Current Affairs: Daily GK Update 15th June 2017

i. Leo Varadkar, a 38-year-old Indian-origin doctor, scripted history by becoming Ireland’s youngest and the first openly gay Prime Minister of the Catholic-majority country.

ii. Varadkar, the country’s first Indian-origin premier, officially took over from Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, as the Irish prime ministerial title is known, after a parliamentary vote in Dublin confirmed him as the leader by 57 votes to 50, with 47 abstentions.

Takeaways from above News-

i. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval in the various fields and has also approved some important MoUs. The important approvals of the Cabinet are as follows-
The Cabinet has approved-

1. The Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) for farmers for the year 2017-18: This will help farmers getting short term crop loan up to Rs. 3 lakh payable within one year at only 4% per annum. The Government has earmarked a sum of Rs. 20,339 crore for this purpose. 
2. Ex-post facto approval to the MoU between Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture in the State of Palestine on agriculture cooperation. 
3. The proposal to introduce a Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017: The Bill would provide for a comprehensive resolution framework for specified financial sector entities to deal with bankruptcy situation in banks, insurance companies, and financial sector entities. 
4. The signing of MoU between India and Armenia on cooperation on youth matters 
5. The signing of MoU between India and Bangladesh for promoting cooperation in the field of Information Technology and Electronics.

i. Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal addressed a Joint Press Conference with the organizers of ANUGA – an international business platform for Food Industry to be held in Cologne, Germany.

ii. She also signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Participation in the ANUGA Exhibition with Ms Katharina C Hamma, Chief Operating Officer, Koelnmesse GmBH (Organizers of ANUGA).

About ANUGA in Brief:

i. To enhance the passenger’s experience by upgrading existing fleet of coaches with better furnishing, aesthetics & amenities and better safety features with a view to provide a safe and comfortable travel, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu has launched MISSION RETRO-FITMENT in Rail Bhavan, New Delhi.

ii. Mission Retro-Fitment is an ambitious program to upgrade the level of furnishing & amenities in the coaches of Indian Railways. This is one of the largest retro fitment project in the world as Indian Railways’ 40,000 coaches will be refurbished and retrofitted in the next five years.

Static Takeaways from Above News-

i. India has announced a number of new diplomatic appointments in its missions abroad, including envoys to the European Union, Italy, Belgium, and Denmark.

1. Gaitri Issar Kumar, joint secretary in the President’s Secretariat, was named as India’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union which has its headquarters in the Belgian capital of Brussels.
2. Reenat Sandhu was named as India’s new Ambassador to Italy. He has replaced Anil Wadhwa.
3. Ajit Vinayak Gupte, joint secretary in the external affairs ministry, has been named India’s Ambassador to Denmark. He will take over from Rajeev Shahare.

Static Takeaways from Above News-

i. The World Bank has approved financing worth more than 500 million dollars for Afghanistan to support a string of projects to boost the economy, help improve service delivery in five cities and support Afghan refugees sent back from Pakistan.

ii. The international troop withdrawal, which began in 2011, and political uncertainties have impacted Afghanistan’s economy deeply. The largest chunk of the package, some 205.4 million dollars, will go toward supporting communities affected by refugees returning from Pakistan.

Important Takeaways for IBPS PO Exam-

i. According to the Code Compliance Rating of banks done by the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) 2017, only one (IDBI Bank) out of 26 public sector banks and eight out of 17 private sector banks got ‘high’ rating for their adherence to code compliance.

ii. The eight private sector banks that got ‘high’ rating are- Axis Bank, DCB Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank and YES Bank. The three foreign banks are Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, that were surveyed got ‘high’ ranking.

Banking Takeaways from Above News-

i. Indian warships began a week-long naval exercise off the coast of Western Australia. The second AUSINDEX exercises are aimed at increasing interoperability between Australian and Indian naval forces, executing complex naval manoeuvres.

ii. The first AUSINDEX was held in the Bay of Bengal in 2015.

Important Takeaways from above News-

i. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test fired the anti-tank missile “Nag” in a desert in Rajasthan’s western sector.

ii. The Nag missile is a third generation “fire and forget” anti-tank missile. It has reportedly also been equipped with highly advanced Imaging Infrared Radar (IRR) seeker and has integrated avionics technology in its arsenal. 

Important Takeaways from Above News-

• Study notes of banking awareness for RBI Grade-B 2017
• More questions of banking awareness for bank exams