Current Affairs 8th June 2017

Current Affairs 8th June 2017 - Important Points

• MoU between India and Korea for export credit of USD 9 billion approved by - The Union Cabinet
• 12 new astronauts in 2017 - chosen by NASA 
• Nepal's first woman Chief Justice Sushila Karki retired on - 8th June 2017
• One of Top 5 Consumer Markets in Asia - India
• FDI proposals to be decided within 60 days by - Finance Ministry
• First Indian state to launch pension for single women - Telangana
• Who has been appointed as Registrar of Copyrights Office? - Hoshiar Singh 
• New species of flying squirrel discovered in - North America

Current Affairs 8th June 2017 -Details

MoU between India and Korea for export credit of USD 9 billion approved by - The Union Cabinet

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) and Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) for export credit of USD 9 billion on 7th June 2017. The MoU is aiming towards the infrastructural development in India and to supply goods and services as part of projects in outside countries. It is also expected to promote India's international exports and will strengthen financial and political ties between India and Korea. 

Key Highlights of the MoU 

• Both the countries will hold mutual consultations to structure the financial assistance, related procedures and review the existing arrangements. 
• In India , feasible projects will be identified by EXIM Bank.
• By way of Investment Credit,The export credit of USD 9 billion will be extended by KEXIM
• The export credit will be utilized through lending by EXIM Bank for promoting projects to priority sectors such as railways, 
• smart cities, power generation and transmission in India and for the supply of goods and services from India and Korea as part of projects in outside countries.

12 new astronauts in 2017 - chosen by NASA 

NASA announced names of 12 new astronauts, including an Indian-American Lt Col Raja Grinder Chari on 7th June 2017 over 18000 applicants. The new candidates batch for 2017 will going to include  three scientists,six military officers, a lead engineer, two medical doctors at SpaceX and a NASA research pilot.

Key Highlights

• Since 1959, The seven men and five women comprise the 22nd class of American spaceflight trainee.
• Indian American Lt Col., US Air Force Raja Grinder Chari who is 39 years old, will going to be a commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron  and the Director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• The other 11 selected astronaut candidates include Matthew Dominick,Jonny Kim, Frank Rubio, Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Warren Hoburg, Robb Kulin, Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, Loral O' Hara and Jessica Watkins.
• Training will be provided to these candidates for missions into Earth orbit and to deep space for 2 years.
• After completion of the training, they will be assigned to a variety of missions, including performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and also departing for deep space missions on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
• Now NASA have total of 359 astronauts since the original Mercury 7th in 1959, after the addition of these 12 members in 2017. 

Nepal's first woman Chief Justice Sushila Karki retired on - 8th June 2017

First woman Chief Justice of Nepal Sushila Karki retired on 8th June 2017. She was 65 years old at the time of retirement. She was appointed as 25th Chief Justice of Nepal Supreme Court on 11th July 2017. 

More about Sushila Karki

• She was working as an assistant teacher in Mahendra Multiple Campus of Nepal initially and then she jumped into legal profession in 1979.
• She was first appointed as the Ad-Hoc Justice of Nepal Supreme Court in January 2009 and then promoted to Permanent Justice in November 2010.
• She took charge of the Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice in April 2016 after Kalyan Shrestha retired. 

One of Top 5 Consumer Markets in Asia - India

India has been ranked one of the top five consumer markets in Asia in the 2017 BMI Research. As per the report, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India represent five favorite consumer markets in Asia. These countries offer retailers the strongest consumer spending growth over its forecast period to 2021. The research shows that consumer spending in India will maintain strong levels of growth through to 2021, almost at an average of about 6.1 percent because of the country’s positive economic outlook continues.

Key Factors behind Increase in Consumer Spending -

• Increased access to consumer credit
• Decrease inflation rate
• More favourable regulatory environment for foreign retailers
• The report further stated that India has a booming e-commerce segment and online retail sales are expected to continue growing at double-digit rates over the forecast period.

More about BMI Research

• BMI is a research firm founded in 1984 providing macroeconomic, industry and financial market analysis, covering 24 industries and 200 global markets.
• Its offices are all across the world including in  New York,Hong Kong,London, Dubai, South Africa, Singapore and Japan.
• Fitch Group, an American mass media and business information conglomerate acquired this in 2014, which is majorly owned by Hearst, .

 FDI proposals to be decided within 60 days by - Finance Ministry

The Union Government announced on 6th June 2017 that Ministries will have to decide on FDI proposals within 60 days of the application and in case of any rejection, it will need concurrence of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). India had scrapped the 25-year old foreign investment advisory body named Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in earlier May 2017 aiming to attract more FDI by providing quick approvals.

Key highlights

• Administrative ministry will be taking care of  all the pending applications with the FIPB  within four weeks.
• Also oversight of the FIPB portal shall be transferred to the DIPP from Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) within four weeks too.
• It also highlights that any FDI proposal related to banks will be approved by the Financial Services Department.
• The memorandum says that FDI proposals by NRIs/EoUs requiring approval of the government will be taken care of by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
• In this case, the DIPP will continue to be the administrative ministry for this purpose and will simultaneously handle the applications seeking import of capital goods or machinery.

First Indian state to launch pension for single women - Telangana

Telangana government launched the single-women pension scheme across the state on 4th June 2017. The state government would be giving a pension of about Rs 1000 per month to single women on humanitarian grounds under this welfare scheme.

Important Highlights

• 108302 beneficiaries in 31 districts have been identified by the officials.
• In the towns of Chinnakoduru and Nunganuru of Siddipet, pension papers were handed over by Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao to 836 women.
• In the same way, Transport Minister Mahendar Reddy launched the scheme at Vikarabad, Keesara,Medchal, Parigi, Rajendranagar, Chevella and Kodangal districts.
• The decision to extend pension to single women was taken following petitions on the sad plight of single women left to survive alone by their husbands and relatives.
• Earlier the government used to spend ?800 crore only on pensions to 29 lakh beneficiaries, now it is increased to ?5,600 Cr annual to around 38 lakh people.
• Pension will be credited in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries on monthly basis.

Who has been appointed as Registrar of Copyrights Office? - Hoshiar Singh 

Hoshiar Singh, a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Telecom Services, was appointed as Registrar of Copyrights for a period of five years on 7th June 2017 by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). 

Important highlights on Office of Copyrights

• It was established under Section 9 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 and it's registrar is appointed by the Union Government. 
• The Office of Copyrights is mandated to protect the music and film industry along with addressing its concerns.
• It comes under the immediate control of a Registrar of Copyrights.

New species of flying squirrel discovered in - North America

Scientists have discovered a new species of flying squirrel named Glaucomys Oregonensis in North America recently that had been hiding in plain sight for more than hundreds of years. The study was published in the Journal of Mammalogy on 30th May 2017. This new species resides in the Pacific Coast region of North America and named as Humboldt's flying squirrel.

Key Highlights

• This flying squirrel species comes under a cryptic one ( a species that was previously thought to be another as the two look similar).
• These creatures do not actually fly like bats or birds. Rather, they glide from tree to tree by extending furred membranes of skin.
• Their feather-like tail gives extra lift and also helps them in steering.
• These squirrels are capable of gliding for up to 100 meters and can make sharp midair turns by using their tail as a rudder.