Current Affairs 29th June 2017

Current Affairs 29th June 2017

• Kaushik Basu takes over as President of International Economic Association on - 27th June 2017
• Visa applicants from these 6 Muslim nations require close family ties in US - Trump’s travel ban
• New bidding mechanism for mega oil and gas auctions launched by - Union Government
• Former Vice Chancellor of Ambedkar University takes oath as UPSC Member on - 28th June 2017
• Indian-American Krishna R Urs appointed as US Ambassador to Peru on - 28th June 2017
• Nationwide Voter Registration Reminder on Facebook to be launched by - Election Commission
• India's communication satellite GSAT-17 successfully launched on - 29th June 2017
• India, World Bank sign USD 35 million agreement signed between - India and World Bank
• UNESCO named World Book Capital 2019 to - Sharjah

 Current Affairs 29th June 2017

Kaushik Basu takes over as President of International Economic Association on - 27th June 2017

Former Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu took over as the President of the International Economic Association (IEA) on 27th June 2017. He will be serving the office for three years. The IEA is a leading organisation for professional economists that seeks to shape global economic research and policy.
Among IEA's past presidents are Nobel laureates Kenneth Arrow, Amartya Sen, Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz.
More about Kaushik Basu

• Kaushik Basu is currently serving as the C Marks Professor for International Studies at Cornell.
• Basu has served as Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at the World Bank between 2012 and 2016.
• He served as the Chief Economic Adviser to the Union Government between 2009 and 2012.
• He served as Chairman of the Department of Economics and as Director of the Center for Analytic Economics at Cornell.

Visa applicants from these 6 Muslim nations require close family ties in US - Trump’s travel ban

The Trump administration has set new criteria for visa applicants from six Muslim nations and all refugees that require a close family or business tie to the United States.
According to the new guidelines sent to all the US embassies and consulates on 28th June 2017, visa applicants from six countries- Somalia, Iran, Libya, Syria , Sudan and Yemen-must prove a relationship with a parent, child, spouse, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling in the United States in order to get a go ahead.

The new guidelines have been set by the State Department, according to which extended family members including grandparents, nephews, cousins, grandchildren, nieces, brothers-in-law, uncles and Aunts, and sisters-in-law and fiancees are not considered to be close relationships.
These new measures are expected to be implemented from 29th June 2017.

The court exempts the applicants from the ban if they can prove a “bona-fide relationship” with a US person. However, it is up to the government
lawyers to check how to define such a relationship. The court offered only broad guidelines suggesting it would include a relative, job offer or invitation to lecture in the US.

New bidding mechanism for mega oil and gas auctions launched by - Union Government

The Union Government simultaneously launched two key interventions on 28th June 2017 : a revamped oil and gas bidding mechanism named Open Acreage Licensing Process (OALP) and the National Data Repository (NDR) for the first major oil field auctions to be held from 1st July 2017.
The auctions will held under a new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP).
Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Petroleum Minister and Arun Jaitely, Union Finance Minister launched both the initiatives in a mega event in New Delhi.

New bidding mechanism:

• The new bidding mechanism will allow interested firms to bid for blocks of their choice at any time of the year with National Data Repository.
• The NDR is a comprehensive database of India’s key sedimentary basins that will provide the bidders data on contract areas that will be available to auction.
• An investor will be allowed to put forth an Expression of Interest for undertaking contracts under Petroleum Operations Contract (POC) or Reconnaissance Contract (RC) under the mechanism.
• The investor will have the liberty to apply for such contracts bi-annually. They may also participate in rounds of auctions conducted by the regulator DGH over and above the applications made under OALP.
• The contractor who has won the RC bids and subsequently completed the RC term and wishes to migrate to petroleum operations contract will be getting the right of first refusal in the Petroleum Operations Contract auctions if it meets all the qualification criteria.

Former Vice Chancellor of Ambedkar University takes oath as UPSC Member on - 28th June 2017

Dr. Manoj Soni, former Vice Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, took the Oath of Office and Secrecy as Member of the  Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on 28th June 2017 at Delhi.
UPSC Chairman David R Syiemlieh administered the oath. UPSC conducts recruitment exams to select country’s top bureaucrats.

More about Manoj Soni

• Born on 17th February 1965, Soni earned his doctorate in "Post-Cold War International Systemic Transition and Indo-US Relations" from Sardar Patel University.
• He is also a scholar of Political Science with specialization of International Relation Studies.
• He was the youngest-ever Vice Chancellor in India after Independence.
• He has received several awards and recognition including the rare honor of ‘Honorary Mayor-President of the City of Baton Rouge’ that was granted to him by Mayor-President of Baton Rouge in Louisiana, USA.
• UPSC strength has gone up to eight after this appointment whereas it can have maximum 10 members.
• The Commission conducts civil services examination annually in three stages, preliminary, main followed by interview, to select officers for Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

Indian-American Krishna R Urs appointed as US Ambassador to Peru on - 28th June 2017

Indian-American Krishna R Urs was appointed as the United States (US) Ambassador to Peru by the President Donald Trump administration on 28th June 2017. He is currently serving as the Charge d' Affairs of the US Embassy in Madrid, Spain, where he was also the Deputy Chief of Mission.

