Current affairs june 15 2017 1

CURRENT AFFAIRS JUNE 15, 2017

1. Cabinet approved additional Interest Subvention Scheme on short term farm loan:

The interest subvention of 5% will be given to farmers for crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh for one year for 2017-18.
Earlier only 2% of interest subvention was provided for such loans.
Now the farmers would have to pay only 4% per annum for this loan.
This scheme will be given to Public and Private Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks and RRBs.
The scheme will also be given to NABARD for refinancing to RRBs and Cooperative Banks.
The scheme will be implemented by RBI and NABARD.
The government earmarked Rs. 20,339 crore for the implementation of this scheme.

Interest subvention for:

Post-harvest storage for loans up to 6 months: 2% making the effective rate of interest of 7% instead of 9%. This would be provided to small and marginal farmers who have Kisan Credit Card.
Farmers affected by calamities: 2% on the restructured amount
For farmers who do not repay loans: 2%

2. Important MoUs cleared by Cabinet:

With Palestine on Agricultural Cooperation:

The agreement was signed last month between the Agricultural Ministries of both the states.

The areas of cooperation are agricultural research, Animal Health, irrigation and climate change.
Will also be extended to plant and soil nutrition, experience sharing on sanitary and phytosanitary legislation, animal husbandry etc.

With Armenia on cooperation of youth matters:

through participation in events and activities organized by the parties, information and knowledge sharing, and youth exchanges between the two countries.
It is a automatic renewal agreement which will be renewed every 5 years unless and until any of the two parties will not have intention to review it by giving prior notice of atleast 6 months before the expiration of this agreement.

With Bangladesh for cooperation in the field of IT and Electronics:

3. A new program on Diarrhoea launched by Health Ministry:

The program is named as ‘Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight’ to reduce child deaths due to this disease.
This is to achieve the objective of making health of children in India at par with rest of the world.
This program aims to bring awareness about the treatment of Diarrhoea by the combination of ORS and Zinc tablets, which is the most effective and cost effective treatment.

About ‘Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight’program:

Community awareness campaign on hygiene and ORS+Zinc treatment to be conducted at state, district and village levels
It will cover 12 crore children under the age of 5.
ASHA workers will distribute ORS packets for such children in their villages.
ORS+Zinc medication corners will be set up at both health and non-health facilities. Non health facilities will include Anganwadi centres and schools.
ORS preparation demonstrations would be provided by workers along with counseling on hygiene, sanitation and feeding during Diarrhoea.
Though the program is launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare but it is also support by other ministries including Education, Panchayati Raj Institutions, Women and Child Development, and Water & Sanitation.

4. The winners of National Science Talents of the year 2016-17 were awarded by HRD Minister:

The 18 students were termed as winners of this talent search competition which were named as HIMALAYAS.
These winners were chosen from the 1.4 lakh students from Class VI to XI who participated in the
VVM was organized jointly by Vijnana Bharati and Vigyan Prasar along with NCERT.
These winners then emerged from 264 students screened from VVM and at two day national camp at IIT Delhi.

About Vijnana Bharati and Vigyan Prasar:

Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) is a not for profit organization with an objective to popularize science and implementation of modern technology along with focus on ancient sciences in India and healthcare.
VIBHA was earlier known as Swadeshi Science Movement.
Vigyan Prasar is an autonomous institution under Ministry of Science and Technology.

5. Rs 1 Crore cheque was presented to Rajnath Singh for ‘Bharat ke Veer Corpus’:

The donation was made by the employees of NBCC (India) Ltd – a Central PSU, Navratna Category I.
The contribution was made through their Performance Related Pay for the year 2015-16.
This central government controlled organization engages in real estate development and construction activities.
It is headquartered in New Delhi and its current Chairman cum MD is Anoop Mittal.

About ‘Bharat ke Veer Corpus’

It is an online donation web portal and mobile application for the welfare of the families of CAPF/CRPF soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the nation.
It is inaugurated by Defence Minister on the Valour Day observed on 9^th April every year to commemorate the bravery of CRPF jawans for defeating the full contingent of Pakistani Soldiers who tried to capture the Sardar Post in Rann of Kutch, Gujarat.
Indian Film actor Akshay Kumar was the chief guest on this event.
Through this ‘Bharat ke Veer’ donation platform, a donor can donate the particular amount to the next kin of martyred soldier of their choice. The limit of Rs. 15 lakh on each beneficiary is imposed to ensure maximum coverage of the donations and thus the donors would be alerted if this threshold limit will be reached.
This online platform is supported by the National Informatics Centre and powered by SBI.

6. Painting on Virat Kohli bought by British Indian Entrepreneur:

The painting was made by British artist Sacha Jafri to raise money for Virat Kohli’s foundation which supports underprivileged children.
The painting depicts 10 year journey of Virat Kohli in IPL.
It was bought by woman entrepreneur Poonam Gupta.
Sacha Jafri is an award winner artist who has alos portrayed and raised donations in cooperation with David Beckham, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh.