GK and Current Affairs Updates

Gurugram is all set to become home to the world’s largest camera museum this World Photography Day.
•    On August 19th, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon along with acclaimed photographer Aditya Arya, of the Vintage Camera Museum fame, will launch ‘The Museo Camera – Centre of Photography.’
•    The Museum will trace the art of photography through the evolution of cameras, various photography processes as well as photography paraphenlia. Pinhole cameras, the camera obscura, daguerreotypes, dry plates, the birth of film, polaroid and digicams will be on display in the Museum.
•    Close to 700 cameras, of different shapes, sizes and models, will be displayed. These are a part of the collection painstakingly curated by Arya.
•    Around 800 original patents of cameras from the 1800s will also be displayed at the Museum. These have been collected by Arya during his many travels.
•    The Museum will also be home to a collection of vintage camera ads.
•    The Museum will be spread across 15,000 square feet in Chakkarpur village of New Gurgaon.

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar was named a ‘Gymnaste de Classe Mondaile’ (World class gymnast) by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
•    In this regard, she received the official letter confirming the distinction from the federation on 6 July 2016.
•    With this, she also became the first-ever Indian gymnast to receive the honour.
•    She is an Indian artistic gymnast from Agartala, Tripura.
•    She rose to recognition when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.
•    She won a bronze at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished 5th at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
•    With this, she became the first Indian finalist at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
•    In April 2016, Karmakar became the first female Indian gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth by garnering a total score of 52.698 points.
•    She is the first woman in the gymnast history to land the Produnova, one of the most dangerous vaults.
•    She won 10 gold medals at two national games. She received the Arjuna Award in August 2015.

Juno spacecraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on 4 July 2016 successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit.
Confirmation of a successful orbit insertion was received from Juno tracking data monitored at the navigation facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Juno's main aim is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The spacecraft will also investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere and observe the planet's auroras.
•    Juno is a NASA New Frontiers mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 5 August 2011.
•    It is in a polar orbit to study Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere.
•    It will determine how much water is in Jupiter's atmosphere.
•    It will look deep into Jupiter's atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties.
•    It will map Jupiter's magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet's deep structure.
•    It will explore and study Jupiter's magnetosphere near the planet's poles, especially the auroras, i.e. Jupiter's northern and southern lights.
•    It is the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter after the Galileo probe which orbited from 1995–2003.
•    It is powered by solar arrays.
•    The spacecraft's name comes from Greco-Roman mythology.
•    The mission had previously been referred to as Jupiter Near-polar Orbiter in a list of NASA acronyms.
•    The spacecraft will orbit the giant planet 37 times in around 20 months.
•    Juno will dispose off in the form of a controlled deorbit into Jupiter in February 2018

Union Council of Ministers was reshuffled and expanded with inclusion of 19 new Ministers of State on 5 July 2016. The new inductees were administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides, Minister of State with independent charge, Prakash Javdekar was elevated to the Cabinet rank.
Of the inductees, three each are from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Rajasthan has got four berths in expansion while Maharashtra two. There is one Minister each from West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
Of the nineteen new ministers, 17 are from the BJP, one each from Apna Dal and RPI. There are two minority leaders - MJ Akbar and SS Ahluwalia and two women Anupriya Singh Patel and Krishna Raj.
•    Faggan Singh Kulaste – A prominent tribal leader and MP from Barbati in Madhya Pradesh.
•    Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia – He is MP from Darjeeling.
•    Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi - a Dalit leader and Lok Sabha MP (five times) from Bijapur, Karnataka. 
•    Vijay Goel – He is a BJP leader from Delhi and was elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
•    Ramdas Athawale – He is the chief of Republican Party of India.He is the lone Rajya Sabha member.
•    Rajen Gohain – He is a BJP MP from Assam.
•    Anil Madhav Dave – He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh and is an environmentalist. 
•    Parshottam Rupala – He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
•    MJ Akbar - Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.
•    Arjun Ram Meghwal – He is a Lok Sabha MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan.
•    Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor – He is a tribal leader and a Member of the Parliament from Dahod constituency in Gujarat.
•    Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey – He is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh. 
•    Ajay Tamta - He is a Lok Sabha member from the Almora constituency. 
•    Krishna Raj – She is a Dalit leader and a Lok Sabha member from UP's Shahjahanpur.
•    Mansukh Mandaviya – A native of Bhavnagar in Gujarat and  Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
•    Anupriya Singh Patel – She is a Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. 
•    C R Chaudhary – He is a BJP MP from Nagaur, Rajasthan.
•    P P Chaudhary - He Lok sabha MP from Pali, Rajasthan and belongs the OBC Seervi caste. 
•    Dr Subhash Bhamre – He is BJP Lok Sabha MP from Dhule, Maharashtra.
Five ministers were dropped from the Council of Ministers and they are Minister of State (MoS) for Chemicals and Fertilizers Nihal Chand Meghwal, MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, MoS Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat, MoS Tribal Affairs Manuskhbhai D Vasva and MoS Agriculture MK Kundariya.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the first week of July 2016 gave its approval to the New Horizons mission to investigate a mysterious object deep in the Kuiper Belt.
The mission will explore the mysterious object known as 2014 MU69.
It is expected that the New Horizons will reach 2014 MU69 on 31 December 2018 or 1 January 2019.
•    2014 MU69 is an ancient object considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system.
•    It was selected as New Horizons' target in August 2015.
•    After four course changes in October and November 2015, New Horizons is on course toward 2014 MU69.
•    2014 MU69 was initially called PT1 and 1110113Y by the New Horizons and Hubble teams respectively.
•    It was discovered on 26 June 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope during a preliminary survey to find a suitable Kuiper belt object for the New Horizons probe to flyby.
•    2014 MU69 is the first object to be targeted for a flyby that was discovered after the spacecraft was launched.
•    New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program.
•    It is engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern.
•    It was launched with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system. Its secondary mission is to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs).
•    New Horizons was launched on 19 January 2006 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
•    It was launched directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 kilometers per second.
•    On 14 July 2015, it flew 12500 km above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet.

