Current Affairs 11th July 2018 - Details

Current Affairs 11th July 2018 - Important Points

• Gujarat Government granted Religious Minority Status to Jews on - 6th July 2018
• 5 MoUs for cooperation in Science & Technology signed between India and - South Korea
• First dwarf container service introdued by - Indian Railways
• US President Donald Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court Judge on - 9th July 2018

Current Affairs 11th July 2018 - Details

Gujarat Government granted Religious Minority Status to Jews on - 6th July 2018

Gujarat Government granted Religious Minority Status to Jews living in the state on July 6th, 2018.  With respect to this regard, Gujarat’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment issued a GR to this effect. As a result, the  Certificate has been mandated by the government issuing competent authorities to issue Religious Minority Status Certificate to the members of this community.

If we join this then there are now seven religious minorities in the state. The other six are - Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Parsis and Jains.

Important Highlights

• As religious minority members, Jews in the state will soon be getting religious minority rights envisaged in Constitution of India and various other acts and rules of the state government.
• They will also be getting benefits of welfare schemes formulated for religious minority communities within the Gujarat jurisdiction.

Did you know?
Gujarat is the third state in India to grant Minority Status to Jews after West Bengal and Maharashtra.

5 MoUs for cooperation in Science & Technology signed between India and - South Korea

India and South Korea signed five MoUs for cooperation in the field of Science & Technology on July 9th, 2018. The MoUs were signed on the conclusion of 4th Indian-Korea Science & Technology Ministers Steering Committee Meeting.
The South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who arrived in New Delhi on 8th July 2018 for a three days visit led the Korean delegation. Both the sides reviewed bilateral S&T cooperation between both the nations since the last meeting of the Steering Committee at Seoul back in November 2015.

Important Highlights of the MoU

• This MoU was signed by Indian Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan and his South Korean counterpart You Young Min on three subjects:
  (i) Program of Cooperation 2018-21
  (ii) Establishment of Future Strategy Group
  (iii) Cooperation in Biotechnology & Bioeconomy
• Between other two MoUs, one was signed by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and South Korean National Research Council for  Science & Technology and another was signed between IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute of Science & Technology to further boost future-oriented cooperation in their respective sectors.
• They agreed to establish IKCRI (Indo-Korean Center for Research and Innovation) in India, which will be acting as the hub for systematic operation and management of  all cooperative programs in research and innovation including innovation & entrepreneurship and technology transfer.

Programme of Cooperation 2018-21 Memorandum of Understanding

Both the countries renewed the Program of Cooperation in the field of Science and Technology for 2018-21 in order to augment the cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation.

MoU related to establish Future Strategy Group

• The MoU was signed by Indian Science & Technology and Commerce Ministers signed this MoU on ‘Establishment of Future Strategy Group’.
• Also on the Korean side, Science and ICT and Trade Ministers signed the same.
• The Future Strategic Group will be building a collaborative platform that can utilise the potential of both the countries towards  fostering innovation and creating impact which is of social and economic good.
• Both the sides will be co-funding collaborative enterprise-led joint R&D projects to cover Digital Transformation, Future Utilities,Health Care and Future Manufacturing.

First dwarf container service introdued by - Indian Railways

The Indian Railways has introduced a commercial service to run double-stack dwarf containers on trains to capture the lost  traffic through a new delivery model for domestic cargo as stated by the Railways Ministry on July 9th, 2018.

Key highlights

• These containers are shorter in size and are capable enough to run on electrified tracks.
• To be precise, a double-stack container is 6 feet and 4 inches in height.
• Even if these are smaller in size, the dwarf containers can hold a capacity of 30,500 kgs as compared to regular containers.
• The containers would be enabling the railways in the double-stack movement of cargo.
• The freight train with the dwarf containers was flagged off for its maiden commercial run on 7th July from Western Railway's Rajkot railway station.

US President Donald Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh as Supreme Court Judge on - 9th July 2018

Donald Trump nominated conservative Brett Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court Judge on July 9th, 2018 to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who recently announced his retirement from the current role. He made this announcement during his prime time address to the nation from the White House.

The nomination of Judge Kavanaugh comes after a thorough and transparent selection process, involving the President's public disclosure of a list  of 25 highly qualified potential judges for the vacancy in the Supreme Court.

More about Brett Kavanaugh

• He is currently serving as a judge in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
• He has served in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2006 and was formerly a White House aide under George W Bush.
• He previous work was with Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who also investigated former Democratic president Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
• Kavanaugh lately also disagreed with a court decision to allow an undocumented teenage immigrant to have an abortion.
• Back in 2009, he wrote a Minnesota law review article arguing that presidents should be shielded from criminal investigations and civil lawsuits while in office.