16th June 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

International Current Affairs

• President Ram Nath Kovind left for a three-nation visit to Greece, Suriname and Cuba. 
• As part of the nine-day tour, Kovind will first visit Athens (Greece), where he will meet Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and other senior members of the Government.
• Later he will visit Suriname, where he will meet and hold discussions with President Desire Delano Bouterse. 
• He will also be holding official level talks in the country. 
  
• A number of agreements and MoUs in the areas of health and medicine, elections, IT and Ayurveda are slated to be signed. 
• The President will then visit Cuba, where he is scheduled to hold discussions with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz – Canel Bermudez. 
• A number of MoUs and Agreements in the areas of Biotechnology, Homeopathy and traditional system of medicine and medicinal plants are slated to be signed during the visit.
• Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu is on a two day visit to the United States.  
• This is his first such high-level engagement since the US slapped duties on Indian steel and aluminum. 
• During this visit, he held a series of meetings with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. 
• India and the United States have agreed to hold comprehensive talks to address trade and economic issues.

National Current Affairs

• People are celebrating the festival of Eid ul-Fitr with great fervour and gaiety.
• Eid ul-Fitr, an important religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide, marks the end of fasting month of Ramzan. 
• The festival is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the 10th month of Islamic lunar calendar. 
• The Bombay High Court recently approved the service of notice about a litigation in a PDF format through WhatsApp as valid.
• According to the government think tank NITI Aayog's recent report, at least 21 major Indian cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru, are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people.
• It further stated that 40% Indian population will have no access to drinking water by 2030 and that India will lose 6% GDP by 2050 due to the crisis.
• Tamil Nadu is going to ban electronic cigarettes, battery-operated inhalers that emit doses of vaporised nicotine.
• Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singhhas discontinued the tradition of giving ceremonial Guard of Honour to the Governor. 
• With this he became the first Governor of the country who made big changes regarding this type of arrangements.

Science & Technology

• NASA's record-breaking astronaut, Peggy Whitson (58), retired today after a 22-year-long career. 
• Whitson, who joined NASA as a researcher in 1986, has spent more time off Earth than any other American, totalling 665 days over three International Space Station missions. 
• Note : She is the oldest woman to go into spaceand also the most experienced female spacewalker, with 10 missions.

Books & Authors

• Hong Kong martial artist, actor, film director Jackie Chan's memoir 'Never Grow Up' translated by Jeremy Tiang, will be released in November.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

• Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has started the mass rollout of WhatsApp Payments feature via UPI platform in India.
• The feature was rolled out to select users in February, but now, besides invite-based access, users can also access it after updating the app. 
• Note : WhatsApp will be able to send ₹5,000 in a single transaction.
• The State Bank of India (SBI) has informed refiners that it won't handle payments for crude oil from Iran from November.
• This comes after US President Donald Trump pulled out of Iran nuclear deal and pledged to impose "highest level of sanctions" within 180 days.
• This move affect India's imports of Iranian oil from August-end. 

New Appointments

• Flying Officer Meghana Shanbough MR (Karnataka) has become the 1st woman Indian Air Force fighter pilot from south India. 
• Before her, only five other female fighter pilots have joined the ranks.
• Snapdeal's Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Jason Kothari has resigned after 1.5 years at the e-commerce company and has been appointed President of Ahmedabad-headquartered Infibeam. 
• Snapdeal CFO Vikas Bhasin will take over Kothari's responsibilities.
• San Francisco is to get its after a knife-edge election, with the African American population in decline in the famously liberal Californian city.
• American politician London Breed has been elected as the Mayor of San Francisco. 
• With this she will become the first female black mayor of San Francisco.

Sports Current Affairs

• India Women opener Smriti Mandhana is set to become the 1st Indian to play in the English T20 league after being signed by defending champions Western Storm.