Current Affairs Today 07th & 08th June 2020| Current Affairs News

CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS

UN Russian Language Day

• UN Russian Language Day is observed annually on June 6. The event was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2010.
• UN Russian Language Day coincides with the birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, a Russian poet who is considered the father of modern Russian language.

World Pest Day

• Every June 6 is World Pest Day or sometimes called World Pest Awareness Day.
• The day was created to raise awareness of how pest management helps preserve the quality of life for you and your loved ones.
• World Pest Day was initiated by the Chinese Pest Control Association, and co-sponsored by the Federation of Asian and Oceania Pest Managers’ Association, the National Pest Management Association, and the Confederation of European Pest Management Associations.

World Food Safety Day

• The World Food Safety Day is celebrated every year on June 7 to draw global attention to the health consequences of contaminated food and water.
• First celebration was in 2019.
• WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to facilitate Member States efforts to celebrate the World Food Safety Day.
• Theme 2020 “Food safety, everyone’s business”.

World Oceans Day

• June 8th is celebrated as World Oceans Day to remind everyone about the importance of oceans’ role in our everyday life.
• This day makes people come together and discuss the innovative ways to save oceans for us and for our future generations.
• This year’s theme for World Ocean Day is ‘Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean’.

World Brain Tumour Day

• World Brain Tumor Day 2020 is observed on June 8 Since 2000, which also coincides with World Ocean Day.
• The day was initiated by the German Brain Tumour Association, which is called as Deutsche Hirntumorhilfe in German.
• The association provides support to the brain tumour patients and their family members besides providing facilities for scientists and health professionals for efficient treatment.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

Govt sets up taskforce to examine maternal mortality rate, age of motherhood

• A taskforce has been set up by the government to examine matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering maternal mortality rate and improvement of nutritional levels, by the WCD Ministry.
• The 10-member taskforce will be headed under the chairmanship of Jaya Jaitly.
• It will suggest suitable legislations or amendments in the existing laws to support its recommendations; and also work out a detailed roll-out plan with timelines to implement these recommendations.
• The taskforce will submit its report by July 31.

• The task force will be provided secretarial assistance by the Niti Aayog.

• The taskforce will examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical wellbeing and nutritional status of mother and child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter, key parameters like infant mortality rate (IMR), maternal mortality rate (MMR), total fertility rate (TFR), sex ratio at birth (SRB), child sex ratio (CSR) and any other relevant points pertaining to health and nutrition in this context.

About MoWCD

• Minister of Women and Child Development and Minister of Textiles- Smriti Irani
• Constituency- Amethi, UP.

About NITI Aayog:

• Formulation– 2015
• Chairperson– Narendra Modi
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO)– Amitabh Kant

HRD Minister launches information booklet ‘Safe online learning in the times of COVID-19’

• Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched the information booklet titled ‘Safe online learning in the times of COVID-19’ to raise awareness in students and teachers.
• HRD Ministry and NCERT are committed to ensure safe and secure online environment for children and teachers.
• NCERT and UNESCO have jointly developed this booklet which will facilitate in raising awareness of our students and teachers as well as ensure timely action in cases of cyber bullying. He urged all victims of cyber bullying to report and seek support.
• UNESCO is committed to provide access to safe and inclusive learning environments for all the children.
• In India, an estimated 71 million children aged between 5-11 years access the Internet on devices of their family members, constituting about 14 percent of the country’s active Internet user base of over 500 million.

About NCERT

• Headquarters– New Delhi
• Director– Hrushikesh Senapaty

About UNESCO

• Headquarters- Paris, France
• Head- Audrey Azoulay

Nitin Gadkari launches national awareness campaign on Prevention of Human, Animal Mortality on Highways

• Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari launched national awareness campaign on Prevention of Human and Animal Mortality on Highways.
• Union Minister Nitin Gadkari underlined the need for generating awareness and education for the masses at large towards reducing or eliminating mortality on the roads.
• The country witnesses nearly five lakh road accidents every year, in which about 1.5 lakh lives are lost.
• To bring down these figures by 20 to 25 per cent by March next year. Over five thousand black spots have been identified, and the process for their rectification including temporary and permanent measures is being carried out on urgent basis.
• Need to protect animal life on the roads. So all agencies to follow the provisions of the manual titled Eco friendly measures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure on wildlife issued by Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
• The Minister requested NGOs and social organisations to locate black spots for animals on the roads, and inform his ministry, so that necessary corrective action may be taken.

About MoRTH

• Minister for Road Transport & Highways of India and Shipping Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises- Nitin Jairam Gadkari
• Constituency- Nagpur, Mumbai.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION

IIFL Finance ropes in Rohit Sharma as brand ambassador

• Non-Banking finance company, IIFL Finance has signed up cricketer Rohit Sharma as its brand ambassador.
• The company has launched 30-second message titled “Rohit Sharma Ki Seedhi Baat”, under its first-ever campaign #SeedhiBaat with Rohit Sharma, which is a public service message advising people on safety guidelines and rules to follow during lockdown to fight Covid19 outbreak.

