GK and Current Affairs Updates

Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the Philippines' 16th president on 30 June 2016 inside the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila. He will have a six-year term.
Firebrand leader Duterte’s anti-crime programme includes plans to reintroduce the death penalty, issuing shoot-to-kill orders to the security services and offering them bounties for the bodies of drug dealers. He has also called on people to kill suspected criminals.
•    He was born in 1945 into a political family with a modest background.
•    He has served the southern city of Davao, as its mayor for 22 years.
•    He is also known as “Dirty Harry” and often compared to the US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
•    He captured the public imagination after promising to improve security by killing 100000 suspected criminals.
•    As the mayor of Davao he gained popularity across the archipelago, where crime rates dropped drastically under his leadership.
•    He has also served as vice-mayor and as congressman for the city.
•    He is a lawyer by profession is nicknamed as ‘Digong’, ‘The Punisher’.

Renowned painter and freedom fighter KG Subramanyan passed away on 29 June 2016 following a brief illness in Vadodra. He was 92.
•    Subramanyan was a versatile painter who blurred the lines between art and artisans by making his mark in pottery, design and terracotta art as well.
•    Born in 1924 in Kerala, he was a professor at various times at the Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University in Baroda and his alma mater, Kala Bhavan (Santiniketan) from where he finally retired in 1989. 
•    It was under the tutelege of Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij in Santiniketan between 1944 and 1948 that Subramanyan developed a penchant for art and social commentary through his works. 
•    Considered one of the pioneers of Modern Art, Subramanyan was also a freedom fighter and was imprisoned briefly during the Quit India Movement.
•    His paintings experimented with the idea of the Indian myth from which he borrowed a number of times. 
•    Subramanyan was also an art historian and his body of work forms a significant document of Indian art history. 
•    In 1955, he received a British Council Research Fellowship to the Slade School of Art at the University of London.
•    He was awarded with the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.

Four Indian-Americans have been honoured with prestigious Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award 2016. 
•    They are among 42 distinguished US personalities representing more than 30 countries of origin around the world  honoured with this year’s award. 
•    All of these personalities represent a wide range of personal immigration stories, and inspiring professional accomplishments. 
•    Four Indian-Americans are

Sunder Pichai: He is CEO of internet search engine giant Google. 
Hari Sreenivasan: He is broadcast journalist associated with the PBS NewsHour.

Vikram Malhotra: He is associated with McKinsey.

Bharati Mukherjee: He is award-winning author. She is professor emerita in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. About Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award The award is given by New York-based Carnegie Corporation on the occasion of Independence Day of United States i.e. 4th July. 
•    Carnegie Corporation’s founder Andrew Carnegie was one of pioneer American capitalist who had shaped the modern American industry and philanthropy. 
•    He was the son of impoverished immigrants who had settled in US.

China on 29 June 2016 launched its second Shijian-16 series satellite. 
•    The satellite was carried by a Long March-4B rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
•    The Shijian-16 satellite will be used for space environment measurements, radiation and its effect as well as technology testing.
•    The first Shijian-16 satellite was launched in October 2013.
•    This launch was the 231st flight by a Long March rocket.
•    It is used for the launch of sun-synchronous orbit meteorological satellites.
•    It was first introduced in May 1999 and was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology (SAST), based on the Chang Zheng-4.
•    It is capable to launch a 2800 kg satellite into low Earth orbit, developing 2971 kN at launch.
•    The 248470 kg rocket is 45.58 meters long and has a diameter of 3.35 meters.

The Union Cabinet on 29 June 2016 approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC), Bhutan.
•    The MoU will strengthen the existing relationship between RCSC and UPSC. It will facilitate sharing of experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.
•    The draft MoU between UPSC and RCSC, Bhutan will be signed to develop institutionalized linkage between the Public Service Commission of both the countries, which share the common ideals.
•    The MoU covers the areas of cooperation that include
•    Sharing of experience and expertise in Civil Service matters such as recruitment and selection, exchange of resource persons and development of professional skills of the officers and staff of the parties through attachment and training programs
•    Sharing of expertise on use of Information Technology (IT) in examination processes, Computer Based Recruitment Tests and Examinations, sharing of experience in Single Window System for expeditious scrutiny and speedy disposal of cases, building merit based staffing system, etc.
•    Sharing of experience on the modalities adopted on audit of processes and procedures followed by various Government agencies in recruitment for posts under the delegated powers.
•    Digitization of records, storage and display of historical records

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has considered the Model Shops and Establishment (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Bill, 2016. 
•    The Bill will now be sent to States/UTs to enable them to modify their individual Acts, if they so desire either by adopting the said Bill as it is or after modifying its provisions as per their requirements. 
•    This Bill was finalized after detailed deliberations and discussions with public through internet and with employees/labor representatives, employers’ associations/federations and State Governments through tripartite consultative process. 
•    It will cover only establishments employing ten or more workers except manufacturing units. 
•    The Bill provides for freedom to operate 365 days in a year and opening/closing time of establishment. 
•    Women to be permitted during night shift, if the provision of shelter, rest room ladies toilet, adequate protection of their dignity and transportation etc. exists. 
•    No discrimination against women in the matter of recruitment, training, transfer or promotions. 
•    Online one common Registration through a simplified procedure. 
•    Powers of Government to make rules regarding adequate measures to be taken by the employer for the safety and health of workers. 
•    Clean and safe drinking water. 
•    Lavatory, creche, first aid and canteen by group of establishments, in case, it is not possible due to constraint in space or otherwise by individual establishment. 
•    Five paid festival holidays in addition to national holidays etc. 
•    Exemption of highly skilled workers (for example workers employed in IT, Biotechnology and R&D division) from daily working hours of 9 hours and weekly working hours of 48 hours subject to maximum 125 over-time hours in a quarter. 
•    The Model Bill would bring about uniformity in the legislative provisions, making it easier for all the States to adopt it and thereby ensuring uniform working conditions across the country and facilitate the ease of doing business and generate employment opportunities.

The Barak-8 missile, as it is called, was co-developed by the Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL) of DRDO in partnership with the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
•    Apart from the missile, the system includes a Multi Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MF STAR) for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile.
•    The missile, along with MF—STAR, will provide the users with the capability to neutralise any aerial threats.
•    These missiles will be produced at the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in Hyderabad.
•    Along with the long range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM), it would be inducted in all the three Services once the user’s trials are completed.
•    The LR-SAM was successfully test-fired in Israel and India in November and December 2015 respectively.

The 10th National Statistics Day was celebrated on 29 June 2016 across the country with the theme Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
•    The main function for the celebration was organised by the Ministry of Statistics Programme Implementation at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
•    The National Statistics Day is celebrated annually on the occasion of birth anniversary of Late Prof PC Mahalanobis, India’s eminent statistician.
•    Its objective is to create public awareness among people, especially the younger generation about the importance of statistics in daily life as well as in the process of planning and development.
•    The 2015 National Statistics Day was celebrated with the theme social development.
•    World Statistics Day is celebrated on 20 October 2010 worldwide.
•    He was born on 29 June 1893. He was an Indian Bengali scientist and applied statistician.
•    He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure.
•    He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India.
•    As a member of Planning Commission, he gave the Two-sector Input-output model for the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) which became famous as Nehru-Mahalanobis model or Basic Industry strategy of economic growth.
•    He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys.

India has been ranked 105th out of 130 countries on the World Economic Forum's Human Capital Index, which measures countries’ ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth. Finland, Norway, and Switzerland hold the top three positions (respectively), utilizing around 85 per cent of their human capital. 

•    The index has been released by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). 
•    While other countries like China (71) and Bangladesh (104) were ranked above India. 
•    Pakistan ranks further lower at 118th place. 
•    Countries ranked below India include Nepal, Myanmar, Haiti, Malawi and Burundi while Mauritania, Yemen, Chad, Nigeria and Mali are placed in the bottom-five with below 50 % talent optimization. 
•    India was ranked 100th last year out of total 124 countries included in the 2015 index.

To get the world’s most powerful rocket off the ground, it’s going to take some serious thrust from its rocket boosters. 

•    NASA successfully tested one of those 77-ton rocket boosters by lighting it up at full power—all while never leaving the ground.
•    The rocket booster appeared to work just as expected on its test. To really know how it performed, of course, we’ll have to wait for the engineers to let the rocket cool down and take it apart. But the pictures showed a test that went pretty flawlessly.
•    There will actually be two of those boosters attached to NASA’s SLS rocket when it blasts off on its first scheduled test flight in 2018. 
•    NASA has pinned its hopes for a future Mars mission on that SLS rocket—but first it needs to prove the rocket is ready to get off the ground. 
•    In preparation, NASA has been testing the rocket piece-by-piece.