Current Affairs 21st June 2019

Current Affairs 21st June 2019 - Important Points

• DD India channel to be available in Bangladesh, and - South Korea 
• Who won Gold at Folksam Grand Prix?-  India’s P. U. Chitra
•  Sri Lanka’s 1st satellite Raavana-1 successfully launched on - 17th June 2019
• IIT-Bombay best-ranked Indian institute in QS World Rankings for - 2020
•  Iran says 'it’s ready for war’ after it shot down US military drone on - 20th June 2019
• Sanjiv Bhatt sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990 custodial death case on - 20th June 2019

Current Affairs 21st June 2019 - Details

DD India channel to be available in Bangladesh, and - South Korea 

In a proposal to enhance India’s ties with neighbouring nations, the government of India has arrived into pacts with Bangladesh & South Korea to telecast DD India channel in 2 nations & their state channels will be telecast on DD Free Dish in India.

Key Highlights

• According to the contract signed with Bangladesh, government of India has finalised to broadcast BTV World, a channel owned by Bangladesh TV, on DD Free Dish which will be available for viewers of Doordarshan in India. Also, Doordarshan India would be made available in Bangladesh for being viewed by Bangladesh’s inhabitant.
• In this regard, a MoU has already been inked between Prasar Bharati & Bangladesh TV on 7th May 2019.
• For South Korea, Indian government has also sanctioned Prasar Bharati’s application for making available KBS World, which is a 24*7 South Korean channel in English, for Indian viewers & at the same time, South Korean individuals would be able to view DD India in their nation.

Significance

This initiative is part of a healthy cultural exchange in line with PM Narendra Modi’s Act East policy & also marks an imperative watershed moment with respect to firming-up of ties between 2 nations. The step is also in line with reputation of building mutual collaboration with neighbouring nations.

Who won Gold at Folksam Grand Prix?-  India’s P. U. Chitra

India’s PU Chitra secured Gold in women’s 1500 meters at Folksam Grand Prix 2019 organised in Sollentuna, Sweden. She gave the best time of her season so far by clocking 4:12.65s.

Key Highlights

• Chitra finished 1st in Folksam Grand Prix ahead of Kenya’s Mercy Cherono, who secured 5000 meters Gold medal in Commonwealth Games 2014.
• She is a Gold medal champion in Asian Championships  organised in Doha, Qatar in April 2019.
• Jinson Johnson from India secured Silver medal in men’s 1500 meters at Folksam Grand Prix by clocking 3:39.69s. He is also Asian Games Gold medallist & has earlier improved his own National record on 15th June by clocking 3:37.62s at Next Generation Athletics Meet at Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
• In another distinct competition, National record holder Murali Sreeshankar secured Gold medal in men’s long jump, at the Copenhagen Athletics Games, Denmark.
•  He secured with a remarkable opening round effort of 7.93 meters & balanced his season-best effort which came in Lyon, France. In other rounds, he also had jumps of 7.89 meters, 7.88 meters & 7.61 meters.

More about Folksam Grand Prix

It is a series of international athletics meetings formed in 2009. Since then, it is ordered every year in Sweden by the Swedish Athletics Federation.

 Sri Lanka’s 1st satellite Raavana-1 successfully launched on - 17th June 2019

Sri Lanka’s 1st ever satellite Raavana-1, developed & fabricated by 2 Sri Lankan engineers, was efficaciously placed into orbit. It was released from International Space Station along with 2 other BIRDS-3 satellites from Japan & Nepal.

More about Raavana-1

• The satellite was formally handed over to Japanese Aerospace & Exploration Agency on February 18th & was forwarded to International Space Station on April 17th, via assistance of Cygnus-1 spacecraft from USA.
• It was placeed to 400 kilometres of orbit at a displace of 51.6 degrees using Japanese Aerospace & Exploration Agency retained Kibo experiment module.
• It was fabricated & developed by 2 Sri Lankan engineers Tharindu Dayaratne & Dulani Chamika who are studying space engineering at Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology.
• It is a cube satellite calculating 11.3 cm*10 cm*10 cm, & weighs about 1.05 kilograms. It is believed to fulfil 5 missions counting capturing pictures of Sri Lanka & its surrounding areas.
• It also has active attitude stabilization which will make sure that satellite’s attitude is stable under impact of external talks.
• It is fabricated for a least lifespan of 1.5 years but is anticipated to be active for about 5 year.

