Current Affairs 30th June 2017

Current Affairs 30th June 2017 - Important Points

• Who has been appointed as DGP of Kerala? - Loknath Behra
• First batch of modern bullet-proof helmets given to - Indian Army
•  Joint Communique issued  between - India-Netherlands 
•  Proposal to break up of Coal India into 7 firms by - India's policy panel
• Narendra Kumar Sinha assumes charge as Secretary in I&B Ministry on - 30th June 2017
• Union Government launched National Biopharma Mission on - 30th June 2017

Current Affairs 30th June 2017 - Details

Who has been appointed as DGP of Kerala? - Loknath Behra

Loknath Behra was appointed as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Kerala on 28th June 2017 as incumbent TP Senkumar will retire as the state DGP on 30th June 2017. Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government confirmed his appointment after the cabinet meeting. Behra, 1985 batch Kerala cadre IPS officer is currently serving as the Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

First batch of modern bullet-proof helmets given to - Indian Army

The Indian Army has received its first batch of bullet-proof helmets from Kanpur-based MKU Industries. The MKU Industries was awarded a contract to manufacture 1.58 lakh helmets for Rs 180 crore. This firm also supplies military equipment to the United Nations and NATO.
Indian Army has ordered the bolted version of bolt-free ballistic helmets. Bolt-free is the higher and costly version of bullet-proof helmets, that gives all-round protection from head injuries.

Important highlights

• The MKU Industries claims that the bullet-proof helmets go through strong quality tests and ballistic lab tests conducted at its testing facilities in India and Germany.
• The helmets are designed in such a way that they can bear the impact of 9 mm ammunition fired from a short range matching global standards of equipment for armed forces.
• The bullet-proof helmet has the main protective layer of Kevlar, which has high tensile strength-to-weight ratio; by this measure it is 5 times stronger than steel.
• They are also designed to be comfortable and also can be integrated with communication and night-vision devices.
• MKU Industries is an Indian defense company set up in 1985 in response to a need to build fibre-reinforced plastic products for the Indian Army is headquartered in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
• It manufactures protection and surveillance range of equipment and solutions, including ballistic helmets, bulletproof vests, Armour inserts, and electro-optical devices like night vision binoculars and monocular.
• It provides protection to over 2 million soldiers and 2000 platforms at present.

 Joint Communique issued  between - India-Netherlands 

Joint Communique  released by India and the Netherlands at The Hague on 27th June 2017.
The Joint Communique was released after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

Key Highlights

• The communique was released during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s work related  visit to the Netherlands on 27th June 2017.
• Modi was on a visit to the Netherlands on the invitation of his Dutch counterpart. His visit to the nation also marked 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and India.
• During this visit, Modi met his counterpart Mark Rutte, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Maxima.
• Along with that, Prime Minister Modi also met with representatives of Dutch companies operating in the Indian market and those who are keen to invest there.
•  Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders welcomed Indian Prime Minister on his arrival at Schiphol Airport.

 Proposal to break up of Coal India into 7 firms by - India's policy panel

A new draft of a New Energy Policy (NEP) prepared by Union Government's policy think-tank, NITI Aayog, says that India should split the seven units of state-controlled Coal India Limited (CIL) into independent companies. 
This action will help the firm to be more competitive.
Approximately 70 percent of India's power generation is fired by coal.
It is the world's third-largest producer at present and also the third-biggest importer of coal, which the government wants to change by boosting local coal production.

Fresh coal production should come from private sector mines, the government think-tank NITI Aayog said, adding that the move
called for reforms to allocate coal blocks in independent companies specialized in coal mining.

The previous report of December 2016 by Reuters said that senior Indian government officials,
recommended the breakup of the world's largest coal miner within a year.
It is expected that attempts to break up the world's biggest coal miner can lead to resistance from powerful unions representing the firm's more than 350000 employees. The government
stepped back from a similar proposal in the face of union protests in 2014 too. One such union close to BJP, is against the move and says it, has the support of about half of Coal India's workers. As reports said, Baij Nath Rai who is the president of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh in its conversation with Reuters said that they were opposing the recommendations made by NITI Aayog".

Narendra Kumar Sinha assumes charge as Secretary in I&B Ministry on - 30th June 2017

Narendra Kumar Sinha who is a 1980-batch IAS officer from Bihar, took over as Secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on 30th June 2017. He will be succeeding IAS officer Ajay Mittal who is getting transferred. Before his appointment, Sinha was the Secretary in the Ministry of Culture under Government of India.
More about Narendra Kumar Sinha

• Sinha is a post graduate in Electrical Engineering from IISc, Bengaluru and an MBA from Southern Cross University, Australia and is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India).
• During a career span of more than 35 years, he held various field postings and has worked from grassroots to the higher level of governance under both State and Central Governments.
• He was the Principal Secretary in the Information Technology Department under the Government of Bihar before being Secretary in the Union Ministry of Culture.

Union Government launched National Biopharma Mission on - 30th June 2017

The Cabinet Minister for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Harsh Vardhan launched a first ever Industry-Academia mission on 30th June 2017.
to accelerate bio pharmaceutical development in India.
The government launched a program named Innovate in India (i3) under this mission that will be requiring an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125 million as a loan from World Bank.
The i3 focuses to create an enabling ecosystem to promote indigenous manufacturing and entrepreneurship in the sector.
Important highlights of the mission

• This mission is aiming to enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in bio pharmaceuticals to a level that will be globally competitive in near future.
• It is also looking forward to improve the health standards of India’s population through affordable product development.
• The Mission will provide an integrated and holistic approach to support and strengthen the entire product development value chain to accelerate the research leads to product development.
• Presently India has only 2.8 percent share in the global bio pharmaceutical market. The program aims to enhance it to 5 percent resulting in an additional business opportunity of USD 16 billion.

Asian Development Bank to support USD 10 billion for - Development projects in India

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed USD 10 billion support for infrastructure building and immediate development needs of less-developed states in India on 29th June 2017.
The Manila-based multi-lateral funding agency also decided to enhance the annual funding to the country by USD 1 billion to USD 4 billion. ADB expects India to grow by 7.4 percent in the present financial year and 7.6 percent by 2018-19.
Elaborating further, ADB’s President Takehiko Nakao said that the agency is ready to meet immediate development needs of up to USD 5 billion in next five-year period for less developed states like Bihar, Jharkhand,Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. He also confirmed that with ADB assistance, strategic planning for economic corridors is progressing rapidly. The funding agency is readdy to invest up to USD 5 billion during 2018-2022 for infrastructure building to develop the East Coast Economic Corridor. The main motto is to achieve high and inclusive economic growth.