GK and Current Affairs Updates

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.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the weekly Champaran Satyagrah Express at Motihari, Bihar.
He inaugurated six rail facilities in Bihar on the occasion which includes three Road Over Bridges (ROBs) at Danapur (Patna), Motihari and Begusarai railway stations, the broad guage conversion work of Banmankhi-Purnea rail section, besides converting Piprahan station into a crossing station.
• It was introduced to mark 100 years of the historic Champaran Satyagraha (movement) that was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917.
• The train will run between Bapudham, Motihari and Anand Vihar, Delhi.
The Champaran Satyagraha was first Satyagraha in India;
Mahatma Gandhi led the movement in 1917 against the oppressive policies European indigo planters that led to exploitation of tens of thousands of landless serfs, indentured labourers and poor farmers in Champaran and neighbouring areas.

The Union Information and Broadcasting ministry has framed a New Print Media Advertisement Policy for Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP). 
•    It has been done to promote transparency and accountability in issuing of advertisements in print media. 
•    It focuses on streamlining release of Government advertisements and to also promote equity and fairness among various categories of newspapers and periodicals. 
•    It has introduced a New Marking System for newspapers to incentivize Newspapers. 
•    The system is based on 6 objective criteria with different marks each of them.
•    The newspapers will be able get benefit from new system who have better professional standing and get their circulation verified Audit Bureau of Circulations or Registrar of Newspapers for India. 
•    DAVP will release advertisements to newspapers based on marks obtained by each newspaper. 
•    This will also ensure transparency and accountability in the release of advertisements by DAVP. 
•    For payment and adjustment of Bills, it mandates that DAVP will release payment of advertisement bills in the name of newspaper or company account directly through ECS or NEFT. 

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) Ltd. on 5 June 2016 signed a MoU with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to facilitate investment in Indian infrastructure sector.
•    The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Doha during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Qatar.
•    Its objective is to facilitate QIA to study investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector in India.
•    The QIA will develop a framework for exchange of information with regard to such investments opportunities, in order to enable both sides to decide on joint investments.
•    The MoU will remain in effect for 12 months during which period, both parties will discuss and agree on the terms, principles, criteria for such investments.
•    The NIIF shall share with QIA a pipeline of investment opportunities available in the infrastructure sector in India
•    It is the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar.
•    They are long-term investors and access investment opportunities across all geographical areas, sectors and asset classes.
•    The majority of their investments are outside Qatar with assets spanning a wide range of sectors and spread across asset classes.
•    The fund deploys a wide range of investment strategies and invests through a carefully selected network of top-tier fund managers.
•    It was approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2015 to fund new and rejuvenate stressed projects so that stalled investment cycle is revived in the country.
•    It was established as a Category II Alternate Investment Funds (AIF) as per the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
•    It has an initial corpus of 20000 crore rupees which can be leveraged by infrastructure companies including Indian Rail Finance Corporation (IRFC) and National Housing Bank (NHB).
•    Similar to the agreement with the QIA, the NIIF signed a MoU with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities in February 2016 to mobilize investments into the Indian infrastructure sector.

Axis Bank has launched India’s first international certified green bond to finance climate change solutions around the world.
•    It was done at London Stock Exchange (LSE). 
•    The proceeds of the bond will be invested by Axis Bank in green energy, transportation and infrastructure projects. 
•    It will play important role in reinforcing India’s commitment to produce 175,000 MW of renewable power by 2022. 
•    The green bonds of Axis Bank were certified by the Climate Bonds Standards Board. 
•    It has raised 500 million dollars at the LSE after it launched. This is the first green bond of Axis Bank issued within its 5 billion dollars Medium Term Note (MTN) programme, which has also has been listed entirely on LSE. 
•    Bonds basically are debt instruments which help issuer to get capital while the investors receive fixed income in the form of interest. 
•    In case of Green Bonds, the issuer gets capital from the investors only if the investment (capital) is being raised to fund green projects relating to renewable energy or emission reductions etc.

