CURRENT AFFAIRS JUNE 2016

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2 PREFACE 3 PICK OF THE MONTH 4 INTERNATIONAL 31 NATIONAL 54 ECONOMY 86 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 104 ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY 123 STATE 142 REPORTS/SURVEY 172 COMMITTEES/COMMISSIONS 179 NEWS IN SHORTS

3 PREFACE PREFACE The Current Affairs June 2016 ebook covers the current events that happened in the month of May. Current Affairs is a crucial component of any competitive exams including IAS PCS, SSC, Banking, MBA. The lack of preparation for current affairs by the aspirants and candidates often is a main cause of their failure. Even though the candidates know it but they are often confused about how to prepare the current affairs section of the different competitive exams. It is to clear such doubts and confusion, Jagranjosh.com has come up with ebook concept. Although current affairs section per se is very wide to be covered, yet we have tried to cover all the possible current affairs for the month of May The Current Affairs June 2016 ebook is divided into different section keeping in mind the need of various exams. The sections covered namely are International, National, Economy, Ecology and Environment, Science & Technology, Corporate, Sports, States, and News Capsule. Every news item in each section is arranged date wise with the most recent news being covered first and so on. Although there might be some deviations but that is solely to give priority to the most important current affairs in each section. Presentation of the given current affairs has been planned meticulously. It has been planned in such a way that it remains in the minds of readers for a longer duration. Wherever necessary each news item is presented along with a background and analysis so as to help candidates contemplate all the important current events at the time of exam in an effective way. Copyright Jagranjosh.com All rights reserved. No part or the whole of this ebook may be copied, reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted and/or cited anywhere in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the written permission of the copyright owner. If any misconduct comes in knowledge or brought in notice, strict action will be taken. Disclaimer Readers are requested to verify/cross-check up to their satisfaction themselves about the advertisements, advertorials, and external contents. If any miss-happening, ill result, mass depletion or any similar incident occurs due to any information cited or referenced in this e-book, Editor, Director/s, employees of Jagranjosh.com can t be held liable/ responsible in any matter whatsoever. No responsibilities lie as well in case of the advertisements, advertorials, and external contents. 3

4 PICK OF THE MONTH Key initiatives, Achievements and Challenges 6 India-Iran Relations: Opening of a New Chapter 11 Assembly Election 2016: Jayalalitha, Mamta retain power; BJP in Assam and Kerala goes Left 14 Drought Management in India 17 India s first reusable space shuttle, RLV-TD launched

5 UNEP releases report titled Actions on Air Quality 25 Draft National Policy for Women, Man Booker International Prize

6 Key initiatives, Achievements and Challenges Narendra Damodardas Modi completed two years as the Prime Minister of India on 26 May The ascendance of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Government s (NDA) to power is of significance to the India politics because of two reasons: i. The Government came into power at a juncture where India needed a decisive leadership that is free of corruption, policy paralysis and coalition compulsions. ii. High expectations from the ruling party as it was for the first time in the last 30 years that a single party could garner majority seats in the Lok Sabha. Previously, Rajiv Gandhi won 404 seats in the 1984 elections that were conducted in the aftermath of assassination of Indira Gandhi. To fulfill the poll promise of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, the government unveiled new policies and set up new institutions. Against this backdrop, it is pertinent to examine the key initiatives, achievements and challenges before the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government. Key initiatives 1. Make In India: The campaign was launched to make India as a world-class hub of manufacturing by leveraging demographic dividend and attracting foreign directing investment by way of improving ease of doing business. To make this campaign successful, the government came up with a slew of plans and programmes including Skill India campaign, National Capital Goods Policy 2016, Start Up India, MUDRA Bank Yojana, etc. 2. Agriculture: The stated objective of the government is to double the farm income by For this, a slew of initiatives including Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Soil Health Card scheme, etc were launched. 3. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: The Clean India Mission was launched in October

7 to mark the 145th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The objective of the campaign is to make India clean by 2019 by constructing toilets, improving waste management and launching massive awareness campaigns.the campaign seeks to underscore the importance of sanitation in achieving key health objectives as nearly 21% of communicable diseases in the country are related to unsafe water and India is home to 24% of global under-5 deaths out of which 90% occur due to diarrhea. 4. Digital India: The campaign was approved in August 2014 to create digital infrastructure, deliver e-government services and improve digital literacy. The scheme aims to leverage opportunities offered by the digital economy, improve transparency and reduce corruption. 5. JAM Trinity: It seeks to leverage the opportunities provided by interconnecting three platforms Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number. The objective of this initiative is to bring financial inclusion, efficiency in the execution of schemes, targeted subsidies and mobile governance. 6. NITI Aayog: It is one the key reforms as it replaced the decades old Planning Commission that commanded greater influence in the socio-economic policy sphere. In it s over 16-months of existence NITI Aayog emerged as the primary advisory body of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs.at the core of NITI Aayog s creation are two hubs Team India Hub and the Knowledge and Innovation Hub that reflect the two key tasks of the Aayog. While Team India Hub is aimed at nurturing cooperative federalism, Knowledge Hub builds think tank capabilities. 7. External relations: It has been one of the priority areas of the government for the last two years. The thrust on building the existing bilateral and trilateral relations has been primarily aimed at meeting the mundane objectives of investments, economic growth and development rather than pursuing altruistic or idealistic agenda. Among other things, Act East Policy has been implemented with vigour and thrust. This policy builds upon the Look East Policy of the PV Narsimha Rao Government and in sync with the Pivot to Asia doctrine of Barack Obama that 7

8 mandates pro-active engagement with the Asia Pacific region. 8. Infrastructure: To sustain the present growth momentum and to achieve the desired over 10% growth rate in the near term, it is necessary for India to upgrade the social and economic infrastructure. To this end, the government came up with a number of initiatives including Smart Cities Mission, Rurbar Mission, Sagar Mala, Setu Bharatam, National Smart Grid Mission, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, etc. 9. Welfare: A slew of initiatives were launched to address the needs of SC, STs, minorities and BPL population. Major programmes include Pradhan Mantri Ujjwal Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Padhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, USTAAD, Stand Up India, etc. 10. Administrative reforms: In the last 2-years the emphasis of the administration has been on Minimum Government and Maximum Governance. A series of steps to achieve this goal have been initiated that include simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules and leveraging technology to bring in transparency in public interface. Some of the key initiatives in this segment are Digital India Plan, JAM Trinity, Task force on rationalising government staff, BS Baswan committee on civil services exam and GARV application among others. Achievements 1. Economy: As per the Economic Survey , the growth rate of GDP at constant market prices was projected to increase to 7.6% in from 7.2% in It was a significant achievement considering the fact that India grew by 5% and 4.7% in and respectively. As per the World Economic Outlook of the IMF, India will retain its position as the fastest growing major economy in growing at 7.5%, ahead of China. This development is of significance for India because the world economy is expected 8

9 to grow at 3.2% in 2016 and 3.5% in Foreign investments and Ease of doing business: In 2015, India was for the first time emerged as the leading country in the world for FDI. It surpassed the USA and China that attracted $59.6 billion and $56.6 billion investment respectively. As per the World Bank s Doing Business 2016 report, India could improve its ease of doing business ranking by 12 places to 130 rank among 180 countries surveyed. Besides, India emerged as the largest remittance receiving country in 2015 with an estimated 72 billion US dollars. 3. Human development: In the 2015 HDR, India, with a score of 0.609, was ranked 130 out of 188 countries in terms of Human Development Index (HDI). In the 2014 report, India was ranked 135 out of 187 countries. The incidence of poverty declined from 37.2 per cent in to 21.9 per cent in for the country as a whole with a sharper decline in the number of rural poor. The Global Gender Gap Report 2015 of World Economic Forum placed India at the 108th position in terms of Gender Gap Index. Compared to the 2014 report, it accumulated points and improved ranking by 6 places. 4. F iscal deficit: The fiscal deficit for was within the targeted 3.9 per cent of GDP which gives enough leverage for the government to focus on socio economic development with increased capital expenditure. 5. External relations: Considerable achievements were made by the NDA Government in the last 2 years. Foreign visits of Narendra Modi resulted in signing of various agreements covering economic, security, technology spheres. Most important among them are India, US Logistics Exchange Agreement, Agreement to develop Chabahar port in Iran, civil nuclear cooperation agreements with Australia and Japan. 9

