08 June 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

World Oceans Day being observed globally

08 June 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

1. World Oceans Day being observed globally

  • World Oceans Day is annually observed on 8th June to raise awareness of the challenges humanity faces to protect the world's oceans.
  • The main action focus is to prevent plastic pollution and encourage solutions for a healthy ocean.
  • The Ocean Project has promoted and coordinated World Oceans Day globally since 2002.
  • The United Nations General Assembly had designated 8th June as the World Oceans Day in 2008.

Banking and Finance

2. RBI amends Gold Monetisation Scheme to make it more attractive

  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made changes in the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) of 2015 to enable people to open a hassle-free gold deposit account.
  • According to RBI, the short-term deposits should be treated as bank's on-balance sheet liability.
  • These deposits will be made with the designated banks for a short period of 1-3 years (with a facility of rollover).
  • The interest rate payable in the case of deposits for maturities with broken periods should be calculated as the sum of interest for the completed year plus interest for the number of remaining days.
Note:
  • In 2015, the union government has launched the GMS with the objective of mobilising the gold held by households and institutions in the country.
  • The scheme allows banks' customers to deposit their idle gold holdings for a fixed period in return for the interest in the range of 2.25% to 2.50%.

3. Short-term subsidised crop loan to be implemented through direct benefit transfer mode

  • According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Interest subsidy scheme on short-term crop loans (up to three lakh rupees) will be implemented through the direct benefit transfer mode from the current financial year 2018-19.
  • The Centre has earmarked 15,000 crore rupees for 2018-19 towards interest subvention for short-term crop loans.
  • The scheme will be required to be settled as applicable in Plan Scheme namely Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and North East Region among others.
Note:
  • Under the scheme, farmers can avail of short-term crop loans of up to three lakh rupees at a subsidised interest rate of 7% that could go down to 4% on prompt repayment.

International Affairs

4.  World Bank approves funding for Atal Bhujal Yojana

  • The World Bank has approved Water Resources and River Development Ministry’s Rs 6000 crore worth central sector scheme, ‘Atal Bhujal Yojana’.
  • The scheme will be implemented over a period of five years with assistance from the World Bank.
  • The scheme proposal has already been recommended by the Expenditure Finance Committee and the Ministry will be seeking Cabinet approval for the project shortly.

5. India ranks 136th on Global Peace Index 2018

  • According to the reports published by the Sydney-based Institute of Economics and Peace, India has moved up four places to the 136th rank among 163 countries on the 2018 Global Peace Index.
  • Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008.
  • Other top four are New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark.
  • Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world.

National Affairs

6. President declares ‘Queen Pineapple’ as state fruit of Tripura

  • President Shri Ram Nath Kovind formally declared the “Queen Pineapple” as the state fruit of Tripura.
  • President Ram Nath Kovind has also inaugurated the renovated 128km Agartala-Sabrom national highway from Udaipur (Gomati district) Tripura.
  • The President also visited the Matabari Temple complex in Udaipur.

7. Punjab govt launches business first portal

  • Punjab Industry Minister Sunder Sham Arora has launched a “Business First Portal” to give a big push towards the ease of doing business in the state.
  •  The online portal will facilitate the industrialists for Regulatory Clearances and Fiscal Approvals, real-time tracking of applications at a common platform.

Obituaries

8. Renowned Lyricist Rasaraj Narayan Prasad Singh passes away

  • Renowned lyricist Rasaraj Narayan Prasad Singh (86-year) passed away at his residence in Bhubaneswar(Odisha).
  • He was the lyricist of several popular melodious songs in Odia cinema.
  • Some of his soulful and melodious songs in Odia cinema are ‘Jeevan Jamuna re Juara uthere’, ‘Ratani gaja gamani’, ‘Ae ta kali kaal reeti biparita bhai re’.
  • Singh penned songs for over 100 movies and radio programmes for which he earned many accolades.

9.  Nightclub Owner Peter Stringfellow passes away

  • Britain’s Nightclub Owner Peter Stringfellow (77-year) due to cancer.
  • He opened his first club Convent Garden in London in 1980.

Sports

10. Mithali Raj becomes first Indian to score 2000 T20I runs

  • India cricketer Mithali Raj (35-year) has become the first Indian cricketer to score 2000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I).
  • She achieved the landmark after scoring a single off Oshadi Ranasinghe en route to her knock of 23 during India's seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the Women's Asia Cup T20 in Kuala Lumpur.
  • Now, she has 2,015 runs in 75 matches.
  • India men's team captain Virat Kohli (1,983) is the next Indian on the list, followed by Rohit Sharma (1,852) and Suresh Raina (1,499).

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