Important Current Affairs 6th July 2016

Smriti Irani Loses HRD Ministry

1. In a big cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, Ms Irani has been moved out of the Human Resource Development or HRD ministry and Prakash Javadekar, promoted to cabinet rank this morning, will hold the portfolio now.
2. Ms Irani, whose two-year tenure saw several controversies, has been moved to the Textile Ministry, seen as a less glamorous assignment.

Several big changes made to the cabinet

1. Venkaiah Naidu will now be Minister for Information and Broadcasting, a portfolio held by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as an additional charge.
2. Piyush Goel will hold Independent charge of four key ministries – Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines.
3. Jayant Sinha has been shifted from the Finance Ministry and will now be minister of state for civil aviation.

India’s Growth to be challenged: Moody’s

1. Moody’s Investors Service recently said that India’s economic growth over the coming years will be challenged by lacklustre global demand, high corporate leverage and impaired credit supply.
2. The US-based agency has a ‘Baa3’ rating on India with a positive outlook.
3. Moody’s said passage of bankruptcy law and NPA (non-performing asset) recognition in banks would be credit positive.

Oil Price Fall 5% Biggest Drop On Brexit

1. Oil prices tumbled 5 per cent on Tuesday, with US crude heading for its largest daily decline in five months
2. Data showing higher supplies, including an inventory build at the delivery hub for US crude futures, also pressured oil prices.
3. Investors are worried that Britain’s exit from the European Union would slow the global economy.

Non-Urea Fertiliser Prices Slashed

1. The retail prices of non-urea fertilisers including DAP have been slashed by up to Rs 5,000/tonne following drop in global prices of raw materials.
2. For a bag of 50 kg, the effective rate for DAP would come down by Rs 150, MoP by Rs 250 and other NPK fertilisers by Rs 100.
3. Non-urea fertiliser prices have been reduced for the first time in last 15 years.

Mozambique to grow pulses for Indian

1. Mozambique will produce Indian varieties of pulses, mainly arhar and urad, to meet India’s growing demand for dals.
2. The Indian government will assist Mozambique by providing high quality seeds and technical assistance.
3. According to a government release, pulses from Mozambique will be imported through private channels or government-to-government (G2G) sales through state agencies.

No Charge In Clinton Email Probe: FBI

1. FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that his agency will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
2. The decision effectively means that Clinton will not have to fear criminal liability as her campaign moves forward
3. Clinton is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2016 United States presidential election.

Govt approves interest subvention scheme

1. Farmers will get short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh at a subsidised interest rate of 4 per cent this fiscal, provided they repay in time, or else a higher rate of 7 per cent will be charged.
2. The subvention scheme is applicable for all farmers availing short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh for one year.
3. Interest subvention scheme is for public and private sector banks.

Tamil Nadu to get 4th major port

1. The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the setting up of a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu. This would be the country’s 13th major port.
2. India has 12 major ports — Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia). These handle approximately 61 per cent of the country’s cargo.

Expectations from Juno mission

1. Juno will fly closer to Jupiter than any other spacecraft, skipping over cloud tops and peering deep inside to uncover clues about the giant planet’s formation
2. It will also probe Jupiter’s gravity and magnetic fields to determine what kind of core it has and what makes the northern and southern lights so intense
3. Galileo was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and it completed a 14-year mission.

New Horizons to Meet Deeper Space Object

1. After its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, Nasa’s New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt.
2. The spacecraft’s will reach an ancient object named 2014 MU69 – considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system in 2019.
3. Nasa said the Dawn spacecraft should remain at the dwarf planet Ceres.

Climate actions to curb emissions

1. India has underlined the need for countries to take pre-2020 climate actions to curb emissions and sought cooperation among countries in finance and technology sectors to tackle climate change.
2. Javadekar has said that India has upscaled its solar energy target by five times and plans an expansion of 100 GW of solar energy.

2 swimmers selected for Rio Games

1. Swimming Federation of India (SFI) on Tuesday selected Kerala’s Sajan Prakash and Haryana’s Shivani Kataria to represent the country at the Games.
2. With no Indian swimmer managing to achieve the A qualification mark for Rio Olympics, the two swimmers will participate in the Games under Universality quota.

India’s growth rate may be overstated

1. India’s 7.5 per cent growth rate may be “overstated” as the government has been “slow” to match its rhetoric in economic reforms: US report.
2. The report titled “Investment Climate Statements for 2016” notes that the government failed to get support in Parliament on a GST as it is still negotiating with the Opposition a way of passing the GST Bill to untangle India’s convoluted tax system.

Muslims get ready to celebrate Eid

1. The Muslims from entire country get ready to celebrate Eid as Wednesday is predicted to be the ‘Chand raat’.
2. Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari said that as the moon could not be sighted on Tuesday, Eid will be celebrated on July 7.
3. Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

TRAI’s app to check real-time internet

1. In a bid to improve the quality of data service for Indian mobile users, telecom regulator TRAI has launched an application to help consumers check real-time internet speed on their handsets and report the same to the regulator.
2. With the new app, consumers would be able to see data speeds and also share the information, thus bringing about “transparency”, “choice” as well as healthy competition

10 Lakh people expected in Puri Festival

1. The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath starts in Puri in Odisha on Wednesday with authorities expecting about 10 lakh people to take part in the nine-day chariot festival.
2. Security has been strengthened across Puri town for the Rath Yatra
3. East Coast Railway will run special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers for the festival.

World largest charkha unveiled in Delhi

1. BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday unveiled the world’s largest wooden charkha at IGI Airport in Delhi.
2. The four-tonne charkha is made of high-quality Burma teak wood and is estimated to last for over 50 years. It is 9 feet wide, 17 feet tall and 30 feet long.
3. Terminal 3 has art from renowned artists such as MF Husain, Anjolie Ela Menon, Paresh Maity, Satish Gupta, Thota Tharani etc.

Coal India plans buyback of its shares

1. Coal India has decided to go for buyback of its shares and a meeting of the Board of directors has been convened on July 11 to take a final call.
2. While Coal India has not specified the quantum of the buyback, sources said it would be about 5% of its issued capital.
3. The government would be the biggest beneficiary of the proposed buyback as it holds 79.65% stake in Coal India.