More about Krishna R Urs

• Urs has specialized in economic issues during three decades of state department service and developed extensive policy experience in the Andean region of South America.
• He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs prior to that and as the Chief US Government Aviation Negotiator at the Department of State from November 2010 until June 2014.
• He also has served as Director in the Office of Aviation Negotiations in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs in the Department of State at the US Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia.
• He also served as Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of the State.
• He has served in seven US embassies as well as in senior leadership positions in Washington DC.
• He earned his BS from Georgetown University and MS degree from the University of Texas.

Nationwide Voter Registration Reminder on Facebook to be launched by - Election Commission

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on 28th June 2017 that it will launch a special drive to enroll left out electors, with a special focus on first time electors.
The step is taken in the direction of motto of the commission that 'No Voter to be Left Behind’.
It is the first time that Facebook's voter registration reminder has been rolled out across India. The drive will be launched on 1st July 2017.

Important highlights of the drive

• The ECI is collaborating with Facebook to launch first nationwide Voter Registration Reminder in order to reach out to maximum eligible voters.
• As of now , there are more than 180 million active Indian users on Facebook, the Register Now button is designed to encourage them to register themselves with the Election Commission of India.
• On 1st July 2017, a notification of the Voter Registration Reminder in 13 Indian languages (English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya).
• Once “Register Now" button is clicked, User will be directed to the National Voter's Services site - www.nvsp.in, where he/she will be guided with the registration process.

India's communication satellite GSAT-17 successfully launched on - 29th June 2017

India's latest communication satellite GSAT-17 was successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana on 29th June 2017 by French rocket Ariane-5. The European launcher Arianespace Flight VA238 blasted off from Ariane Launch Complex No 3 (ELA 3) at Kourou which is a French territory located in the northeastern coast of South America.  It was delayed by couple of minutes than the scheduled time of 2:29 hrs India time.

After its lift-off at 2:45 am of Indian Standard Time and a flight lasting about 39 minutes, GSAT-17 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with
a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 249 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35920 km, inclined at an angle of 3 degrees to the equator.

Important Highlights

• GSAT-17 with a lift-off mass of about 3477 kg carries payloads in Normal C-band, Extended C-band and S-band to provide various communication services. Satellite GSAT-17 has a life expectancy of 15 years.
• This communication satellite GSAT-17 also carries satellite-based search, meteorological data relay equipment and rescue services which were being provided by earlier INSAT satellites.
• ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the control and command of GSAT-17 immediately after its separation from the launch vehicle.
• In an official update, ISRO stated that  man-oeuvres to raise orbit will be performed to place GSAT-17 satellite in the Geostationary Orbit which is 36,000 km above the equator  by using the satellite’s propulsion system in steps in the coming days.
• The two solar arrays and both the antenna reflectors of GSAT-17 will be deployed during the final stages of its orbit raising operation and then satellite will be put  in its final orbital configuration.

India, World Bank sign USD 35 million agreement signed between - India and World Bank

India signed a loan agreement of USD 35 million with the World Bank for Assam State Public Financial Institutional Reforms Project on 27th June 2017. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD),  an international financial institution will be providing the loan under World Bank that offers loans to middle-income developing countries. Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary under Department of Economic Affairs and John Blomquist, Acting Country Director of World Bank (India) signed the agreement. Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) of Assam's Department of Finance and John Blomquist signed the Implementing Entity Agreement.

Key Highlights of the Project

• The project objective is to improve transparency and predictability in budget execution and efficiency in tax administration in Assam in the duration of 5 years.
• The project will benefit the Assam citizens through enhanced transparency, efficient processes and better service delivery such as electronic payments and collections for services.
• It will also lead to better public procurement and enhanced taxpayer services provided by public institutions.
• The total project cost is USD 44 million, out of that the World Bank is providing USD 35 million and rest will be funded by state government.

UNESCO named World Book Capital 2019 to - Sharjah

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova for the quality of its literary and cultural activities named Sharjah, a city in the United Arab Emirates is named as 'the World Book Capital' for 2019 by and for its efforts to make books accessible to the entire population of the nation.
Bokova took the decision on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee that met at the  Headquarters of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) at La Haye. Speaking on the occasion, Irina Bokova said, “I applaud the nomination of Sharjah as the World Book Capital as well as the efforts undertaken by the city in order to make reading available to as many people as possible, in particular, the marginalized populations, as a motor for social inclusion, creativity and dialogue.” This city was chosen because of its comprehensive, innovative and inclusive nature of the application, with a community-focused activity program having creative proposals engaging huge migrant population.
Important Highlights

• This program runs with a slogan ‘Read - you are in Sharjah’.
• It focuses on six themes: reading, heritage,inclusivity, outreach, publishing and children.
• It would include a conference on a contest for young poets, freedom of speech, tactile books and workshops for creating Braille books as well as many other events for Sharjah's multi-ethnic population.
• The main aim is to foster a reading culture in the United Arab Emirates and to give birth to new initiatives to meet the challenge of literary creation in the area and in the rest of the Arab world.
• The city also hosts premier cultural event , Children's Reading Festival (SCRF) in the region.