GK & Current Affairs June 2016

Bollywood actress Dia Mirza was on 6 June 2016 named as the ambassador for Swachh Saathi (student internship) programme. It is a youth-based programme of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Under this Programme, more than 2000 interns would be enrolled to coordinate around 10000 schools across India.
•    They will also ensure that all students in the schools take the pledge for Clean India.
•    She was a second runner up at Femina Miss India 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific 2000, where she won. She became the first Indian to win this title in 29 years.
•    She also won Miss Beautiful Smile, Miss Avon and Miss Close-Up Smile in Miss India.
•    Besides being Bollywood actress, she was well-known in media for her social work.
•    She won an IIFA 2012 Green Award for her contribution towards green environment.
•    She conducted many awareness campaigns on prevention of female foeticide, HIV awareness, the Cancer Patients Aid Association, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), ADAPT, Child Rights and You (CRY).
•    She supported the Naramada Bachao Andolan in Public.
•    She made her bollywood debut with Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein opposite R. Madhavan.
•    She is a member in the board of the Coca Cola foundation which works towards rural development in India.
•    She is the Eco Ambassador for Panasonic.

Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar on 3 June 2016 laid foundation stone of Jai Jawan Awas Yojna (JJAY) at Bahadurgarh, Haryana.
Jai Jawan Awas Yojna is an initiative to provide affordable housing to serving and retired JCOs and Other Ranks.
•    The project is being executed by Army Welfare Housing Organization.
•    It aims to provide low cost housing.
•    This housing project has been named in the memory of Late Major Rajiv Joon, recipient of Ashok Chakra and Shaurya Chakra. 
•    Major Joon had attained martyrdom fighting militants in Anantnag district of Jammu & Kashmir.
•    The residential project at Bahadurgarh will be pitched at a very low cost for the benefit of JCOs and Other Ranks.
•    The Chief Minister had granted dispensation in construction which permitted construction of about 500 dwelling units instead of 400 planned earlier.

The Delhi Government on 6 June 2016 announced implementation of its solar policy.
•    The policy aims at making the national capital a solar city with installation of 1 GW solar power capacity by 2020. 
•    This target is proposed to double it to 2 GW during further next five years.
•    The policy has been prepared by the Delhi Government in consultation with the Dialogue and Development Commission after extensive consultations with local and international experts.
•    Mandatory deployment of solar panels on the government or public institutions.
•    Virtual net metering to give access to the solar net metering facility to the consumers who do not have a suitable roof for installing a solar system.
•    Group net metering to encourage solar plants on rooftops of buildings that cannot consume all of the energy generated locally.
•    Generation based incentive for three years.
•    Amendment of the building bylaws for rooftop solar installations.

Congress Legislature Party leader V Narayanasamy was sworn-in as Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry on 6 June 2016. 
•    Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi administered his oath of office and secrecy along with five ministers at Gandhi Thidal in Beach Road.
•    Five Congress legislators who were also sworn-in as ministers are A Namassivayam, Shah Jahan, Malladi Krishna Rao, M Kandasamy and R Kamalakannan.
•    He represented Puducherry in Rajya Sabha for three terms.
•    He was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and served as Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs in UPA-I.
•    In UPA-II, he served as Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office.
•    Narayanasamy is not a member of the house hence he will need to face polls in 6 months.
•    Earlier on 19 May 2016, Congress - DMK alliance has 17 members in the 30 member Territorial Assembly. DMK which has 2 members in the Assembly will be supporting the Government from outside.
•    Of the four regions of the Union Territory, Mahe alone do not have representation in the Council of Ministers.

Odisha is first in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits - such as a pension, housing and food grains - usually allocated for only the most impoverished. 

•    Niten Chandra, principal secretary of Odisha's Department of Social Security , said the move to give the transgender community the same benefits as those living below the poverty line was aimed at improving their overall social and economic status. 
•    Most transgender people are in a very bad condition because of social exclusion.
•    There are no official figures, but activists say there are hundreds of thousands of transgender people in India. 
•    A lack of access to education and employment opportunities has meant many male-to-female transgender people - also known as "hijras" - end up forced into sex work or moving around in organized groups, begging or demanding money. 
•    India's Supreme Court in 2014 recognized transgender as a legal third gender and called on the government to ensure their equal treatment. 
•    The court recognized the community as a marginalized group and directed authorities to implement policies to improve their socio-economic status. 
•    Identity documents such as birth certificates, driving licenses and passports must now recognize the third gender, and a certain number of public sector jobs , seats in schools and colleges must be allocated to third-gender applicants.

