Current Affairs 19th June 2015

Current Affairs 19th June 2015 - Important Points

• Union Government launched NOWCAST service, what is this about - Weather alert service

• Minimum Support Prices for Kharif Crops of 2015-16 season were approved by - CCEA

• Who was appointed as Executive Director of Amnesty International India - Aakar Patel

• Two committees for facilitating implementation of GST were formed by - Union Ministry of Finance

• Free Trade Agreement was signed between - China and Australia

• SoftBank teamed up with which two entities to market Pepper robot - Alibaba, Foxconn

• Joint exercise between the armies of India and UK was named as - Ajeya Warrior 2015

• Who was re-elected as chairman of UK Parliament committee - Keith Vaz

• In china which Hindu holy book was launched in Chinese Version - Bhagavad Gita

• World's Wealthiest Self-Made Billionaires List was released by - Wealth-X

Current Affairs 19th June 2015 - Details

Union Government launched NOWCAST service, what is this about - Weather alert service

Among the Important National Current Affairs, On 18th June 2015 weather alert service "NOWCAST" was launched by Mr. Radha Mohan Singh (Union Agriculture Minister).

This weather alert service will be used to send SMS alerts about hailstorm, thunderstorm and squall etc to farmers. As there are more than one crore farmers already registered on government's mKisan portal, they all will be benefited by this service.

With its help farmers will be able to take precautionary measures.

Minimum Support Prices for Kharif Crops of 2015-16 season were approved by - CCEA

On 17th June 2015, CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) which was chaired by PM Narendra Modi, gave its node for the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for Kharif Crops of 2015-16 season. It was decided by CCEA to give bonus of 200 rupees per quintal for pulses over and above the recommendations of the CACP in view of a huge deficit of pulses in the country.

Tur (Arhar) - 4625 rupees against 4350 rupees during the 2014-15 season,

Moong      - 4850 rupees against 4600 rupees,

Urad        - 4625 rupees against  4350 rupees.

Who was appointed as Executive Director of Amnesty International India - Aakar Patel

Among the Important Appointments, On 18th June 2015, Mr. Aakar Patel was appointed as Executive Director of Amnesty International (AI).  Mr. Aakar Patel is a Journalist and writer. He will head AI India's operations and its efforts to end human rights abuses in India and worldwide. 

Two committees for facilitating implementation of GST were formed by - Union Ministry of Finance

Among the Important Financial Current Affairs, On 17th June 2015, Two committees for facilitating implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) were formed by Union Ministry of Finance. Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be done from 1st April 2016.

These two committees were formed with an aim to speed up the process of establishing necessary administrative infrastructure so that GST could be implemented.

GST will subsume present indirect taxes like excise, services tax, sales tax, octroi, etc. and is touted as the biggest tax reform since the Constitution of India came into force.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014 was approved by the Lok Sabha and is pending with the Rajya Sabha. 

Free Trade Agreement was signed between - China and Australia

Among the International Current Affairs, On 17th June 2015, China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) was signed at Canberra in Australia. China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng and Australia's Trade Minister Andrew Robb signed this agreement. China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will ensure that 85 percent of all exports of Australia to China will be tariff-free, which will rise upto 93 percent till 2019. 

After this agreement, Now Australian dairy farmers, wine-makers and other sectors will have a tariff-free access to China's market that too in few years. By 2017 tariffs on all resources and energy products will be removed.

Important to note that Cotton, wheat, sugar, rice and oilseeds industries were kept out of the agreement.

SoftBank teamed up with which two entities to market Pepper robot - Alibaba, Foxconn

On 28th June 2015, SoftBank Corp of Japan announced that it has set up a joint venture with Alibaba and Foxconn Technology to sell its human-like robot Pepper around the world. Alibaba is a Chinese online shopping giant and Foxconn Technology is an electronics supplier. 

It is supposed that from 20th June 2015 this robot will go on sale to general consumers for about 1610.54 dollars each plus monthly fee and insurance. These peeper robots can serve as baby-shitters, medical workers or even party companions.

Joint exercise between the armies of India and UK was named as - Ajeya Warrior 2015

On 17th June 2015, Exercise Ajeya Warrior was in news as few soldiers of the Indian Army sustained injuries because of a road accident while they were in UK for the military exercise. Exercise Ajeya Warrior is joint exercise between the armies of India and UK. This biannually exercise is held biannually in both the countries, alternatively with an aim to build and promote positive military relations between Indian and UK Army and also to boost up their ability to undertake joint tactical level operations in Counter Insurgency/Counter Terrorism Environment.

This is a 16 days long exercise and was started on 13th June 2015.

Who was re-elected as chairman of UK Parliament committee - Keith Vaz

Among International Current Affairs, On 18th June 2015, Indian-origin MP of Britain Mr. Keith Vaz was re elected as chairman of Parliaments Home Affairs Select Committee. He was re elected for the third time. He is also a longest-serving Indian-origin MP of Britain. He is a senior leader of Labour party.

In china which Hindu holy book was launched in Chinese Version - Bhagavad Gita

On 17th June 2015, Sacred ancient Indian scripture Bhagavad Gita's chinese version was launched during an international yoga conference. Indian Ambassador to China Ashok K. Kantha launched Bhagavad Gita's chinese version which was translated by Chinese Professor Wang Zhu Cheng and Ling Hai of the Zhejiang University in Shanghai and Sichuan People's Publications published it.

World's Wealthiest Self-Made Billionaires List was released by - Wealth-X

On 17th June 2015, World's Wealthiest Self-Made Billionaires List was released by Wealth-X and top 25 richest self made billionaires were named in the list. Bill Gates topped the list with fortune totaling nearly 85.7 billion US dollars.

Top 10 people are : 

• Bill Gates (United States) -  85.7 billion US dollars
• Warren Buffett (United States) - 70.1 billion US dollars
• Amancio Ortega (Spain) - 65.0 billion US dollars
• Lawrence Ellison (United States) - 51.5 billion US dollars
• Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden) - 48.1 billion US dollars
• Jeffrey Bezos (United States) - 39.8 billion US dollars
• Carlos Slim (Mexico) - 35.4 billion US dollars
• Mark ZUckerberg (United States) - 35.3 billion US dollars
• Wang Jianlin (China) - 35.2 billion US dollars
• Michael Bloomberg (United States) -33.7 billion US dollars