10 Key challenges 1. Black Money: Despite the initiatives like Income declaration scheme, formation of Justice MB Shah-headed Special Investigation Team and revision in Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with various countries progress in recovering block money is not on expected lines. At the end of September 2015, undisclosed foreign assets worth only 3770 crore rupees were recovered compared to billions of dollars of unaccounted money. 2. Security threats: India has been facing security threats from multiple sources including cross border terrorism, left wing extremism, etc. The Global Terrorism Index 2015 of the Institute for Economics and Peace declared India as the 6th most affected State by terrorism in Relations with neighbours: Though bilateral relations with Bangladesh improved to a large extent with the signing of Land Boundary Agreement, relations with Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka have become tricky and needed a great push. 4. Socio-economic development: Employment creation is one of the biggest challenges for the economy. Though the growth rates were pegged at over 7%, the Ministry of Labour s 27th Quarterly Employment Survey estimated that there were job losses in the first quarter of FY in eight employment intensive industries. As per the Global Report on Urban Health 2016 of the UN, urbanization and its associated lifestyle changes have triggered a health transition in favour of non communicable diseases (NCDs) in India. As per the World Health Statistics 2016, global life expectancy for children born in 2015 was 71.4 years (73.8 years for females and 69.1 years for males), while in India it was 68.3 (66.9 for males and 69.9 for females). As per the Global Talent Competitiveness Index , India slipped 11 places to rank 89th compared to its 78th rank during This Index was prepared by INSEAD and measured ability of 109 to countries to retain talent. 10

11 5. Banking sector: Indian banking sector is facing a huge challenge in terms of nonperforming assets (NPAs). If restructured assets are taken into account, stressed assets will be accounted for 10.9 percent of the total loans in the system. As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), around 37 percent of the total debt in India is at risk. India-Iran Relations: Opening of a New Chapter India and Iran on 23 May 2016 signed 12 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) and agreements in various areas including building and operating the Chabahar port by India. The MoUs and agreements were inked after delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Modi is on a two day (from 22 May 23 May 2016) visit to Iran. Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Iran in last 15 years. On his arrival to the country he was received by Iran s Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ali Tayyebnia at the Mehrabad International Airport. The 12 Agreements/MOUs signed include India-Iran Cultural Exchange Programme: The objective is to extend the CEP for the period covering the areas of culture and art; radio, TV, mass media and cinema; and relevant general and financial terms. MoU on Policy Dialogue between Governments and Interaction between Think Tanks: The MoU was signed between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Iran. It seeks to create a Joint Secretary/ Director General policy dialogue as well as encouraging new institutional mechanisms between think tanks on both sides. There is also a provision for a conference on contemporary issues of regional and global significance. 11

