General Knowledge & Current Affairs
June 2022 - 6th to 12th
- PM launches Global initiative ‘Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) Movement; Calls for human centric and collective efforts that further sustainable development
- India achieves 10% ethanol blending target in petrol ahead of schedule: PM
- President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurates Sant Kabir Academy and Research Centre at Sant Kabir Nagar in UP
- Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurates National Food Laboratory of FSSAI at Raxaul in Bihar
- Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to ban single-use plastic from July
- NGT (at Sant Kabir Nagar) orders West Bengal govt to close all hotels, restaurants in Buxa Tiger Reserve in two months
- 12 killed in boiler blast at chemical factory in UP’s Hapur district
- Defence Ministry approves procurement of military equipment, platforms worth Rs 76, 000 crores
- Nuclear-capable Agni-IV missile of 4,000 km range successfully test-fired
- ‘Shershaah’ wins Best Picture award at International Indian Film Academy Awards in
- Govt widens eligibility for CDS (Chief of Defence Staff) appointment; Includes serving or retired three-star Army Lt General, Air Marshal and Vice Admiral for the post
- India-Bangladesh Joint Military Exercise Sampriti being held at Jeshore in Bangladesh from June 5 to 16
- Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities and Directors of Institutions of National Importance being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 7-8
- Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurates newly-built National Tribal Research Institute at India Institute of Public Administration Campus in New Delhi
- Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya launches logo for Ayurveda Aahar
- Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya releases Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) 4th State Food Safety Index (SFSI)
- Volume-IV of selected speeches of President Ram Nath Kovind named ‘Loktantra Ke Swar’ and ‘Republican Ethics’ released
- EAM S Jaishankar holds talks with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in New Delhi
- India, Vietnam ink military logistics support pact & vision document to expand defence ties during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Hanoi
- Cabinet approves signing of MoU between India & USA in health sector
- Govt launches Rashtriya Puruskar Portal for inviting nominations for various awards to ensure transparency and public partnership
- Awards for Excellence in District Skill Development Planning (DSDP) given; Rajkot in Gujarat, Cachar in Assam and Satara in Maharashtra ranked top three
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru emerges as the best higher education institution in India, ranking 155th globally in the latest edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (OS) World University Rankings
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hands over 12 high-speed guard boats to Vietnam
- India, UAE aim to sign MoU in Industries & Advanced Tech to push commercial ties
- SC pulls up Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) over 1,450 vacant seats in NEET-PG ‘21
- Gujarat: PM opens HQ of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) in Ahmedabad
- PM Modi inaugurates development projects worth over Rs 3,000 crore under Gujarat Gaurav Abhiyan
- Bangladesh-India bus service connecting Dhaka to Kolkata resumes after two years
- BJP wins 8 out of 16 Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, Karnataka Rajasthan and Haryana; Congress bags five seats
- Nagaland Police frames charges against 30 soldiers over 2021 killing of civilians
- 4 Holy Relics of Lord Buddha from India to be taken to Mongolia for 11-day exposition as part of celebrations of Mongolian Buddh Purnima
- Three astronauts enter China’s space station module called Tianhe after successful launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre
- Bangladesh: 35 killed, over 450 injured in fire at chemical container depot in Chittagong
- World Environment Day celebrated on June 5; this year’s campaign: #OnlyOneEarth
- International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing observed on June 5
- 14-day multinational peacekeeping exercise-Ex Khaan Quest 2022- begins in Mongolia
- NATO holds Baltic Sea naval exercise ‘BALTOPS’ with Finland, Sweden, 14 other nations
- 25th Founding Day of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) celebrated in Dhaka on June 6
- World Food Safety Day observed on June 7; slogan: “Food safety, everyone’s business”
- Virtual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of BRICS chaired by China
- World Oceans Day celebrated on June 8; theme: “Revitalization: collective action for the ocean”
- Ninth Summit of the Americas being held in Los Angeles (US): June 6-10; theme: “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future”
- European Parliament votes to ban sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 to fight climate change
- US: House of Representatives votes to raise nationwide age limit for buying semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21
- IAEA’s 35-nation board passes resolution chiding Iran on uranium traces
- Iran to remove 27 surveillance cameras from nuclear sites, says Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA director-general
- 5 countries elected as non-permanent members of 15-nation U.N. Security Council; Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland
- Capitol riot panel blames Donald Trump for January 6, 2021 “‘attempted coup”
- Thailand decriminalizes cannabis, becomes first Asian country to remove ban; ban on consumption in public remains
- 19th Shangri-La Dialogue being held in Singapore from June 10 to 12
- Indian national Krishna Srinivasan to head IMF’s Asia-Pacific dept
- WTO Ministerial Conference to begin from June 12 in Geneva; Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to lead Indian delegation
- Senior Indian diplomat Amandeep Singh Gill appointed by UN chief Antonio Guterres as his Envoy on Technology
- 17 countries elected into UN Economic and Social Council for 3-year term
- United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopts India-sponsored resolution on multilingualism that mentions the Hindi language for the first time
- Bangladesh: Women’s Hostel funded by Indian govt inaugurated in Sylhet
- In a first, Canada to require a warning be printed on every cigarette