Noted scientist Madhav Dhekane on 1 July 2016 assumed the office of Director at ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Department of Space, at Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Dhekane is the seventh director of IISU.
•    Madhav Dhekane obtained a B-Tech degree in electrical engineering and an M-tech degree in Systems and Control from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.
•    He had joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in 1983.
•    He holds wide experience and expertise in the launch vehicle control and guidance design, onboard software development and mission design, and analysis.
•    He had also held various significant positions in ISRO such as Deputy Director, Control, Guidance & Simulation Entity at VSSC, Chief Controller at VSSC and Associate Director (R&D) at VSSC.
•    The ISRO Inertial Systems Unit is a research and development unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
•    IISU is located in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
•    It specialises in inertial sensors and systems in satellite technology.
•    Its specialized fields include the fields of launch vehicle inertial systems, spacecraft inertial systems, inertial sensors evaluation and simulation, inertial system production and more.
•    The unit has the total capability to design, engineer, develop, qualify and deliver inertial systems for the entire Indian Space programme.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port on 1 July 2016 became the first port in India to implement logistics data tagging of containers.
The implementation of the logistics data bank tagging of containers will help importers/exporters track their goods in transit through logistics data bank service.
•    A Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) will be attached to each container. The containers will be tracked through RIFD readers installed at different locations.
•    This will provide the Visibility and Transparency of the EXIM Container Movement by covering the entire movement through rail or road till the Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and Container Freight Stations (CFSs).
•    The service will integrate the information available with various agencies across the supply chain to provide detailed real time information within a single window.
•    This will help in reducing the overall lead time of the container movement across the western corridor and lower the transaction costs incurred by shippers and consignees.
•    Jawaharlal Nehru Port is the largest container port in India.
•    It is located east of Mumbai in Maharashtra. It is situated on the Arabian Sea and is accessed via Thane Creek.
•    The port is also known as Nhava Sheva.
•    Its common name derives from the names of Nhava and Sheva villages that were situated there.
•    The port is also the terminal of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor proposed by Indian Railways.

India is going to host meet of the heads of anti-narcotics agencies of BRICS nations to discuss issues related to narco-terrorism and money laundering. 
•    This meet will be held ahead of the eighth annual Summit of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa nations scheduled in October 2016. 
•    The one-day meeting on July 8, 2016 will be hosted by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). 
•    The agenda of the high-level meeting is to take into consideration of illicit drug trafficking including diversion of precursors and chemicals, usage of new psychoactive substances. 
•    It will also take into consideration maritime drug trafficking, narco terrorism and drug money laundering. 
•    All BRICS member nations will discuss ways to enhance cooperation to effectively deal with these issues and keep an effective monitoring on illegal narcotics transport happening between these nations. 
•    They will also discuss various trends being observed in the last 5-6 years in these issues and may sign a joint accord at conclusion of the meet. 
•    India has taken over the BRICS Chairmanship for the year 2016 for the second time after 2012.
•    It will host the eighth annual Summit of the forum in Goa in October 2016.
•    BRICS bloc comprising the five countries account for 42% of the world’s population and a combined GDP of over USD 16 trillion. 

RBI today said it has appointed Sudarshan Sen as an Executive Director in place of N S Vishwanathan, who has been elevated as Deputy Governor at the central bank.

•    Sen has taken charge from today, RBI said in a release.
•    Sen will look after Department of Banking Regulation, Department of Co-operative Bank Regulation and Department of Non-Banking Regulation.
•    Sen is a career central banker and has a long association with bank supervision and regulation. Earlier, he was in charge of the Department of Banking Regulation.
•    He also served as the Regional Director of Ahmedabad office of the Reserve Bank of India.
•    Sen holds an MBA in International Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham, UK.
•    Sen holds an MBA degree in International Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. 
•    He has rich experience as the central banker and has a long association with the RBI in the field of supervision and regulation
•    Earlier, he had served as in charge of the Department of Banking Regulation. 
•    He also had served as the Regional Director of Ahmedabad office of the RBI.

American actor Noel Neill, the first actor to play the role Lois Lane on the Adventures of Superman television series died on 3 July 2016. She was 95.
Lois Lane is a fictional character who is an award-winning journalist and the primary love interest of Superman.
•    Noel Neill was born in Minneapolis on 25 November 1920.
•    In her teens, she was a popular photographic model.
•    In the mid-40s, she appeared in a leading role in one of Monogram Pictures melodramas.
•    She played the role in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman(1950) with Kirk Alyn playing Superman/Clark Kent.
•    Over the decades, she appeared in various productions of the Superman franchise.
•    She often played the parent or other relative of one of the main characters, including the 1978 Superman feature film, the 1980s TV series Superboy, the 1990s primetime drama Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and the 2006 film Superman Returns.