Legendary Indian body builder and India’s first Mr Universe, Manohar Aich died on 5 June 2016. He was 104.
•    He was born in Comilla district, now in Bangladesh.
•    He was famously called Pocket Hercules as he was 4 feet 11 inch tall.
•    He won gold medals for three times in Asian Games.
•    He was the first Indian to win the Mr Universe title post-independence in 1952.
•    He started his career as a coconut vendor at Sealdah station.
•    Age never a bar for the veteran body builder who kept a stringent routine and even performed in his eighties.
•    He began his career as a stuntman performing with the legendary magician PC Sorkar.
•    He even tried his luck in politics he contested in the Lok Sabha elections of 1991 from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

India’s first Islamic bank will start its operations in Gujarat and the person leading the initiative is none other than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friend, Zafar Sareshwala.
•    Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank will soon launch its first branch in Gujarat. The state will also get 30 medical vans as part of IDB’s social sector initiatives.
•    IDB and its private sector arm, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), have already met with top officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), EXIM Bank and other nationalized banks. They are likely to start their India operations from Gujarat with a branch in Ahmedabad.
•    The plans will come to fruition after Modi’s trip in April to UAE, where India’s EXIM Bank had signed a memorandum of understanding with IDB for a $100 million line-of-credit to facilitate exports to IDB’s member countries.
•    IDB will provide 350 fully-equipped medical vans (mobile clinics) to India, 30 of which will be received for the tribal areas of Chhota Udepur, Narmada and Bharuch in Gujarat, in the first phase.
•    The IDB is likely to get involved in taking care of the maintenance of Gujarat’s Waqf properties.
•    Sareshwala is currently visiting Saudi Arabia for this purpose.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on 5 June 2016 flagged off the inaugural run of the Tiger Trail Circuit Train from Delhi Safdarjung Station.
The launch of this Tiger Express on World Environment Day is to highlight the significance of environment.
•    The most important objective of the train is to create and spread awareness about the wildlife in general and the tiger in particular.
•    This tourist train will be operated by Indian Railway PSU namely Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
•    It is one of the most innovative tourism products ever launched by Indian Railways.
•    This is for the first time that Indian Railways have forayed into the exciting and fascinating wildlife tourism.
•    This is also the first semi-luxury train on a tourist circuit having a dining car. The objective behind it is to facilitate frequent interactions among travelers during the travel.
•    The train with 5 days/6 nights itinerary will start from Delhi Sufdarjung railway station.
•    The semi-luxury train will take the guests onboard to the world famous Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Parks in Madhya Pradesh.
•    The 5 days/6 nights itinerary of the Tiger Express includes three Tiger Safaris.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on 5 June 2016 launched Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act. The act seeks disposal of peoples' complaints or redressal of grievances from Government officials within 60-days.
•    The law has strict provisions in non-compliance of applications.
•    Officials not adhering to provisions of the law could be dismissed from service or face a penalty of from 500 rupees to 5000 rupees.
•    All the 42 Departments of the State government will be covered under the new Act.
•    The Government has one Grievance Redressal Officer in each department as well as first and second Appellate authorities.
•    In cases where the grievance cannot be redressed, then the complainant will get a letter citing reasons for not getting the grievance redressed. In that case, the complainant can file an appeal if he/she is not satisfied with the answer.
•    Complaints relating to subjects covered under the Right to Information Act, Right of Public Service Act and cases pending in courts will not be entertained under Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act.

CR Sasikumar on 1 June 2016 took over as Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of Travancore (SBT).
The State Bank of Travancore is one of the associate banks of State Bank of India (SBI).
•    Sasikumar started his career as a probationary officer with SBI in 1978. Since then, he has held several key assignments.
•    Prior to the present posting in State Bank of Travancore, he worked as Deputy Managing Director, Inspection & Management Audit, at SBI Corporate Centre in Hyderabad.
•    About State Bank of Travancore - State Bank of Travancore is a subsidiary of the State Bank Group and also has private share-holders.
•    It is the premier bank of Kerala where it handles its majority of business.
•    Overall, SBT as of 31 March 2015 has a network of 1157 branches and 1602 ATMs, covering 18 states and three union territories.
•    The bank was established in 1945 as the Travancore Bank Ltd, at the initiative of C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, then Divan of Travancore.
•    Following violent resentment against the dictatorial rule of C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer, the bank no longer credits his role.
•    The Bank now credits the Maharaja of Travancore as the founder, though the Raja had little to do with the founding.
•    In 1960, it became a subsidiary of State Bank of India under the SBI Subsidiary Banks Act, 1959, enacted by the Parliament of India.