IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS & DAILY NEWS UPDATES : 20 - JUNE - 2016 |
Monday, 20 June 2016 04:51 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DAILY NEWS UPDATES
20- JUNE - 2016
FORBES RELEASED WORLD’S 100 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN 2016 LIST
Forbes released the list of World’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2016 showing women who impacted businesses, media, philanthropy, politics and more.
Four metrics: money (net worth, company revenues or GDP), media presence, spheres of influence, and impact, were analysed to prepare the list.
Highlights of the List
• The world’s most powerful woman in the list is German Chancellor Angela Merkel who fetched the first spot for the sixth consecutive year.
• The top three most powerful in the list are politicians: Germany’s Angela Merkel, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
• Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, tops the list in the automotive section.
• Gwynne Shotwell, the President-COO of SpaceX, is the top woman in Construction & Engineering at 76th position.
• Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, fetched the 6th spot.
• Diane von Furstenberg, Owner, Fashion Designer, Diane von Furstenberg Studio, L.P., stands at 71th position in the Fashion and Retail category.
• Oprah Winfrey stands at 21st position in the ranking.
• Newcomers joining this year’s list include seven world leaders, two philanthropists, five CEOs, two billionaires, one editor-in-chief, two company chairpersons, and three U.S. Supreme Court justices.
• 20 women are off the list from last year, among them Ellen Pullman, Renee James, Dilma Rousseff, Cristina Kirschner, and Elizabeth Holmes.
• A host of celebrities, including Ellen Degeneres, Taylor Swift, and Angelina Jolie, came off the list this year.
• Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sun Suu Kyi, and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen are included in this year’s list.
• Wellcome Trust chair Eliza Manningham-Buller and UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova join a host of women who are dedicated to helping solve the world’s problems.
Top 10 powerful women in the List
Indian Women in the list
• Four Indians have been named in Forbes list including Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chair-Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI), who stood at 25th position.
• Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, was placed at 40th position.
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder-chair of Biocon Limited, was placed at 77th position.
• Shobhana Bhartia, Chair, HT Media, was placed at 93rd position.
LISA PATHFINDER MISSION DEMONSTRATES WAYS TO DETECT GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
LISA Pathfinder Mission successfully tested a key technology needed to build a space-based observatory for detecting gravitational waves. The Mission was led by the European Space Agency (ESA) scientists with the contribution of NASA.
Key finding of the Research
• The Mission demonstrated that two test masses can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration sufficiently free of noise to meet the requirements needed for space-based gravitational-wave detection.
• These tiny ripples in the fabric of space were first seen in 2015 by the ground-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
• These ripples were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago.
• The frequency of the Seismic, thermal and other noise sources limit LIGO to higher-frequency gravitational waves was around 100 cycles per second (hertz).
• But finding signals from mergers of supermassive black holes in colliding galaxies requires the ability to see frequencies at 1 hertz or less.
• A space-based observatory would work by tracking test masses that move only under the influence of gravity.
• Each spacecraft would gently fly around its test masses without disturbing them, a process called drag-free flight.
• The primary goal of ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission is to test current technology by flying around an identical pair of 1.8-inch (46 millimeter) cubes made of a gold-platinum alloy, a material chosen for its high density and insensitivity to magnetic fields.
About LISA Pathfinder mission
• LISA Pathfinder was launched on 3 December 2015, and began orbiting a point called Earth-sun L1, roughly 930000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth in the sun's direction since late January 2016.
• LISA stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a space-based gravitational wave observatory concept that has been studied in great detail by both NASA and ESA.
• The mission was always intended as a stepping stone to the level of performance needed for a full-scale gravitational wave observatory, but these results tell us we’ve nearly made the full jump
• The Mission reduced non-gravitational forces on the test masses to a level five times better than the mission required and within 25 percent of the requirement for a future space-based gravitational wave detector.
LISA Pathfinder also carries a NASA experiment called the ST-7 Disturbance Reduction System. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the experiment combines novelelectrospray thrusters with drag-free control software provided by Goddard on a dedicated computer.
LISA Technology Package (LTP)
• The test masses are housed in an experiment called the LISA Technology Package (LTP).
• It was built by a consortium of European national space agencies and ESA.
• The LTP uses a high-resolution laser interferometer to determine the positions of the test masses and relays the information to the spacecraft's Drag-Free and Attitude Control System, which then applies minute bursts from microthrusters.
• In this way, the spacecraft flies in formation with the cubes and isolates them from external forces.
• The results show that LISA Pathfinder reduced non-gravitational forces on the test masses to a level about 10000 times smaller than drag-free control technologies used on previous science missions.