- Appointments Committee of Cabinet clears 3 names to head three public sector banks: A Manimekhalai: MD & CEO at Union Bank of India; Ajay Kumar Srivastava: MD & Indian Overseas Bank and Swarup Kumar Saha: MD and CEO of Punjab & Sind Bank
- PM launches new series of coins with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav design
- PM launches ‘Jan Samarth portal’ — a credit-linked portal of 12 government schemes
- Indian Railways increases limit of online booking of tickets through IRCTC website and app; max 12 tickets can be booked by a user ID which is not Aadhaar-linked, 24 by user ID which is Aadhaar-linked
- IIT, Madras launches free course on “Out of the Box Thinking” through mathematics to encourage innovative thinking
- RBI raises repo rate to 4.9%; inflation forecast increased to 6.7% for FY23; GDP forecast retained at 7.2%
- RBI raises limit of individual housing loans provided by cooperative banks; raised for Tier I cities from Rs. 30 to Rs. 60 lakh and from Rs. 70 lakh to Rs. 1.40 crore in case of Tier II cities
- RBI raises limit for e-mandate based recurring payments from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15,000
- RBI proposes to allow linking of credit cards to Unified Payments Interface
- Cabinet hikes MSP for Kharif crops for season 2022-23
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approves enhancement of funding under Technology Development Fund scheme enhanced to Rs 50 cr per project from Rs 10 crore
- NHAI sets new Guinness World Record, lays 75-km long highway in 105 hrs
- Cabinet allows transfer of 10 In-orbit Communication Satellites from Govt of India to New Space India Ltd
- World Bank cuts India’s economic growth forecast to 7.5% for FY23
- Alok Kumar Choudhary appointed MD of SBI for a period of two years
- Nirmala Sitharaman launches EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) 5.0 ‘Common reforms agenda’ for Public Sector Banks (PSBs)
- FM Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Mega exhibition on Nation Building and Central Public Sector Enterprises in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar
- PM opens 2-day Biotech Startup Expo-2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
- India’s economy to grow at 6.9% in FY23: OECD global macroeconomic report
- India’s FDI rank rises to 7th position despite falling inflows, says UNCTAD; flows to India declined to $45 bn in 2021 from $64 billion in the preceding year
- Foreign exchange reserves decline by USD 306 million to USD 601.057 billion in the week ended June 3
- DIPAM (Department of Investment & Public Asset Management organises Conference on the theme “Creating Wealth through Market”
- Govt issues new guidelines to curb misleading ads; bans surrogate ads
- FM Nirmala Sitharaman dedicates to nation Dharohar – National Museum of Customs and GST in Goa
- RBL Bank appoints R Subramaniakumar as new MD & CEO
- India extends Sri Lanka $55 mn credit line for fertiliser imports
- UKRAINE
Ukrainian troops continued to resist Russia’s offensive in Sievierodonetsk, a besieged city in the east of Ukraine that has become the focus of the Russian invasion. Elsewhere, Russian missiles hit Kyiv, the capital, for the first time in several weeks. - UK
Battling the fallout from parties held at Downing Street during covid-19 lockdowns, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, won a snap no-confidence vote among Conservative MPs. But more than 40% of his own MPs voted against him, severely denting his authority. - MALI
Mali’s junta led by interim President Colonel Assimi Goita, which came to power by staging coups in 2020 and 2021 and had pledged to step down by February this year, said it would delay handing power to a civilian government by another two years. The Economic Community of West African States warned that it would not lift sanctions until the junta agreed to a shorter transition. - NIGERIA
Gunmen killed at least 50 people when they attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria’s south-western Ondo state. Violence appears to be spreading from the northwest, where thousands have been killed by jihadists over the past decade. - CONGO
With tensions increasing between the two countries, Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), bluntly accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group, which in recent weeks has attacked villages and army posts in eastern Congo. Rwanda denies involvement. - SOUTH AFRICA
Two wealthy brothers, Rajesh and Atul Gupta, who have been charged with fraud and money-laundering in South Africa in relation to suspected corruption during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, were arrested in Dubai. They are expected to be extradited. - TUNISIA
Judges in Tunisia went on strike to protest against interference in the judiciary and the sacking of 57 judges by Kais Saied, the president. - BANGLADESH
A fire and explosion at a container depot in Bangladesh, near the port of Chattogram, killed more than 45 people and injured hundreds more. Some 850 tonnes of hydrogen peroxide, a hazardous chemical, had been stored in the open, near other containers. - BRAZIL
The search continued for Dom Phillips, a British journalist, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, an indigenous official, who disappeared in the Brazilian Amazon. The area is known for tensions over illegal fishing, mining and hunting. - US
The ninth Summit of the Americas was organised in Los Angeles from June 6 to 10. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s president, stayed away in protest at the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the event.
- French Open tennis: Spain’s Rafael Nadal defeats Norway’s Casper Ruud in final to win men’s singles title
- Bolat Turlykhanov Cup wrestling in Almaty, Kazakhstan: Aman Sehrawat wins gold in the men’s 57kg
- India beat Poland 6-4 in final to clinch inaugural FIH Hockey 5s championship at Lausanne, Switzerland
- Wrestling: India return from Bolat Turlykhanov Cup at Almaty in Kazakhstan on 2nd position with 12 medals
- Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announces first ever National Air Sports Policy 2022
- Avani Lekhara wins gold medal in Para Shooting World Cup in women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 in France
- India women’s cricket team’s ODI and Test captain Mithali Raj retires
- Norway’s Magnus Carlsen wins Norway Chess 2022 at Stavanger; India’s Viswanathan Anand is third
- R. Praggnanandhaa wins Norway Chess Group A open chess tournament
- A chess knight named ‘Thambi’ unveiled as mascot of 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai in July-August 2022
