Important Current Affairs 5th July 2016

Nasa’s Juno Spacecraft Makes History

1. NASA’s unmanned Juno spacecraft makes history when it began orbiting Jupiter.
2. This is a key triumph for a $1.1 billion mission that aims to uncover the origins of the biggest planet in the solar system.
3. The NASA spacecraft reached Jupiter after a five-year voyage to begin exploring the planet.
4. The spacecraft has traveled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers) since it launched.

China Launches Naval Drills

1. China has kicked off a week of military drills in the South China Sea ahead of a court ruling on its territorial claims in the region.
2. An international court is expected to rule July 12 on Beijing’s maritime dispute with the Philippines.
3. The tribunal in The Hague is widely expected to rule against China on several counts
4. Beijing has repeatedly said it will ignore the verdict.

Linda Becomes 1st female Aboriginal MP

1. Linda Burney became the first Indigenous woman elected to the House of Representatives (lower house) of the Parliament of Australia.
2. She achieved the fete after claiming victory in the marginal seat of Barton.
3. She won the seat as a candidate of the centre-left Labour Party.
4. Aborigines are the most disadvantaged Australians, suffering disproportionate levels of disease & social problems.

Pacific Ocean Radiation Back Near Normal

1. Radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean are rapidly returning to normal five years after a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
2. Japan shut down dozens of reactors after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake-generated tsunami on March 11,2011.
3. It triggered one of the largest ever dumps of nuclear material into the world’s oceans.
4. But now it found radiation levels in Pacific rapidly returning to normal.

PM Expands Council of Ministers

1. PM Narendra Modi  has inducted 19 new ministers into the Council of Ministers.
2. Current environment minister Prakash Javadekar who was at the minister of state level was elevated to Cabinet minister rank.
3. The rest have been sworn in as ministers of state.
4. These 19 come from more than ten states including U.P.,Gujarat,Rajasthan,West Bengal, Maharashtra, M.P.,Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka & Assam.

Centre Nod for Renaming Mhow Railway St

1. The central government has given its nod for renaming Mhow railway station in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh after BR Ambedkar as the Dalit icon was born there.
2. The Home Ministry has requested the state government to issue a Gazette notification in this regard.
3. Mhow was renamed as Dr Ambedkar Nagar in 2003 by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Govt Unveil Mineral Exploration Policy

1. Union Steel & Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has unveiled a new National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP).
2. The  policy aims to bring together best of knowledge ,manpower & financial resources on a collaborative platform.
3. Space technology would be used to check illegal mining.
4. The objective is to set in motion a process for mineral exploration that would give a major boost to the economy.

JNPT 1st Port to Implement Data Tagging

1. Jawaharlal Nehru Port has become the first port in the country to implement logistics data tagging of containers.
2. The port implemented the logistics data tagging of containers which will help importers & exporters track their goods in transit.
3. An RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tag) tag would be attached to each container & tracked through RIFD readers installed at different locations.

Madhya Pradesh Launches PMUY

1. Madhya Pradesh CM Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) at Shahdol, M.P.
2. Govt aims to add 50 lakh new connections in the state of M.P. in the next 3 years
3. The PMUY scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in rural India with more clean & efficient LPG.
4. The scheme aims at empowering women& protecting their health.

Niranjan Wins Medals in IWAS World Games

1. Bengaluru para-swimmer Niranjan Mukundan has won 8 medals including 3 golds at the IWAS (International Wheelchair & Amputee Sports) U-23 World Games in Prague.
2. He bagged gold medals in 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly & 50m breaststroke.
3. He is born with a medical condition called Spina Bifida & clubbed feet.
4. He also had the honour of delivering the athletes’ oath on behalf of competing countries.

Saudi Arabia Become ICC Associate Member

1. Saudi Arabia was unanimously elected as the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) 39th Associate Member during its full council meeting in Edinburgh.
2. Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC) has been an Affiliate Member of the ICC since 2003.
3. Council also unanimously ratified the suspensions of the USA Cricket Association & the Cricket Association of Nepal.
4. ICC is the international governing body of cricket.

