Current Affairs 13th June 2017

Current Affairs 13th June 2017 - Important Points

• World Day against Child Labor 2017 observed on - 12th June 2017
• International Albinism Awareness Day observed on - 13th June 2017
•  To examine rules on people's movement near Indo-Myanmar border govt launched - MHA Panel
• Canadian Grand Prix for sixth time won by - Lewis Hamilton
• 7th largest exporter of agri-products across the Globe - India
• A new system that could predict heart attack to be developed by - Toyota
• Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature authored by Jairam Ramesh launched on - 10th June 2017
• Separate time zone demanded by - Arunachal Pradesh

Current Affairs 13th June 2017 - Details

World Day against Child Labor 2017 observed on - 12th June 2017

The World Day against Child Labor was observed globally on 12th June 2017 with the theme "in conflicts and disasters, protect children from child labor". The 2017 World Day against Child Labor focuses mainly on the impact of conflicts and disasters on the child labor.

As per the United Nations, All across the world, more than 1.5 billion people live in countries that are affected by violence, conflict and fragility. At the same time, around 200 million people who get affected by disasters every year,one-third of them are children.

International Albinism Awareness Day observed on - 13th June 2017

The International Albinism Awareness Day was observed on 13th June 2017 aiming to end multiple forms of discrimination that is faced by people who suffers from albinism. Albinism results due to the lack of pigmentation (melanin) in the skin,hair and eyes, causing vulnerability to the sun and bright light. As a result to this, almost all people with albinism are visually impaired and are prone to skin cancer. The major concern is that there is no cure for the absence of melanin that is central to albinism.

More about Albinism 

• Albinism is a non-contagious, rare,genetically inherited difference present at the time of birth and it is still misunderstood socially and medically.
• This condition is found in both males and females regardless of ethnicity and in all the countries of the world.

 To examine rules on people's movement near Indo-Myanmar border govt launched - MHA Panel

The Union Government constituted an expert committee to examine the rules which allow free movement of Indian and Myanmarese citizens within 16 kilometers of the border but are exploited by militants for smuggling arms, drugs and fake Indian Currency on 13th June 2017. Special secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs will be heading this committee.

The decision to constitute the committee was taken during the chief ministers meeting of northeastern states chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh which share a porous border with Myanmar. 

Meeting Agenda

The meeting was held in Aizwal to discuss the border issues on Indo-Myanmar border and to know the border infrastructure status along the Indo-Myanmar border and implementation of the Border Area Development Program projects.

Canadian Grand Prix for sixth time won by - Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix 2017 held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 11th June 2017.  He was followed by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo grabbed the third position.

Interesting Highlights

• Born on 7th January 1985, Lewis Hamilton is a British Formula One racing driver, racing for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team at present.
• Hamilton is a three-time Formula One World Champion and won his first title with McLaren in 2008 before moving to Mercedes, where he won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.
• His 56 Grand Prix victories is the second highest of all-time after Michael Schumacher only who has at 91.

Do you know?

The Canadian Grand Prix is an annual auto race held since 1961 in Canada and is a part of the Formula One World Championship since 1967.

7th largest exporter of agri-products across the Globe - India

While addressing the 22nd APEDA Export award function in New Delhi, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said on 12th June 2017 that India has emerged as the 7th largest exporter of agri-products globally. Teaotia stated that there is a significant raise in the food products exports from the country and it is more than 12 percent of total exports. She noted that the total merchandise exports during 2016-2017 were more than 276 billion dollars out of which agricultural exports comprised nearly 33 billion dollars. She also said that Indian food products are majorly exported to countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia,Vietnam,USA, Iran, Iraq and Nepal.

More about APEDA

• It is an apex body of the Ministry of Commerce in Government of India which is responsible to promote the agricultural commodities and processed food products exports.
• It provides referral services and suggests suitable partners to make joint ventures.
• Its export basket ranges from typically Indian ethnic products like sauces to rice, honey, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, pickles, chutneys, beverages, poultry, livestock products, food grains and other Indian delicacies.

A new system that could predict heart attack to be developed by - Toyota

A new system to be developed by Scientists that would be able to predict whether a car driver is about to have a heart attack. The feature would help avoid road accidents due to an unexpected cardiac incident. Kayvan Najarian, a researcher from the University of Michigan in the US shared that when a person has a medical emergency behind the wheel, passengers sitting in the same vehicle and motorists also face the risk of death or serious injury. Najarian further added that a large number of traffic accidents are caused because of medical conditions raised while driving, especially cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infraction and myocardial ischemia.

Important Highlights

• Researchers are developing heart monitoring technology in collaboration with Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota.
• The technology would be able to monitor and analyse the physiology of the driver and predict if they are going to have adverse cardiac events.
• The system would be developed in such a way that it could be placed in the vehicle to monitor and predict an adverse cardiac event.
• The researchers have identified the possible challenges, potential solutions, hardware options and their algorithmic approaches that could be potentially used for its creation.

Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature authored by Jairam Ramesh launched on - 10th June 2017

A book titled Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature authored by Jairam Ramesh was released on 10th June 2017 at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi. Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the presence of former ministers, bureaucrats and environmentalists launched the book.

The first copy of the book, published by Simon & Schuster, was presented to the Congress President, former minister Karan Singh, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,and Priyanka Gandhi.

Key Highlights

• The book talks about Indira Gandhi’s life-long communion with nature and how that defined her as a being.
• The book offers a lively, conversational narrative of a relatively little known but fascinating aspects of Indira Gandhi’s tumultuous life.
• Born on 9th April 1954, Jairam Ramesh is an Indian economist and politician of Indian National Congress.
• He has been serving as a Member of Parliament since June 2004 representing Andhra Pradesh state in the Rajya Sabha .
• He served as the Indian Minister of State at the Ministry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.

Separate time zone demanded by - Arunachal Pradesh

Pema Khandu who is the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh raised demand for a separate time zone for the north-eastern states again on 12th June 2017 to improve work efficiency and save electricity in the north-eastern region of the country. Khandu stated that several daylight hours are getting wasted as government offices opens only at 10 AM and closes at 4 PM.

Interesting Highlights

• Productive hours at offices, mainly government offices, are usually from 10am to 4 pm only, as a result Establishments like theaters, restaurants see increased business in the summer months when there is more daylight. People tend to stay out more rather than calling it a night.
• The day starts getting brighter by 4 AM and darker by 5 PM in North East India. Khandu demanded that the north-eastern states should be allowed to advance their clocks by some time to save more daylight hours which are currently getting wasted.

Do you know?

Earth is divided into 360 vertical lines called longitudes and a shift in every longitude gives a time difference of four minutes. As a result, every 15 degree longitudinal shift results in a time difference of one hour.