GK and Current Affairs Updates

Nagpur City and China's Jinan city have become sister cities for exchange of ideas and technology. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Jinan, Municipal People's Republic of China, entered into an agreement on Monday to develop sister city relationship between the two cities.
•    Municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar and director of Jinan Municipal People's Congress Xu Changyu signed the agreement. Mayor Pravin Datke and other officials of NMC and Jinan were present.
•    The move is a part of agreement signed between union ministry of external affairs and ministry of foreign affairs, People's Republic of China, for facilitating cooperation and linkages between cities of the two countries and states/provinces on May 20, 2013.
•    Hardikar gave a presentation on NMC's developmental projects and also gave details of the city. Xu Changyu spoke in detail about Jinan and its expertise in fields of education, culture, development of rivers, urban planning etc. 
•    He also suggested that NMC send students from the city to Jinan for seeking knowledge about various technologies.
•    Mayor Pravin Datke said Jinan's assistance could be taken for improvement of education, orange products production and mining activities.
•    NMC may also seek Jinan's cooperation in the field of sports, youth affairs, urban planning, waste water management, infrastructure, environment, public health and exchange of trade and commercial delegations. 
•    The agreement was executed for five years and can be extended by another five years. The two cities can part ways by giving a three months' prior notice. 

The Maharashtra Cabinet on 21 June 2016 approved the minority status to Jew community. This decision will benefit the students from these communities to avail scholarships from the state government.
•    After getting the minority status, the Jews in the state will be entitled to use benefits of government schemes meant for minorities and can also apply in educational institutions under the minority status.
•    The people of this community will now be able to easily get their marriage registrations done in Maharashtra.
•    The Jewish people living in the state would now also be able to set up their own educational institutions and practice and promote their culture.
•    According to 2001 Census, the number of Jews living in India was 4650 with 2466 of them living in Maharashtra. 
•    The Jews have been a part of the Indian society for over 2300 years now.
•    The Jews of Manipur and Mizoram identify themselves as Beni Menashe. 
•    There are also some in Andhra Pradesh who call themselves Bene Ephraim Jews.
•    India is one of the few countries in the world where Jews have never faced any harassment or persecution. 
•    At present, there are six notified minority communities in India - Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains.

The Union Government on 20 June 2016 banned use of potassium bromate (KbrO3) as a food additive on recommendation of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

•    Early in May 2016, FSSAI in its recommendation asked health ministry to remove potassium bromate, a cancer causing chemical, from the list of permissible food additives.
•    The recommendation was made following a study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that claimed that potassium bromate, which is classified as a category 2B carcinogen, can be a cause of cancer to humans. 
•    CSE in study found that 84 percent of 38 commonly available brands of pre-packaged breads, including pav and buns, tested positive for potassium bromate and potassium iodate (KIO3).
•    Besides, FSSAI has referred potassium iodate, also claimed to be carcinogenic used as a food additive, to a scientific panel.
•    These two food additives are banned in many countries and listed as hazardous for public health.

India and Thailand on 17 June 2016 signed two agreements that are aimed at enhancing cooperation in culture as well as educational sectors.
•    The set of agreements pertains to extension of the Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) for 2016-19 and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nagaland University and Thailand’s Chiang Mai University.
•    The agreements were signed in New Delhi during the 3-day visit of Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha that concluded on 18 June 2016.
•    During the visit, he held talks with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a wide range of issues that are of concern for both the countries and the region as a whole.
•    At the end of the summit level meeting, a joint statement that mentioned cooperation in areas like maritime security, cyber security, military and intelligence cooperation among others.
•    India's relations with Thailand are an important and integral component of India's strategic partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
•    India's 'Act East' policy is complemented by Thailand's 'Look West' policy in bringing the two countries closer.
•    They have strong economic synergies and the diversifying profile of growing bilateral trade and investment reflects the growth and maturity of the interaction between the two economies.
•    Extensive people-to-people contacts are central to the India-Thailand relationship. In 2015, more than 1 million Indian tourists visited Thailand and over 100000 Thai tourists visited India.
•    Two-way trade between India and Thailand stands at 8 billion US dollars. While export to Thailand from India is 2.63 billion US dollars, Thai imports reached 5.3 billion US dollars in 2015-16.
•    Beginning from 2004, 29 rounds of talks for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) were conducted so far.
•    During the present visit, both the countries agreed to commence negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

The International Astronomical Union in June 2016 named a 9.8 kilometers wide crater on Mars as Langtang, a popular trekking site in Nepal.
•    Langtang is one of the villages of Nepal that was worst hit by the 25 April 2015 earthquake. 
•    As per reports, at least 215 people were killed in the village after the quake triggered an avalanche.
•    The researcher behind the move, Dr. Tjalling de Haas, said that he chose this name because his colleague had worked there while studying Himalayan glaciers. 
•    It was his base camp for a long period, so we said may be it is a nice tribute.
•    Dr de Haas, who studies Mars's physical geography at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, has named another crater as Bunnik, his hometown in Utrecht.
•    Both names were approved by the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.

Leading member of the populist anti-corruption Five Star Movement (M5S) of Italy, Virginia Raggi (38) was elected as first female mayor of capital city Rome.
Virginia Raggi, a leading member of the populist anti-corruption Five Star Movement (M5S), on 20 June 2016 was elected as Rome’s first female mayor.
•    She is also the first candidate from that party, M5S to be elected to Rome's mayoralty.
•    Raggi, who will turn 38 in July 2016, is also the youngest mayor in Rome's history.
•    A lawyer and local councilor, Raggi was elected to the post for the Italian capital after winning 67% of the vote in a runoff ballot against the Democratic Party’s (PD) Roberto Giachetti.
•    Apart from her, Chiara Appendino another M5S candidate won the mayoral elections in Turin.
•    M5S is a political party which was founded by comedian-turned politician Beppe Grillo. 
•    With this win in Rome, the party also emerged as the main opposition to centre-left Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.

Kannada Movie Thithi in the third week of June 2016 won two awards - Best Film and Best Script Writers - under the Asia New Talent Awards Category at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival.
•    Earlier, in August 2015, the film premiered at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival and won the Golden Leopard honour in the Filmmakers of the Present category and the Swatch First Feature award.
•    The film also won numerous other awards at film festivals held in Mumbai, Palm Springs, Marrakech, etc. Some of the important among them are–
•    63rd National Film Awards: It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada.
•    2016 Karnataka State Film Awards: It bagged the awards, namely, First Best Film, Best Supporting Actress and Best Dialogue award.
•    It was invited to the 45th edition of New Directors/New Films in New York, the USA.
Thithi is a drama film consisting of a cast of non-professional actors from villages in the Mandya district of Karnataka. It is a light-hearted story about three generations of men reacting to the death of their 101-year old patriarch.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on 18 June 2016 launched the fund titled Mukh Mantri Punjab Hepatitis C Relief Fund to provide free treatment for patients affected by Hepatitis C. 
•    With this initiative, Punjab became the first Indian state to provide free treatment to confirmed cases of Hepatitis C.
•    The fund will have initial corpus of 20 crore rupees. 
It will provide free treatment to all the residents of Punjab affected by Hepatitis C. 
•    Free treatment for Hepatitis C would be provided to the patients in the state government medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot besides 22 district hospitals. 
•    Under this scheme, the patients of Hepatitis C will be registered at the 25 treating hospitals.
•    Medicines for the course of treatment will be issued after examination and testing by the medical specialists.
•    The patient has to pay only for the viral load and the genotype of the Hepatitis C Virus for which the Punjab Government has also done rate contract with Lal Path Laboratories. 
The medicines will be given free of cost.
•    With a prevalence rate as high as 3 percent, there are up to 10 lakh cases of suspected Hepatitis C in the state, of which up to 6 lakh require treatment. 
•    Until recently, the treatment consisted of injectable peg-interferon which was very expensive and unaffordable. 
•    However, through Mukh Mantri Punjab Hepatitis C Relief Fund, free treatment for Hepatitis C would be of great help for the patients.

The Assam Government has launched a unique initiative ‘Maitree Ek Gyan Yatra’ to link primary schools to high schools to colleges. 
•    The purpose of the programme is to change the mindset of the teachers, as in some places in states teachers of a school considered it below their dignity to teach the lower level students.
•    Under the initiative, college teachers will take classes in high schools and high schools teachers will teach in primary schools voluntarily. 
•    The basic idea of implementing the initiative is to improve quality of school students and create better synergy in education sector.
•    Assam state Education department has launched a unique programme ‘Maitree Ek Gyan Yatra’ in Sivsagar district to link primary schools to high schools to colleges.

•    Under the initiative, college teachers are taking classes in high schools and high schools teachers are teaching in primary schools voluntarily.

Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Shri Piyush Goyal today launched ‘URJA’- Urban Jyoti Abhiyaan Mobile app on the side-lines of ongoing two day Conference of Power Ministers at Cansaulim in South Goa. 
•    The app is developed by Power Finance Corporation on behalf of Ministry of Power for Urban Power Distribution Sector to enhance consumer connect with the Urban Power Distribution sector by providing information of IT enabled towns on important parameters which concern the consumers like outage information, timely release of connections, addressing complaints, power reliability etc. 
•    The app will work as manifestation of Prime Minister’s principle of good governance i.e. People focus, co-operative federalism. 
•    The Union Minister also launched the Pradhan Mantri UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LED for all) Yojana in Goa with a target of replacing approximately 15 lakh LED bulbs, impacting nearly 5 lakh households. 
•    Under the scheme, consumers are entitled to 3 LED bulbs of 9W each at a subsidized rate of Rs.25/, as against a market price of Rs.300-350. 
•    The Scheme launched in the distinguished presence of Goa Chief Minister Shri Laxmikant Parsekar will help save over 78 million kwh every year in the state and about Rs.850-1000 on annual electricity bills. 
•    Besides, the Union Minister also launched “Vidyut Pravah” App at the event. Speaking on the occasion the Minister said the scope of “DEEP” (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) e-Bidding and e-Reverse Auction Portal has been further expanded by covering banking mechanism and the medium term procurement of Power. 
•    The Union Minister said the Government will soon start 100 percent smart metering to curb the menace of power theft. He said currently there is a loss around 24 to 26 percent due to theft of Power.