India Women’s Relay Team Set Nt’l Record

1. The Indian 4x100m women’s relay team created a new national record at the Kazakhstan National Athletics Championships, clocking 43.42 sec in Almaty.
2. The 4x100m relay quartet, comprising of Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, H M Jyothi & Merlin Joseph.
3. They bettered their earlier national record of 44.03 sec.
4. The Indian women’s relay team won the silver medal at the Almaty.

Allyson, LaShawn Merritt Earn Rio Berth

1. US athletes Allyson Felix & LaShawn Merritt has earned their Olympic 400m berths with the fastest times in the world this year at the American trials.
2. Felix won the women’s 400m in 49.68 sec.
3. Felix will become just the second-ever U.S. athlete to compete in the 100m, 200m& 400m in her Olympic career.
4. Merritt won the men’s 400m final with a time of 43.97,the fastest time in the world this year.

Iranian Director Abbas Kiarostami Dies

1. Award-winning Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami has passed away.
2. He made more than 40 films, including documentaries.
3. He won the Palme D’Or, the top prize at Cannes, with his 1997 film Taste of Cherry.
4. It was about a middle-aged Iranian man planning to commit suicide & looking for someone to bury him when he is dead.
5. He was the only Iranian to ever win the Palme D’Or.

Accenture Ties up with IITs for Research

1. Accenture has entered into a joint research collaboration with IIT Bombay & IIT Patna focused on the different application aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
2. The research will focused on IT services & will look at augmenting software engineers with powerful AI insights.
3. The focus area of the program includes research in machine learning,neural network & other areas of AI.

Telcos to spend Rs1 lakh cr on Spectrum

1. The telecom industry is expected to spend Rs 100,000 crore towards spectrum acquisition in upcoming auctions.
2. The govt is putting up for auction 2,300 MHz of spectrum.
3. Airtel, Vodafone & Idea combined will spend Rs 1.2 lakh cr over the next two years on network expansion& spectrum payouts.
4. Data is emerging as the new growth engine & spectrum to build capacity to deliver high-speed data services.

Power Output Growth Doubles in 2016

1. Power generation growth has risen to 9.5% this year so far,as against 5.65% during the 10 year period from 2004 to 2014.
2. Power Minister Piyush Goyal  also said there was 87% reduction in energy shortage in just two years to 14 million units (mu) from 110 mu earlier.
3. According to Vidyut Pravah application to monitor power demand the electricity deficit came down to 14 mu in July this year.

ICICI Bank, BoB Exit CIBIL

1. TransUnion has raised its stake in its Indian subsidiary CIBIL to 77.1% by buying out ICICI & Bank of Baroda’s (BoB) holding in it.
2. ICICI Bank has sold its 6% while BoB has sold its 5% holding,
3. Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL) is India’s first Credit Information Company founded in Aug 2000.
4. It  maintains records of an individual’s payments pertaining to loans & credit cards.

TeamLease acquires ASAP Info Systems

1. TeamLease Services, a staffing company, has signed an agreement to acquire ASAP Info Systems Private Limited.
2. TeamLease will acquire ASAP Info Systems for an enterprise value of Rs. 67 crores .
3. The acquisition will help it expand its footprint in the core IT hiring space.
4. ASAP is a Bengaluru based, provides IT staffing solutions to various multinational & domestic companies.

HSBC Upgraded India to Overweight Status

1. HSBC has upgraded India to the overweight’ status, citing improving domestic indicators & more realistic earnings expectations.
2. It has also raised its Sensex target for 2016-end to 28,500 from 26,000.
3. According to HSBC, domestically, India is one of the most convincing growth stories.
4. Key risks to this view are poor monsoons, a sharp rise in inflation, slower-than-expected economic growth.