• At frequencies between 1 and 60 millihertz, control over the test masses is affected by a small number of gas molecules bouncing off the cubes.
• The effect became less prominent over time as molecules escaped into space, and it is expected to improve further in the following months.
INDIAN-ORIGIN PROFESSOR LORD KUMAR BHATTACHARYYA AWARDED REGIUS PROFESSORSHIP BY QUEEN
Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), at the University of Warwick, which was founded by renowned Indian-origin Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, was bestowed the Regius Professorship in Manufacturing by Queen Elizabeth II.
Who is Kumar Bhattacharyya?
• Lord Bhattacharyya is an Indian British engineer, educator and government advisor.
• In 1980, he became Professor of Manufacturing Systems at the University of Warwick and founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group.
• He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
• He moved to Britain in the 1960s where he worked for six years as a graduate apprentice at Lucas Industries.
• He studied at the University of Birmingham where he attained an MSc in Engineering Production and Management and a PhD in Engineering Production.
• He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1997 New Year Honours and knighted in 2003.
• On 3 June 2004, he was created a life peer as Baron Bhattacharyya, of Moseley in the County of West Midlands.
• He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
• In 2014, he was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society.
About Regius Professor
• A Regius professor is a university professor with royal patronage or appointment.
• They are a unique feature of academia in the British Isles.
• The first Regius professorship was in the field of medicine, and founded by the Scottish King James IV at Aberdeen University in 1497.
• Regius professors are traditionally addressed as Regius and not Professor.
• Glasgow University currently has the highest number of extant Regius chairs, at thirteen.
UNION GOVERNMENT TO INTRODUCE INTERNATIONAL YOGA AWARD SCHEME
The Union Government decided to introduce International Yoga Award Scheme. The award will be introduced with an aim to promote yoga.
At present, the AYUSH ministry is working on the scheme and it will start giving the award from 2017.
Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik announced the plan in New Delhi while inaugurating the National Health Editors' Conference.
About National Health Editors' Conference
• The theme of the conference was Yoga for Holistic Health - Recent Researches.
• The conference aims at ensuring wider dissemination of benefits of Yoga to the public through the media.
The conference had been organised by Ministry of AYUSH in association with Press Information Bureau and is a part of the series of planned events leading to the International Day of Yoga - 2016.
INDIAN RESERVE BATTALION TO BE NAMED AFTER MAHARANA PRATAP
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced that a new Indian Reserve Battalion in Rajasthan will be named after Maharana Pratap. The battalion will be named as Maharana Pratap reserve battalion.
Maharana Pratap, a Rajput ruler who had fought against the Mughals and never bowed before them, is attributed as the greatest warrior of the Mewar region.
The announcement was made at a programme attended by Rajnath Singh during his two-day visit to the state. The decision was taken on the request of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
The government introduced the scheme of Indian Reserve Battalions in 1971 and so far, 153 battalions have been sanctioned to various states.
Besides, the union government also announced setting up of a global center for counter terrorism at Sardar Patel University of Police, Security and Criminal Justice at Jodhpur.
INTERNET SAATHI, GOOGLE AND TATA’S JOINT-INITIATIVE, LAUNCHED IN WEST BENGAL
Internet search engine Google and Tata Trusts’ joint initiative Internet Saathi was launched in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The initiative aims at reducing the digital gender gap in rural areas of India such as Purulia, where girls have now been trained to use the Internet and teach others in turn.
Internet Saathi had been successfully launched in five states. In July 2015, it began in four more states including West Bengal.
About Internet Saathi
• Internet Saathi aims at empowering women and their communities by providing basic training on the usage and benefits of the internet.
• The programme is driving a meaningful impact in improving the lives of women and their communities in rural India.
• It focuses on training women in rural India to explore the various uses of Internet, who then impart training to the larger rural community in their own and neighbouring villages.
• Google helps in training the Saathi’s and provides data enabled devices along with the training material.
• On ground training classes is conducted by involving self help group federations and local NGO members who are supported by Tata Trusts on-ground network.
• In the last ten months, the initiative has been active in villages across five states in India, namely Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
NATO LAUNCHES BIGGEST EVER JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE ANACONDA-16 IN POLAND
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and partners on 6 June 2016 launched Anaconda-16 Exercise, the biggest ever joint military exercise in Poland.
The drill is part of NATO's exercise program and is being held just weeks before NATO's summit in Warsaw that is expected to decide that significant numbers of NATO troops and equipment will be based in Poland and in the Baltic states.
The exercise was launched at the crucial time when central and eastern European nations are seeking strong security guarantees amid concerns about Russia.
Highlights of the exercise
• The exercise is organized and coordinated by Poland's military Operational Command.