About IIFL Finance

• Managing director and Co-promoter- R Venkataraman

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS

Javed Akhtar becomes only Indian to bag prestigious Richard Dawkins Award

• Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar is honoured to be named this year’s recipient of the Richard Dawkins Award.
• Akhtar became the first Indian to be given the honour for critical thinking, holding religious dogma up to scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values.
• Every year, the award recognises a distinguished individual from the field of science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism and upholding scientific truth.
• British actor-comedian Ricky Gervais received the honour last year.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

RIL raises Rs 4,546.80 Cr from Silver Lake

• Reliance Industries raised Rs 4,546.80 crore from sale of further 0.93 percent stake to Silver Lake, taking the cumulative fundraising to Rs 92,202 crore that will help pare debt at the oil-to-telecom conglomerate.
• Silver Lake had previously taken 1.15 percent stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 5,655.75 crore. The additional investment would take its stake to 2.08 percent.
• Reliance announced the sale of 1.85 percent stake in Jio Platforms to Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company for Rs 9,093.60 crore.
• Jio Platforms has now raised Rs 92,202.15 crore from leading global technology and growth investors, including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, and Mubadala in less than six weeks.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

IIT-Ropar’s machine to sterilise products using UV rays

• IIT- Ropar has designed a machine in which products can be sterilised using UV rays. The institute has also started consulting a Chandigarh-based manufacturing company Esspee Industries for its production.
• The UV-C Sterlisation Unit was conceptualised and designed by Senior Scientific Officer Naresh Rakha, Dr Khushboo Rakha and Executive Engineer TS Anand.
• The Machine is used to sterilise grocery items using UV rays.
• The UV lights of the unit, which is equipped to kill germs including fungus, viruses and bacteria, should only be used on products and should not come close to a person’s skin.

IIT, Hyderabad researchers develops low cost and Artificial Intelligence-based test kit for COVID-19

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad have developed a low cost and Artificial Intelligence-based test kit for COVID-19. These kits can give results in about 20 minutes.
• The test kits have already been tried at the ESIC hospital and the results are encouraging. He said the test kits are Reverse Transition Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR)-free and get rid of many processes.
• The cost of COVID testing with these IIT-H BioChips will be around 600 rupees and can be almost halved in case of mass production of the chips.
• These kits can be transported to rural areas as they are very light and helpful to increase the testing for COVID-19 in the country.

Scientists develop indigenous nasopharyngeal swabs

• CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune, has developed an indigenous NP swab for collecting samples from the throat cavity of COVID-19 patients.
• The need for making available domestic technology for NP swabs was flagged by CSIR to NCL in mid-April.
• Nasopharyngeal swab is a medical device with stringent specifications of quality, polymer grade, dimensions and sterilization. An NP swab consists of a cylindrical plastic stick with a brush-like tip of synthetic bristles/flocks. The flocking process helps align the fine bristles in a parallel orientation on the stick head, much like a tooth brush, except that this has round uniform geometry and the NP swab bristles are of micron diameter.

ARCI develops Rare earth based magnetocaloric material for cancer treatment

• Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST) has developed a rare-earth-based magnetocaloric material that can be effectively used for cancer treatment.
• The magnetocaloric materials (certain materials in which application and removal of a magnetic field causes the materials to become warmer or cooler) developed by ARCI are being tested at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST). A paper on the research work has been published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.
• This method, when used in conjunction with radiation therapy, would reduce the side effects, damage caused to the human body and also reduce the treatment time of cancer tumours.

About ARCI

• HQ- Hyderabad, Telangana

CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING

India loses 750 tigers in last eight years; MP, Maharashtra report maximum casualties

• As many as 750 tigers have died in the country in the last eight years due to poaching and other causes, with Madhya Pradesh reporting the highest casualties at 173.
• Of these total tiger mortalities, 369 were due to natural causes, 168 due to poaching, 70 deaths are under scrutiny and 42 due to unnatural reasons, including accident or conflicts events.
• There was also seizure of 101 big cats during the eight year period between 2012 and 2019 by different authorities across the country, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
• Now the tiger count is 2,976. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of 526 tigers in the country.
• Maharashtra has reported second highest deaths, as it lost 125 big cats during this period followed by 111 in Karnataka, 88 in Uttarakhand, 54 each in Tamil Nadu and Assam, 35 each in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, 17 in Rajasthan, 11 in Bihar and West Bengal and 10 in Chhattisgarh.

About NTCA

• Chairperson– Prakash Javadekar
• Headquarter– New Delhi

About MoEFCC

• Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises- Prakash Keshav Javadekar
• Constituency- Madhya Pradesh

CURRENT AFFAIRS: OBITUARY

Film Producer Anil Suri passes away  after Covid-19 infection At 77

• Bollywood producer Anil Suri, passed away because of coronavirus. He was 77.
• He had backed films like Raaj Kumar-Rekha starrerKarmayogi and Raaj Tilak,

Former Delhi Police chief Ved Marwah passes away

• Former Delhi Police Commissioner Ved Prakash Marwah, who also served as Governor of three States, passed away in Goa.
• Marwah was the first UT-cadre IPS officer to serve as Delhi Police chief from 1985 to 1988 and was Director General of the National Security Guard from 1988 to 1990. He served as Governor of Manipur (1999-2003), Mizoram (2000-2001) and Jharkhand (2003-04) over the course of a long and distinguished career. He was also adviser to the Governor in Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar.
• Marwah had penned a book, Uncivil Wars: Pathology of Terrorism in India.

Former Santosh Trophy player Hamza Koya passes away in Kerala after Covid-19 infection

• Former Santosh Trophy player Hamza Koya passed away after undergoing plasma therapy for Covid-19 infection in Kerala. He was 61.
• Hamza Koya played as a wing-back position and represented Maharashtra in Santosh Trophy from 1981 to 1986 and selected for Indian Soccer camp twice.
• After retirement, he floated Careerline Travel Consultant Pvt Ltd in Mumbai. His son is also a soccer player.