Daily Current Affairs, 19th June 2018

1) Jammu & Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti Resigns

•Jammu & Kashmir's Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to the Governor after BJP announced to pull out of an alliance with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

•The reason for the pullout was failure to control the situation in the state and meet its promises. BJP's General Secretary Ram Madhav also called for Governor's rule in Jammu & Kashmir.

2) 3-Day National Yoga Olympiad 2018 Begins In New Delhi

•A 3-day National Yoga Olympiad was inaugurated at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in CIET in New Delhi by Mr. Eric Falt, Director and UNESCO Representative of the New Delhi Cluster Office for India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

•This is the third consecutive year of National Yoga Olympiad of NCERT and this year about 500 students from 26 States and 4 RIEs are participating in the Olympiad. Two books – Joy of Theatre and Sangeet training packages were released on the occasion.

3) Dhanush Artillery Gun Clears Final Trials

•The indigenously upgraded artillery gun Dhanush has successfully completed final user trials and is ready for induction into the Army. Dhanush is an upgraded version of the Swedish Bofors gun procured by India in the mid-1980s.

•This was the third and final phase of user exploitation firings in which six Dhanush guns were fired in battery formation at the Pokhran field firing range. The first phase of trials were conducted between July and September 2016 at the Pokhran and Babina ranges and the second phase was conducted between October and December 2016 at the Siachen base camp with three guns.

4) RBI Eases Norms For FPIs To Invest In Debt

•The Reserve Bank of India has eased investment norms for Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in debt, especially into individual large corporates, a move that can help attract more overseas flows and thereby help arrest the recent fall in the rupee.

•FPIs are allowed to invest in various debt market instruments such as government bonds, treasury bills, state development loans and corporate bonds, but with certain limits and restrictions. The RBI increased the FPIs cap on investment in government security to 30% of the outstanding stock of that security, from 20% earlier. FPIs were allowed to invest in government bonds with a minimum residual maturity of three years.

5) IRDAI Sets Up Panel To Review Norms For Marketing Firms

•IRDAI has formed a panel to review the regulations pertaining to insurance marketing firms. The committee is headed by Suresh Mathur, Executive Director (insurance marketing firms), IRDAI, with nine more members.

•The new distribution channel of insurance marketing firms was introduced in 2015 by IRDAI, with the objective of increasing insurance penetration in the country through an area-wise registration approach. The channel has now been in operation for three years. The committee will come up with recommendations before July 31, 2018, according to an order issued by IRDAI.

6) Union Government Collaborates With Google For Flood Forecasting

•The Central Water Commission (CWC), India’s apex technical organisation in the field of Water Resources has signed a Collaboration Agreement with Google for flood forecasting. According to the Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari, the collaboration with Google will help in effective flood management in India. 

•Using its high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Google would help to generate flood inundation maps with the forecast inputs of CWC. The collaboration agreement between the Water Resource Ministry and Google includes projects related to the improvement of flood prediction systems, high priority research project to improve flood visualisation and online cultural project on the country’s rivers.