• It will involve some 31000 troops from Poland, the US and 17 other NATO member nations and from five partner nations.
• Some 12000 of the troops are from Poland, almost 14000 from the US and some 1000 from Britain.
• Anaconda-16 will run on test ranges across Poland and will be formally closed by officials at a ceremony in Warsaw on June 17.
• It will train, exercise and integrate Polish command and troops with those of other allied nations in responding to military, chemical and cyber threats on land, sea and in the air.
• Involved will be some 3000 vehicles, 105 airplanes and helicopters, along with 12 Navy ships.
• It includes manoeuvres such as a night-time helicopter assault and the dropping of US paratroopers to build a temporary bridge over the Vistula river.
The Anaconda exercise was first initiated by Poland in 2006 and has gradually grown to include many other NATO members till date.
INDIA-US INKED 8 MOUS TO BOLSTER ECONOMIC GROWTH & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
India and the United States (US) signed/finalized eight agreements/ Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) in various fields including exchange of Terrorist Screening Information, cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change among others.
The agreements were inked after meet of Prime Minster Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in the White House. Modi was on a two day visit to the United States from 6 June to 8 June 2016.
The inked MoUs/Agreements include
• Arrangement for the exchange of Terrorist Screening Information: As per this Arrangement, the two countries shall provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations. The Arrangement would enhance the counter terrorism cooperation between India and the US. It was inked between the Multi-Agency Centre/Intelligence Bureau of India and the Terrorist Screening Center of the US.
• MoU to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change: The objective of the MoU is to enhance cooperation between India and the US on energy security, clean energy and climate change through increased bilateral engagement and further joint initiatives for promoting sustainable growth.
• MoU to enhance co-operation on Wildlife Conservation, management and Combating Wildlife Trafficking: It seeks cooperation between the two countries in areas such as
a) Wildlife Forensics and Conservation Genetics
b) Natural World Heritage Conservation and Nature Interpretation
c) Conservation Awareness
• MoU for the Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative (the Global Entry Programme): The Global Entry is a US Customs and Border Protection programme, which allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. After joint scrutiny and clearance by both countries, the approved Indian travelers will be extended the facility of expedited entry into the United States through automatic kiosks at select airports.
This MoU was inked between Consular, Passport and Visa Division of the Ministry of External Affairs and US Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security of the United States.
• Technical Arrangement concerning Unclassified Maritime Information Sharing: The arrangement would allow sharing of unclassified information on White Shipping between India and the US as permitted by respective national laws, regulations and policies, and provides a framework for mutually beneficial maritime information. It was inked between the Indian Navy and the United States Navy.
• MoU for Cooperation in Gas Hydrates: The MOU aims to increase the understanding of the geologic occurrence, distribution, and production of natural gas hydrates along the continental margin of India and in the US.
It was inked between the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Department of Energy of the United States.
• Information Exchange Annex (IEA) to the Master Information Exchange Agreement concerning Aircraft Carrier Technologies: IEA is aimed to enhance data and information sharing specific to aircraft carriers technology between India and the US.
It was finalised between the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Defense of the United States.
• Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement: The agreement is aimed at facilitating mutual logistic support between India and the US for authorized port visits, joint exercises, joint training and HA-DR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief).
It was finalised between the Ministry of Defence, Government of India and the Department of Defense of the United States.
Apart from signing of the MoUs/agreements, the two leaders, Modi and Obama also issued a joint statement in which US recognised India as a major defence partner. Under this, US will allow India to buy more advanced and sensitive technologies. This move will also complement India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). MTCR is an exclusive club that restricts trade in sensitive defence technologies.
The US also declared that it will be its “strong objective to have India voted as a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), another export control regime, later in June 2016.
RAJASVAGYAN SANGAM INAUGURATED BY PM
THE THREE WOMEN ARE SET TO CREATE HISTORY AS INDIA’S FIRST WOMEN FIGHTER PILOTS
KERALA’S FERTILISERS AND CHEMICALS TRAVANCRORE ISSUE STILL UNSETTLED
BREXIT DOMINATES EUROZONE MINISTERS MEETING
CHINA CRITICISED U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA FOR HOSTING THE DALAI LAMA
DOMESTIC IT SPENDING IS EXPECTED TO REACH $7 BILLION
REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY SUBSIDY SUBJECT TO PASSENGER LOADS
THE GOVERNMENT’S DRAFT POLICY FOR WIND AND SOLAR HYBRID PLANTS
THE CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT (CAD) FOR THE JANUARY-MARCH PERIOD NARROWED TO $ 0.3 BILLION
#RAY - #Empowering #Talent #Since 1971
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 June 2016 05:56 |