Daily Gk 12th June 2017

Current affairs for IBPS RRB,RBI,DENA BANK,SSC CGL

Daily Gk 11th June 2017

National

Minister of Food Processing Industries Lays Foundation Stone for Mega Food Park being developed by KINFRA at Palakkad in Kerala

• Giving a big push to the infrastructure development for food processing in the state of Kerala, foundation stone of 2 Mega Food Parks one being developed by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) at Palakkad and other by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) at Alappuzha has been laid on11th June, 2017 in two separate ceremonies held at Palakkad and Alappuzha.
• Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries in the presence of Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala laid the foundation stone for the Mega Food Park at Palakkad. While the foundation stone for Mega Food Park at Alappuzha was laid by Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala.
• To give a major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country.
• Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach. Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs).Under the Scheme, Government of India provides financial assistance upto Rs. 50.00 Crore per Mega Food Park project.

Tele-Law through CSCs To Mainstream Legal Aid in Rural India

• In its effort to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas, the Government of India has launched the ‘Tele-Law’.
•  The Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which anchors the Digital India programme, to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country.
•  In the first phase, the ‘Tele-Law’ scheme will be tested as a pilot across 500 Common service Centres (CSC) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the challenges and make necessary corrections to the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country in a phased manner.
• Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the Common Service Centre (CSC) network. This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology enabled platforms.
• ‘Tele-Law’ will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the Common Service Centres (CSC). Additionally, law school clinics, District Legal Service Authorities, voluntary service providers and Non-Government Organisations working on legal aid and empowerment can also be connected through the CSCs anywhere and anytime, in order to strengthen access to justice for the marginalized communities.
• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) will provide a panel of lawyers from State capitals, who will be available through video conferencing to provide legal advice and counselling to the applicants, across the 1000 Common Service Centres (CSC). A robust monitoring and evaluation system is also being designed which will help in assessing the quality of legal advice provided and the ensuing benefit to those accessing it.

India, Israel set to expand defence ties

·         As India and Israel celebrate 25 years of their diplomatic relations, Tel Aviv has quietly emerged as one of the largest and trusted suppliers of defence equipment to the Indian armed forces, which rely heavily on imports.

·         After protracted negotiations, the two countries are close to concluding a deal for Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles. This will be the latest in a series of big-ticket defence deals approved recently. “The Spike deal is not yet sealed, but it is almost done.

·         In a related development, Navy Chief and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee Admiral Sunil Lanba left on a four- day visit to Israel to continue the “high-level defence exchanges.” The purchase of Spike missiles was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in October 2014, but negotiations on the contract ran into trouble over cost and technology transfer.

·         The Rs.3,200-crore deal includes 8,000-plus missiles, 300-plus launchers and technology transfer. The deal is likely to expand as the Army intends to equip its 382 infantry battalions and 44 mechanised regiments with new missiles.

·         After New Delhi established full diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv on January 29, 1992, Israel has made inroads into the Indian defence sector, earning praise for reliability and technological sophistication. It is well entrenched in the areas of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, air defence systems, Special Forces equipment and electronic warfare equipment.

International

Emmanuel Macron seeks majority as France votes for new Parliament

·         French voters go to the polls in the first round of Parliamentary elections with President Emmanuel Macron's party appearing well-placed to gain a commanding majority.

·         Mr. Macron has enjoyed a smooth start in the five weeks since he beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to become France's youngest-ever president, naming a cabinet that crosses left-right lines and making a big impression at international summits.

·         A host of opinion polls show Macron's party could take around 30 per cent of the vote , putting it in pole position to secure an absolute majority in the second round a week later.

·         That could translate to as many as 400 seats in the 577-seat chamber. REM has already had a boost after its candidates came first in 10 of the 11 French overseas constituencies that voted before the mainland.

·         If no candidate wins over 50 per cent in the first round, the two top-placed go into the second round -- as well as any candidate who won the votes of over 12.5 percent of the electorate.

Contemporary Economic Developments

GST Council reduces rates on 66 items, including on select movie tickets

·         The Goods and Services Tax Council decided to reduce tax rates on 66 items including cashew nuts, packaged foods such as sauces and pickles, agarbatti, insulin, school bags, children's colouring books, cutlery, and some tractor components. The Council has also reduced the tax rate on cinema tickets costing Rs.100 or less.

