Daily Current Affairs, 03rd June 2018

1) PM Modi 3-Nation Visit: Complete Highlights

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to New Delhi after concluding his significant and successful three-nation visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Here we have covered the complete highlights of the event (Country Wise).

1. First Leg Visit to Indonesia: 
•On the first leg of 3-Nation visit, PM Modi has visited Indonesia. India and Indonesia signed 15 MoUs in the fields of defence, scientific and technological cooperation, railways and health, among others.

2. Second Leg Visit to Malaysia:
•PM Modi had arrived in Singapore after a brief halt in Malaysia where he met his 92-year-old Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad to personally congratulate him on his stunning election victory and the two leaders had "productive discussions" on bolstering the bilateral strategic ties.

3. Third Leg Visit to Singapore:
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three Indian digital payment systems - RuPay, BHIM app and UPI by SBI at the 'Business, Innovation and Community Event' in Singapore. With the launch, India's RuPay digital payments system was linked up with Singapore's 33-year old Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS).

•PM Modi held wide-ranging talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong and delivered a keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue - Asia's premier defence and strategic affairs conference. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to address the Shangri-La Dialogue.

•Prime Minister Modi on his last day of three-day Singapore visit also went to the Changi Naval Base, the prime naval base for the Republic of Singapore Navy. There the PM visited the Indian Naval Ship INS Satpura.

•In a special gesture, an orchid was named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of his visit to National Orchid Garden in Singapore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore's former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong jointly unveiled a plaque to pay tribute at the immersion site of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes at the waterfront Clifford pier. 8 agreements were signed between the two sides which covered areas as wide as military cooperation and connectivity.

2) EAM Sushma Swaraj Begins 5-Day Visit To South Africa

•External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj begins her five-day visit to South Africa where she will meet the top leadership of the country. Her visit will further strengthen the close and long-standing ties with South Africa. The Minister will participate in the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting and chair the IBSA Foreign Ministers Meeting during her visit. 

•Mrs Swaraj made a transit halt in Mauritius to meet Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, on her way to South Africa. The year 2018 is an important year for India-South Africa relations as it marks the 25 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the 125th anniversary of the Pietermaritzburg railway station incident and the 100th Birth Centenary of South African iconic leader, Nelson Mandela.

3) India Successfully Test-Fires SFDR Propulsion Based Missile

•Making a breakthrough in missile technology, India successfully carried out the flight test of Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) propulsion based missile, according to the Defence Ministry.

•The technology demonstrator flight test was conducted from the Launch Centre-III of Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Odisha.

4) India Ranks 113th On Childhood Index

•According to a Save the Children’s "End of Childhood Index 2018”, India ranks 113 among 175 countrieswith regards to where childhood is threatened as a result of poor health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, and child marriage. The child marriages in India have come down to 15.2% from 21.1% in 2017.

•India jumped three positions up from 116 last year with improvement in India’s overall score by 14 points from 754 to 768 on a scale of 1000. Singapore and Slovenia are placed at the top sharing the first place in the index and Niger figures at the end of the list at 175.

5) China Successfully Launches New Earth Observation Satellite

•China successfully launched a new Earth observation satellite 'the Gaofen-6' which will be mainly used in agricultural resources research and disaster monitoring.

•The Satellite was launched on a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China. It was the 276th mission of the Long March rocket series.

6) Pedro Sanchez Sworn In As Spain's New PM

•Spanish Socialist Pedro Sanchez has been sworn in as the country's new prime minister by King Felipe. He has replaced Mariano Rajoy.

•Mr Sanchez took the oath to protect the constitution without a bible or crucifix - a first in Spain's modern history. He plans to see out the remaining two years of the parliamentary term.

7) Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi Sworn In As Egyptian President

•In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in for a second four-year term in office as the country faces major economic and security challenges. Sisi won 97% of valid votes in the March presidential election.

•His only opponent, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, was relatively unknown and a fervent Sisi supporter himself.