More about BIRDS 3 Project

The ‘Birds project’ is an abbreviation for ‘Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project’, which is a cross-border interdisciplinary satellite project for non-space managing nations maintained by Japan. It is 1st step towards developing an indigenous space programme by outlining, building, operating, testing & launching 1st satellite for participating nations.

IIT-Bombay best-ranked Indian institute in QS World Rankings for - 2020

The IIT-Bombay, has emerged as best-ranked Indian institute internationally at 152nd place in QS World University Rankings’ 2020. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay has been securing top place among all Indian institutes for last 3 years & in 2020 edition it has enhanced its position by 10 moving-up places from 2018 ranking.

Key Highlights

• The world-class Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a history by leading QS World University Rankings for 8th consecutive year.
• According to QS, no other university has succeeded the top rank for such a long time. Other Universities reserved their 2nd, 3rd & 4th places in the world are Stanford University, Harvard University & California Institute of Technology respectively.
• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi developed as 2nd-best ranking institute from India at 182nd place, replacing Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
• IISc Bangalore lost 14 places in present year’s ranking & ended at 184th place. It is also 1st ever Indian institution to see its research quoted over 1 lakh times in 5-year period.
• OP Jindal Global University located in Sonipat, is the only new applicant in this years’ list. It is a private Indian university, started in 2009, & is one of the youngest to enter top 1000 list. It was ranked in between 751-800 in QS global list & accordingly, developed as 14th best institute in the nation.
• Other Indian Universities in top 500 list comprises Indian Institute of Technology-Madras at 271th, Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur at 281th, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur at 291th, Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee at 383th, University of Delhi at 474th & Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati at 491th place.

 Iran says 'it’s ready for war’ after it shot down US military drone on - 20th June 2019

Iran on June 20th, 2019 shot down an unmanned US Military drone, in an effort to send a message to the USA stating that, “It is ready for war.” The United States confirmed that its military surveillance drone was shot down by the Iranian forces while flying over the Strait of Hormuz.

In a live televised speech, the Commander-in-Chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Hossein Salami, which the United States had earlier nominated as a foreign terrorist group, informed that the act of shooting down the American spy drone had a clear, decisive & precise message.

US response to shooting down of its military drone

As per to the United States, its Navy MQ-4C Triton drone was on a surveillance mission in the Strait of Hormuz near the site of the fresh tanker attacks, which the United States apprehended Iran responsible for.

Iran however, informed that the American drone was working in Iranian airspace, a claim disputed by the United States, which explained that it was functional in international airspace.

The United States has restricted the incident as an ‘unprovoked attack on a United States surveillance asset in international airspace.’

Impact of Iran’s Warning Message
Iran’s act of shooting down the American drone is believed to have a wide-reaching influence on the future of Iranian nuclear deal & it is believed to further deteriorate tensions with the United States, especially with United States President Donald Trump.

Sanjiv Bhatt sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990 custodial death case on - 20th June 2019

Sanjiv Bhatt, an ex-Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, who was dismissed from services in 2015, has been punished to life by Jamnagar court on 20th June 2019. He was found guilty in a 30 years old custodial death case. Another police officer Praveen Singh Jhala has also been punished to prison for life.

Sanjiv Bhatt was working as the Ad.SP in Jamnagar when this custodial death case was occured in year 1990. When communal riots were happened in Jamjodhpur town, he had imprisoned around 150 people. One of the imprisoned persons died after his arrest by police.

More about the case

• Sanjiv Bhatt had detained Prabhudas Vaishnani along with 133 others for rioting & other offences during a bandh call in view of Bhartiya Janta Party leader L K Advani's Rath Yatra.
• Vaishnani was badly trodden during his custody & later surrendered to injuries. Vaishnani's brother
• Amrit had lodged a complaint against Bhatt & 5 other policemen. 
• Bhatt was dismissed in 2015, but he approached the Supreme Court alleging that although nearly 300 witnesses were listed by the examination, only 32 were really inspected in trial, leaving out many crucial witnesses.
• In 2011, Bhatt filed an affidavit in SC condemning then CM Narendra Modi of connivance in the 2002 riots. The court designated SIT but gave clean chit to Modi.
• In year 2015, Sanjiv Bhatt was dismissed from police services on the ground of illegal absence. SC also sacked his plea for constituting a SIT for cases filed against him.
• On 20th June 2019, he was condemned life imprisonment by Jamnagar court.