·         Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while addressing the media following the conclusion of the one-day meeting in the capital, said that the tax rate on cashew nuts has been reduced to 5% from 12%, while the rate on sauces, pickles, mustard sauce, and other similar packaged foods has been reduced to 12% from the 18% earlier set.

·         The rate on agarbatti has been reduced to 5% from 12%, and the same has been done for insulin. The rate on children’s colouring books has been reduced to nil, while that on school bag has been reduced to 18% from 28%. The rate on components that can only be used in tractors has been reduced to 18% from 28%.

·         The GST Council will meet again on June 18 to discuss any pending issues, including the e-way bill rules and the rates on lotteries, Mr Jaitley said, adding that the accounting and records rules were approved by the Council during meeting.

·         The Council also decided to increase the limit under the composition scheme from Rs.50 lakh to Rs.75 lakh. The compensation scheme was introduced for small business that would struggle to comply with the various requirements of GST.

·         Those opting for the scheme will have to pay tax at the rate of 1% for the trading community, 2% for those engaged in manufacturing, and 5% for restaurants, Mr. Jaitley said.

Alibaba Cloud to open data centre in India

·         Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, announced that it plans to establish two new data centres in Mumbai in India and Jakarta in Indonesia during the current financial year.

·         Together with the recently announced data centre in Malaysia, Alibaba Cloud will significantly increase its computing resources in Asia, allowing greater support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) throughout the region with powerful, scalable, cost-effective and secure cloud capabilities, according to a statement.

·         With the three new data centres planned, Alibaba Cloud will increase its total number of data centre locations to 17, covering mainland China, Australia, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Vikram Limaye to head NSE, will leave COA role on July 14

·         Veteran banker Vikram Limaye will quit the Committee of Administrators (COA) for BCCI on July 14 to take over as the Managing Director and CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE).

·         Former CAG Vinod Rai, who is head of the COA, told PTI that Limaye will hold his position till July 14, when the Supreme Court reopens, after which he will have to step down for his new assignment at the NSE.

·         The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has cleared Limaye’s appointment as head of NSE provided he gives up his role in the COA.

·         With Limaye’s departure, the COA will shrink from being a four-member panel to a two-member panel. Historian Ramachandra Guha was the first to quit the panel, alleging that it had not done enough to implement the Lodha Committee reforms mandated by the Supreme Court.

·         The SEBI, in a recent media release, stated: “Sebi has approved the appointment of Mr Vikram Limaye as the MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange of India limited , subject interalia to his being relieved from his BCCI (COA) assignment. The appointment will take effect from the date of joining.”

Sports

Usain Bolt wins final 100m race in Jamaica in emotional farewell

·         The 30-year-old will bring down the curtain on his illustrious career when he retires in August after the World Championships in London and began his goodbye in front of 30,000 adoring fans in Kingston.

·         Bolt clocked 10.03 seconds to win before a lap of honour in front of a raucous crowd who danced, waved flags and blew their vuvuzela horns while fireworks lit the sky.

·         The 100m and 200m world record holder returned to kiss the finishing line before flashing his signature 'lightning bolt' pose.

·         The nine-time Olympic gold medallist Bolt did not run in the fastest 100 metre race of the evening, but his devoted fans didn't care.

·         The Jamaican speedster Bolt said at news conference that 2017 will be more about saying thank you to his fans rather than trying to break his world records of 9.58 seconds in the 100 metres and 19.19 seconds in the 200 metres.

·         Jamaica's Yohan Blake won the other 100m in a time of 9.97 seconds, finishing ahead of South African Akani Simbine who clocked 10.00

Nadal beats Wawrinka, wins 10th French Open title

·         Rafael Nadal beats Stan Wawrinka to win record 10th French Open title.

·         It took Nadal just over two hours to win 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, with the Spaniard sealing it on his second match point when Wawrinka sliced a backhand volley into the net.

• No other man or woman has won 10 championships at the same major in the Open era, which began in 1968.
• Nadal has been given a replica of the French Open trophy to mark his 10 titles at Roland Garros.

FIFA U20 - England beats Venezuela 1-0

• England won the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, the country's first world title at any level since 1966, after a 35th-minute goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin gave them a 1-0 victory over Venezuela.

·         Venezuela missed a chance to equalise when England keeper Freddie Woodman saved a 74th-minute Adalberto Penaranda penalty in an enthralling, entertaining game, played in the South Korean city of Suwon.