Current Affairs 23rd June 2017

Current Affairs 23rd June 2017  - Important Points

• Iconic al-Nuri mosque of Mosul blown up by - Islamic State
• International Olympic Committee partnered with - Intel
• 4th state to be open defecation free - Uttarakhand
• Who has been chosen for Queen’s Young Leaders Award? - Indian anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra
• Webpage for smooth GST implementation launched by - Ministry of Electronics and IT
• ONGC and UNESCO join hands to get Chilika Lake heritage site tag in - June 2017

Current Affairs 23rd June 2017 - Details

Iconic al-Nuri mosque of Mosul blown up by - Islamic State

The Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq was blown up by a group of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on 21st June 2017.  They also destroyed its famous leaning minaret, also called al-Hadba.The medieval mosque, also known as Mosul's Great Mosque, is the place from where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared an Islamic  caliphate spanning parts of Syria and Iraq . The Minaret of the mosque stood for more than 800 years.
Iraq's military said in a statement that its forces were within 50 meters of the mosque when IS outfit committed another historical crime by blowing up the building.
As claimed by IS, US aircraft destroyed the mosque while at the same time, US Pentagon said that the responsibility of this devastation is laid firmly at the IS doorsteps. US General Joseph Martin said, this is a crime against the people of Mosul and Iraq, and is an example of why this brutal organization must be destroyed.

International Olympic Committee partnered with - Intel

Intel and The International Olympic Committee declared a long-term technology partnership on 21st June 2017  in New York at an official signing ceremony  with IOC President Thomas Bach and the US tech giant's Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich.

Key Highlights

• "The Olympic Partner" (TOP) worldwide sponsorship program will be joined by Intel .
• The partnership will transform the the Olympic experience and Olympic Games.
• The first Olympic Games activation will be taking place at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 in South Korea in February 2018.
• The Intel technology will be providing real-time virtual reality viewing of the Olympic Winter Games.
• Intel Corporation founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce on 18th July 1968, is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
• It is the world's biggest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers based on revenue.
• It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, which is found in most of the personal computers (PCs).
• Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971

4th state to be open defecation free - Uttarakhand

Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar during a Swachh Bharat Program organized in ONGC, Dehradun on 22nd June 2017 declared Uttarakhand as the fourth state to be open defecation free (ODF) in the country.

Sikkim is the first state to be declared open defecation free followed by Himachal Pradesh and Kerala.
Three more states-Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat are also expected to come in the same category by the end of this financial year.

Who has been chosen for Queen’s Young Leaders Award? - Indian anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra

Anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra is all set to receive the distinguished Queen’s Young Leaders Award with 60 others from all the 53 Commonwealth countries. Queen Elizabeth II will be honoring at a ceremony to be held on 29th June 2017 in the Buckingham Palace.

He quit his corporate business job in 2014 and founded a non profit organisation Feeding India that works towards solving hunger problems, food wastage and malnutrition.
The organisation distributes extra food from canteens, restaurants, households and corporate to help people in need. The activist started working for the cause after witnessing massive amount of extra food being thrown away during a wedding.
Feeding India organization works in 43 cities with 4500 volunteers and has served more than 8.5 million meals to vulnerable individuals such as old age citizens,children, women, disabled people etc.

More about Queen’s Young Leaders Award

• This award is an annual award given in recognition of leadership skills to young people between the ages of 18 and 29.
• The award is open to selected Commonwealth of Nations to recognize exceptional people or organizations who are making a big difference in improving other citizen's lives.
• Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, in partnership with Comic Relief and the Royal Commonwealth Society established this program.

Webpage for smooth GST implementation launched by - Ministry of Electronics and IT

The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has launched a dedicated webpage to help companies in the electronics sector and IT services to adapt to the new GST regime.

Key Highlights

• According to an official statement released by the Ministry, the webpage has been launched to ensure smooth implementation of GST from 1st July 2017.
• The webpage will help addressing issues of taxpayers and companies that are related to Information Technology Services and Electronics goods and also be enabling them to file grievance re-dressal in regard to the tax’s implementation.
• GST, the biggest tax reform since Independence will be launched in the midnight of 30th June and 1st July.
• Further, the Union Cabinet Secretary, P K Sinha had held a GST preparedness meeting on 20th June 2017 with 30 ministries in which he asked them to organise outreach program and publicity campaigns through their departments and PSUs in order to explain the provisions of the new indirect tax regime to their stakeholders.

ONGC and UNESCO join hands to get Chilika Lake heritage site tag in - June 2017

A joint team of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) carried out a preliminary survey for the conservation of Chilika Lake in June 2017.
The survey was done to help India’s largest coastal lagoon to secure the world heritage site tag.
To make world heritage site recognized, the lake should have an outstanding global value in terms of eco-system and biodiversity.
Important highlights

• During the team’s visit to the periphery areas of the lake, they interacted with various local officials and stakeholders in the village, where certain focal areas were identified to start with, so that the efforts can finally lead to the declaration of Chilika Lake as a heritage site.
• The ONGC-UNESCO made efforts for the complete development of the eco-system of the lake, especially the Mangalajodi wetlands, which is intrinsically linked to the conservation of endemic birds and migratory.
• Various central and state government ministries would be involved to prepare the comprehensive development plan of the ecosystem.
• A comprehensive conservation and development plan in and around the lake area would be carried out by ONGC.
• The UNESCO proposed to set up a world class conservation center with a climate change observatory, monitoring facilities and state-of-the-art data.
• This lake covers an area of 1100 km per square is a brackish water lagoon,spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha state on the east coast of India.