12 MoU for training of diplomats and exchange of eminent speakers: It was inked between Foreign Service Institute (MEA) and the School of International Relations (Iran s MoFA) under which the two bodies will enhance cooperation. Implementation Protocol (IP) on Cooperation in the Fields of Science and Technology: it should be maintained between Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of S&T and Iran s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The IP fleshes out the specific cooperation between the two sides pursuant to the 2003 MoU and covers areas like exchange of experiences, seminars, conferences etc. MoU for cooperation between ICCR and ICRO: The MoU signed between Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Islamic Culture and Relations Organizations of the IR Iran provides for institutional mechanisms for cooperation between ICCR and ICRO and lays down the modalities for the cooperation. Bilateral contract on Chabahar Port for port development and operations between IPGPL [India Ports Global Private Limited] and Arya Banader of Iran: The contract envisages development and operation for 10 years of two terminals and 5 berths with cargo handling [multipurpose and general] capacities. MoU between EXIM Bank and Iran s Ports and Maritime Organization [PMO] on current specific terms for the Chabahar Port project: This MoU is intended for the purpose of credit of 150 US dollar million for Chabahar port. Confirmation Statement between EXIM Bank and Central Bank of Iran: This confirms the availability of credit up to 3000 crore rupees for the import of steel rails and implementation of Chabahar port. MoU to establish a framework of cooperation between ECGC and EGFI: it was inked between ECGC [Export Credit Guarantee Corporation] Limited of India and the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) to in support and encourage foreign trade and foreign investment between India and Iran and, where appropriate, the supply of goods and services from their respective countries as part of a project to a third country. 12

13 MoU to jointly explore the possibility of manufacturing aluminium metal: the MoU was signed between National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) and the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO). The objective is for the two parties to jointly explore the possibility of manufacturing aluminium metal by setting up of a smelter on joint venture basis in Iran and/or entering into tolling arrangements with smelters in Iran or any other form of business collaboration including sale of alumina etc. MoU to enable IRCON to provide requisite services for the construction of Chabahar-Zahedan railway line: It was inked between IRCON and Construction, Development of Transport and Infrastructure Company (CDTIC) of Iran. Under its IRCON will provide requisite services for the construction of Chabahar-Zahedan railway line which forms part of transit and transportation corridor in trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan. Services to be provided by IRCON include all superstructure work and financing the project (around 1.6 billion US dollar). MoU for cooperation between the National Archives of India and the National Library and Archives Organisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran: This MoU aims at facilitation of exchange of information and knowledge in the field of archival matters through exchange of manuals, guidelines, rules, publications and other special literature on archival topics. India, Iran and Afghanistan signed agreement on Trilateral Transit and Transport Corridor The agreement was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Tehran. The purpose of the agreement is to facilitate seamless transport of goods between India and Afghanistan via the Chabahar port that is strategically located in the South East of Iran. This agreement is expected to bring down cargo tariffs and boost regional economic development. Besides, India and Iran also signed an agreement for the development of the Chabahar 13

14 port. This agreement is complementary to the agreement on Trilateral Transit and Transport Corridor. Under the agreement, India will develop the Chabahar port in Iran at an estimated cost of 150 million US dollars. Comment The agreements signed between two countries open a new chapter in the history of India-Iran bilateral relationship. Out of these 12 agreements, the most important is signing of agreement to develop strategic Chabahar port and related infrastructure. It is an important milestone with potential strategic advantage to India. It is strategically important because it will enable India to bypass Pakistan and open up a route to land-locked Afghanistan with which India has close security ties and economic interests. Besides, both the countries also agreed to consult closely and regularly on combating threats of terrorism, radicalism, drug trafficking and cyber crime among others. Assembly Election 2016: Jayalalitha, Mamta retain power; BJP in Assam and Kerala goes Left The counting of State Assembly Elections 2016 in four states Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Union Territory Puducherry started in early morning today on 19 May Tamil Nadu & West Bengal The early trends suggest that women power continues to holds sway in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with Jayalaitha-led AIADMK party leading in 136 out of 234 assembly seats, while Mamta Banerjee-led TMC leading in 219 out of 294 total assembly seats. 14

15 In West Bengal the voting were casted in six phases 1st phase - on 4 April and 11 April nd phase - 17 April rd phase - 21 April th Phase 25 April th Phase - 30 April th Phase - 5 May 2016 Party Seats Won/Leading TMC 211 Left+ 71 BJP 3 Others & Independent 9 Tamil Nadu underwent the elections for 234 Assembly seats. The voting were casted in single phase on 16 May Party Seats Won/Leading AIADMK+ 134 DMK+ 98 BJP+ 0 Others 1 Kerala & Assam In Kerala, Left has raced ahead 88 seats out of 140 total assembly seats while in 15

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