time when central and eastern European nations are seeking strong security guarantees amid concerns about Russia.
• The exercise is organized and coordinated by Poland's military Operational Command.
• It will involve some 31000 troops from Poland, the US and 17 other NATO member nations and from five partner nations.
• Some 12000 of the troops are from Poland, almost 14000 from the US and some 1000 from Britain.
• Anaconda-16 will run on test ranges across Poland and will be formally closed by officials at a ceremony in Warsaw on June 17. 
• It will train, exercise and integrate Polish command and troops with those of other allied nations in responding to military, chemical and cyber threats on land, sea and in the air.
• Involved will be some 3000 vehicles, 105 airplanes and helicopters, along with 12 Navy ships.
• It includes manoeuvres such as a night-time helicopter assault and the dropping of US paratroopers to build a temporary bridge over the Vistula river.
The Anaconda exercise was first initiated by Poland in 2006 and has gradually grown to include many other NATO members till date.