04 June 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

1. Ajit Doval reappointed National Security Advisor with Cabinet rank

PM Narendra Modi has reappointed IPS (Retd) Ajit Doval (74-years) as 5th National Security Advisor (NSA) for another five-year term.
Ajit Doval (first NSA to serve two consecutive terms) has been also granted cabinet status.
With his reappointment, Modi’s national security team is complete — with S Jaishankar (External Affairs Minister) and Amit Shah (Home Affairs minister) as the other members of the trio.
Earlier, Mr. Doval served as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 2004–05, after spending a decade as the head of its operation wing.
Under his supervision 2016 Indian Line of Control strike (on 29th Sept 2016) and Balakot airstrike (on 26th Feb,2019) were conducted.
Brajesh Mishra (Indian Foreign Service office) was appointed the first National Security Adviser of India (in November 1998).

Note:

The National Security Adviser (NSA) is the senior official on the National Security Council (NSC) of India, and the chief adviser to the Prime Minister of India on national and international security policy.
From October 2018, Strategic Policy Group (SPG), led by the NSA, includes the cabinet secretary, the three Service chiefs, and the secretaries of defence, home & external affairs.

2. V P Sivakozhunthu elected speaker of Puducherry Assembly Speaker

Deputy Speaker of Puducherry Assembly Sivakozhunthu has been unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly.
Mr. Sivakozhunthu was the only candidate who filed nomination paper on behalf of the Congress-DMK alliance.
He was escorted to the speaker’s podium by chief minister V Narayanasamy when the legislative assembly reconvened.
Congress member MNR Balan (Oulgret constituency) has been appointed as the Deputy Speaker.
The Speaker's election was necessitated as speaker V Vaithilingam resigned and contested the April 18 Lok Sabha election and won it.

Source: The Times of India

Important Days

3. 4th June: International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is a United Nations (UN) observance every year on 4th June to protect the rights of children.
The day was established on 19th August 1982.
Its purpose expanded to acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse

Banking and Finance

4. Overseas investors pump over Rs 9,000 crore into Indian capital markets in May

Overseas investors pumped more than 9,000 crore rupees into the Indian capital markets in last month on expectations of more business-friendly measures following the BJP's landslide victory in the general elections.
Interestingly, foreign investors were net sellers for the first three weeks of May, but the tide turned just ahead of the announcement of election results.
According to the latest depositories data, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) infused around 7,920 crore rupees into equities and 1,111 crore rupees in the debt market during second to -31st of May, taking the cumulative investment to around 9,031 crore rupees.
Prior to this, they had invested a net 16,093 crore rupees in April, 45,981 crore rupees in March and 11,182 crore rupees in February in the capital markets (both equity and debt).

5. ONGC topples IOC to regain the most profitable public sector company

India's top oil and gas producer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has toppled Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to regain crown of being the country's most profitable public sector company.
According to earnings statements of the listed companies, ONGC reported a 34% jump in its 2018-19 fiscal net profit to 26,716 crore rupees.
In comparison, IOC registered a net profit of 17,274 crore rupees for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.
ONGC, in the previous two financial years, had lost the most profitable PSU tag to IOC.
With its refining margins under pressure due to falling oil prices, IOC had also lost the title of being India's largest company by turnover tag to billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries in FY19.
IOC had in the previous 2017-18 fiscal posted a record net profit of 21,346 crore rupees.
That year ONGC had a net profit of 19,945 crore rupees.

Note:

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of the Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Obituaries

6. Veteran Industrialist & tea Tycoon BM Khaitan passes away

Veteran industrialist Brij Mohan Khaitan (92-years) passed away.
He was globally known as the ‘evergreen tea man of India’.
Williamson Magor Group deals in a dry-cell battery (Eveready Industries), tea (McLeod Russel), engineering services (McNally Bharat Engineering) and other unlisted firms.

National Affairs

7. Gun license applicants in MP need to plant trees and take a selfie

In a unique kind of initiative, Tree will have to be planted for the license of arms in Madhya Pradesh state.
According to Gwalior district collector, Anurag Choudhary informed that Gun license seekers will need to plant at least ten saplings.
The applicant will be required to take care of the saplings for a month, click a selfie with them immediately after planting and a month later, and attach the pictures with the application.
After planting the tree, the applicant of license must take care of it for a month and then will take a selfie with plant and submit along with application form for license.
To further, verify that the condition has been fulfilled, a report will also be sought from the Patwari, a local government official.
It has been started from Gwalior- Chambal region, soon implemented in other districts of the states as well.

Note:

The condition will be relaxed only if the license- seeker is facing an immediate threat to life. In such cases, the applicant would be required to plant saplings after getting the license.

Source: AIR News

8. Assam govt to provide a subsidy of Rs 1.7 lakh for admission in North East Skill Centre

According to Mission Director of the Assam Skill Development Mission AP Tiwari, the Assam government will provide a subsidy of 1.7 lakh rupees for the admission in the North East Skill Centre.
The total course fees of the first batch students (400) would be around 2.2 lakh rupees.
The Centre has got the support from Singapore's IITEES.
Students would get the best of the skill development courses and exposures so that they could meet up the demand of the industry.

9. MP Cabinet passes a resolution to increase reservation for OBCs to 27 %

Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has passed a resolution to increase reservation quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) from existing 14% to 27%.
The move will lead to a reservation in the state breaching the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent cap to reach 63 per cent.
Now the resolution will be taken in the monsoon session of the state assembly.
If implemented, Madhya Pradesh will become the only state in the country to have a 27% quota for OBCs.

10. High Court declares all animals in Haryana to be ‘legal persons’

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has accorded the status of “legal person or entity” to animals in Haryana.
It has granted them the “corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person”.
The verdict comes nearly a year after Uttarakhand High Court passed a similar order “to protect and promote greater welfare of animals”.
Both the orders were written by Justice Rajiv Sharma, who was transferred from Uttarakhand to the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh last year.
Justice Sharma was also part of the bench in Uttarakhand that had in 2017 declared rivers Ganga and Yamuna as living entities, a verdict that was later stayed by the Supreme Court.

11. Draft National Education Policy revised

The Kasturirangan committee has revised the Draft New National Education Policy and effected some changes in the three-language formula.
The committee informed the government that there had been an inadvertent error in the draft submitted for public feedback.
In the revised draft thee choice of available languages has been left to the state boards.
Now, the revise draft has been uploaded for feedback from states and public for a period of 30 days.
According to HRD Secretary R Subrahmanyam, the draft is not government policy but recommendations of the committee.

Source: AIR News

International Affairs

12. ICA issues first UAE Permanent Residency 'Golden Card' in Abu Dhabi

UAE’s Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) has issued the first Golden Residence Permit in Abu Dhabi.
It is a part of the Investors Permanent Residence System aimed to attract investors, entrepreneurs and qualified individuals who meet its criteria.
According to Forbes magazine's 2019 list of billionaires, The Abu Dhabi-based Keralite tycoon (worth 4.7 billion dollars) has been ranked the richest expat in UAE.
Indian billionaire M. A, Yousouf Ali was given the Golden card under the Scheme in UAE.
Earlier, the UAE government had announced that the first batch of 6,800 investors with 100 billion Dirhams worth of investments in the country will be granted the ‘Golden Card’.
Under this scheme, exceptional doctors, engineers, scientists and artists will also be considered.

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