Important Current Affairs 7th June 2016

RBI Maintains Status Quo on Key Rates

1. The RBI has maintained status quo at its third bimonthly money policy review of the year.
2. The RBI kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5%, reverse repo at 6% & CRR at 4% .
3. The main reason cited to maintain status quo on the policy rate cut was recent spike in inflation & rising commodity prices globally.
4. Rising crude prices & implementation of 7th pay commission pose upside risk to inflation

V Narayanasamy Sworn in As Puducherry CM

1. Senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy  was sworn in as the tenth Chief Minister of Puducherry.
2. Lt Governor Kiran Bedi administered the oath of office & secrecy to Narayanasamy & five other ministers.
3. Narayanasamy practiced law for more than ten years since 1973 & jumped into active politics in 1985.
4. He had served as Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in the second UPA govt.

India 2nd In Ease of Doing Business

1. India has jumped 13 positions from 2015 to rank 2nd among 30 developing countries in 2016 on ease of doing business.
2. This was according to 2016 Global Retail Development Index which ranks developing countries for retail investment.
3. India has relaxed several key Foreign Direct Investment regulations in single-brand retail.
4. This has paved the way for multinational firms to enter the market.

Parashar Kulkarni bags Short Story Prize

1. Parashar Kulkarni has become the first Indian author to win the Commonwealth short story prize, beating almost 4,000 entries.
2. He is working as assistant professor in social sciences at Yale NUS College Singapore.
3. The winning story Cow & Company is a narrative set in India in the 1990s about four men who go in search of a cow to feature in an advertisement for chewing gum.

Switzerland Backs India’s Bid for NSG

1. India got the backing of Switzerland in its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
2. Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann announced his country’s support after holding comprehensive talks with Modi.
3. The NSG membership will help India expand its atomic energy sector.
4. The two countries also agreed to step up cooperation in unearthing black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.

Bopanna Secures Direct Entry for Rio

1. Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna has secured a direct entry into the men’s doubles event of the Rio Olympic Games.
2. He was officially returned to top-10 in the ATP ranking doubles chart,
3. Bopanna being a top-10 player not only gets a direct entry but also has the choice to pick his partner for the men’s doubles.
4. Veteran Leander Paes gained five places to be placed 46 now.

Forbes World’s Most Powerful Women List

1. Forbes has announced the 2016 list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
2. German Chancellor Angela Merkel retains the top spot on the list.
3. She is followed by Hillary Clinton & U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
4. Indian’s who ranked in the list are SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya 25th, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar 40th, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 77th & HT group Shobhana Bhartia ranked 93th.

Guwahati First City to have City Animal

1. The Assam state capital Guwahati becomes the first city in the country to have its own City Animal.
2. The Kamrup Metropolitan district administration declared the Gangetic River Dolphin as the mascot.
3. The animal locally known as ‘Sihu’, would be the ‘City Animal’ of Guwahati.
4. There are less than 2,000 Gangetic river dolphins remain in the Brahmaputra along Guwahati.

All Trains to have Bio-Toilets by 2019

1. Indian Railways will fit bio-toilets on all its coaches by 2019.
2. By 2019, all 55,000 coaches of Indian Railways would be fitted with 1,40,000 bio-toilets.
3. Till 31March,2016, railways have installed around 35,000 bio-toilets in 10,000 railway coaches.
4. Train toilets in India have always emptied human waste on to railway tracks, an unhygienic practice that also corrodes tracks.

World’s First 3D Printed Plane Unveiled

1. The world’s first 3D-printed aircraft THOR was unveiled by Airbus at the International Berlin air show,Germany.
2. Airbus & Boeing are already using 3D printing to make parts for their passenger jets.
3. The printed pieces have the advantage of requiring no tools & can be made very quickly.
4. 3D printing is a process of making 3-D solid objects from a digital file with extreme precision.

Swachh Yug Campaign to Make Villages ODF

1. As part of its efforts to make villages located along Ganga open defecation-free, Govt has launched a campaign ‘Swachh Yug’.
2. Campaign will focus on cleanliness in the villages through proper solid and liquid waste management.
3. The govt will rope in thousands of volunteers to help bring about a behavioral change among villagers living in 52 districts along the Ganga.