Important Current Affairs 5th June 2016

Garbine Muguruza Wins French Open Title

1. Spaniard Garbine Muguruza has lifted the woman’s singles title of French Open.
2. She defeated defending champion Serena Williams at Rolland Garros in Paris.
3. She is the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez in 1998.
4. For Williams it was a 2nd straight loss in a Grand Slam final.
5. The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open ,French Open,Wimbledon & US Open.

PM Inaugurates Afgan Indo Friendship Dam

1. PM Modi jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam (Salma Dam) with President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani at Herat province in Afghanistan.
2. Salma Dam is a landmark infrastructure project undertaken by Government of India on river Hari Rud.
3. Afghan-India Friendship Dam is a Multipurpose project planned for generating 42 MW of power, irrigating 75000 hectares of land & water supply.

Veteran Actor Sulabha Deshpande Dies

1. Veteran theatre & film actor Sulabha Deshpande who had acted in numerous Marathi & Hindi films has passed away.
2. She acted in plays written by acclaimed playwrights such as Vijay Tendulkar.
3. In Hindi, she earned plenty of plaudits for her acting in films such as Bhumika,Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan & Gaman.
4. In 1971 she co-founded the theatre group Awishkar with her husband Arvind Deshpande.

ATM-based Validation Facility Activated

1. The Income Tax department has launched an ATM-based validation system for filing e-ITRs by taxpayers.
2. Electronic Verification Code can be generated by pre-validating your ATM provided by the bank where a taxpayer has an account.
3. These measures are used to validate the e-ITR so that the taxpayer does not take the trouble of sending the paper-based ITR-V by post to the Central Processing Centre.

Oldest Plant Root Stem Cells Discovered

1. Scientists have discovered the oldest known population of plant root stem cells in a 320 million- year-old fossil.
2. The research marks the first time an actively growing fossilised root has been discovered.
3. The cells, which gave rise to the roots of an ancient plant were found in a fossilised root tip at Oxford University in the UK.
4. The stem cell fossil has been named Radix carbonica or coal root.

Olympic Order for IOA Chief Ramachandran

1. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the prestigious Olympic Order to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president N. Ramachandran.
2. The award is given in acknowledgement for Ramachandran’s outstanding contribution to the Olympic movement.
3. Ramachandran became IOA president in February 2014.
4. Former IOA president, the late B.S. Adityan was also honoured with the same award in 1995.

India Post Release an Amazon India Stamp

1. India Post released a Rs.5 stamp to mark the third anniversary of Amazon India’s services in the country.
2. Called My Stamp, it shows a delivery boy with a carton labelled Amazon.
3. This is the first time India Post is honoring an e-commerce site for a milestone
4. My Stamp is an initiative to allow businesses & notable individuals in India to print stamps with a picture of their choice.

Vulture Breeding Programme Launched

1. The Haryana govt has launched Asia’s First Gyps Vulture Reintroduction Programme at Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre,Pinjore.
2. The vultures were released as part of the reintroduction programme,in a pre-release aviary.
3. Among the 10 vultures released,two Himalayan Griffons.
4. Almost 95 % vultures have disappeared & the reason is diclofenac, a painkiller given to cattle which can kill them.

Deal Inked for Hassle-Free Entry into US

1. India & US have signed a MoU to facilitate hassle-free entry of Indians into the US at selected airports.
2. The move will provide speedy security clearances for pre-approved Indian travellers upon arrival in US at selected airports.
3. The MoU was signed between Indian Ambassador to US, Arun K Singh & Kevin K McAleenan.
4. India is only the 9th country with which the US has entered into this initiative.

Modi Awarded Afghanistan’s Top Honour

1. PM Narendra Modi was conferred with Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan highest civilian honour.
2. He was awarded the honour by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
3. Afghanistan is Modi’s first stop as part of his five-nation tour.
4. India has a strategic partnership with Afghanistan & is implementing projects worth USD 2 billion to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.