Per Lodin, Major General of Sweden, was on 8 June 2016 appointed as the Head of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). Lodin's appointment was approved by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
•    Major General Lodin succeeds Major General Delali Johnson Sakyi of Ghana, who will complete his two-year assignment as Chief Military Observer and Head of UNMOGIP on 2 July 2016.
•    Lodin is currently the head of Strategic Material Management at Forsvarets materielverk (FMV), the Swedish Defence Ministry’s procurement and logistics arm.
•    He had earlier served as the head of the task force centre of Kosovo Force (KFOR), the multi-national peacekeeping mission led by NATO in 2006-2007.
•    He began his military career in the Swedish Army in 1978.•    According to the Security Council mandate, UNMOGIP reports on ceasefire violations along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
•    It also observes and reports developments that could lead to ceasefire violations.
•    It has personnel from 10 countries comprising 44 military members and 72 civilian staff.
•    UNMOGIP began the operations in 1949.
•    While on the other hand, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called for an expansion of the UNMOGIP and his country continues to file complaints with it about alleged Indian ceasefire violations.
•    In 2014, India asked the UNMOGIP to leave the government building it had provided the mission.

India on 8 June 2016 signed a Europe-led scheme that seeks to clampdown on tax evasion and corruption by committing to automatically exchange information on beneficial ownership.
•    With this, India joined a group of nearly 40 nations that are signatories of a scheme.
•    Under the scheme, the signatories commits to the initiative to automatically exchange information on beneficial ownership.
•    The next stage will be for the development of a global standard for this exchange.
•    The scheme was announced in April 2015 by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
•    The signatories to the scheme will have to provide one another free access to information on who ultimately owns companies.
•    Besides India, some of the other countries outside Europe on the list include Afghanistan, Nigeria, Mexico and the UAE. Most European countries except Switzerland are part of this automatic exchange mechanism.
•    It seems that the step is in the direction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 election pledge in which he said that he will recover billions of dollars sent to tax havens abroad to avoid income tax.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on 8 June 2016 signed a decree awarding the Order of Friendship to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
•    The officially published decree said that the decoration was awarded to Ban for special merits in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding between peoples.
•    Among those awarded are Prince Michael of Kent, Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the Brazilian capital, and former President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge.

•    The order, set up in 1994, is meant to reward Russian citizens and foreign nationals for outstanding accomplishments in strengthening peace and cooperation with Russia, as well as for charity activities.
•    He took office and became the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations on 1 January 2007
•    In June 2011, he was re-elected and will continue to serve as the UN chief until 31 December 2016.
•    Before becoming Secretary-General, he was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations.
•    He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India.
•    Ban was the foreign minister of South Korea from January 2004 to November 2006.

India, Japan and the US began their marine war games, Malabar Exercise, near Okinawa Island.
•    In 2013, China unilaterally established an Aircraft Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea (ECS ADIZ) triggering protest from Japan, USA, European Union and Australia. 
•    The exercise, the annually held Malabar, has been recently expanded from a bilateral comprising India and US to a trilateral exercise to include Japan. •    Over 100 assets - warships, fighters and surveillance aircrafts - will be participating in this year's Malabar, indicating the size and intent of the exercise.
•    India is fielding its top of the line Indian-made stealth frigates INS Sahyadri and INS Satpura, Indian fleet tanker INS Shakti and INS Kirch - a missile corvette. 
•    One key elements of the exercise is anti-submarine warfare where three forces will create a scenario of hunting down Chinese submarines. 
•    China's aggressive stand in the East and South China Sea have raised concern globally. 

Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra was on Friday chosen as the flag bearer of the Indian contingent at the Rio Games’ opening ceremony on 5 August 2016.
•    The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) confirmed that they have chosen the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist as the country’s flag bearer for the quadrennial extravaganza.
•    Bindra will be making his fifth Olympic appearance this year.
•    Alongside star boxer Vijender Singh, tennis legend Leander Paes and decorated grappler Sushil Kumar, Bindra’s name was under consideration prior to the 2012 London Games too, before the IOA gave the honor to the double Olympic medalist wrestler.
•    He is till date India’s only individual gold medalist at the Olympics.
•    The usually reserved shooter achieved the feat when he clinched a historic gold in 10-metre air rifle event at the Beijing Games in 2008.
•    He is the Winner of numerous medals at top international competitions including World Championships, World Cups, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
•    He is also one of the goodwill ambassadors of the Indian contingent for the Rio Games .