Daily Current Affairs, 16th June 2018

1) India To Host European Union Film Festival

•The European Union Film Festival (EUFF) will premiere in New Delhi at the Siri Fort Auditorium. With a selection of 24 latest European films from 23 EU Member States, this years' film festival brings some unusual stories for the world cinema enthusiasts.

•The European Union Film Festival is organized by Directorate of Film Festivals. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India partnering with the Delegation of the European Union and embassies of EU Member States in various city film clubs. The Festival will be inaugurated by the Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mr Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

2) Nitin Gadkari Releases NABARD Publication On 'Water Productivity Mapping Of Major Indian Crops'

•Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Shipping, Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari released a book ‘Water productivity mapping of major Indian crops’ published by NABARD in a function at New Delhi.

•The book ‘Water productivity mapping of major Indian crops’ is based on a study of 10 important crops by a team under the leadership of leading agricultural economist Dr. Ashok Gulati.

3) President 3-Nation Visit: Leaves For Greece

•President Ram Nath Kovind left on a three-nation visit to Greece, Suriname and Cuba. The first halt of the nine-day tour will be at Athens, where he will meet Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. In Athens, the President will lay a wreath at the monument of unknown soldiers and visit other places of historical and archaeological importance.

•President will leave for Suriname on the 2nd leg where he will hold discussions with President Desire Delano Bouterse. A number of agreements and MoUs in the areas of health and medicine, elections, IT, Ayurveda are proposed to be signed.

•In the last leg of his tour, the President will reach Cuba. He is scheduled to hold discussions with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz – Canel Bermudez. A number of MoUs and Agreements in the areas of Biotechnology, Homeopathy and traditional system of medicine and medical plants would be signed during the visit.

4) Maharashtra CM Meets World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva

•Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva in Washington DC to seek assistance for a Multimodal Transport Corridor and the Rural Livelihood Project which aims to provide sustainable livelihood enhancements in 10,000 villages in the state. 

•World Bank has assured of positive consideration of both the projects. Fadnavis, who is on a three-nation tour, also attended a business discussion organised by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum. Mr Fadnavis was bestowed with the Outstanding Leadership in Development Award by Georgetown India Initiative and Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

5) Fitch Lowers Axis Bank's Outlook To Negative, Cuts ICICI Bank's Support Ratings

•Global Rating agency Fitch has announced that ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have inequalities in their risk control mechanisms and has revised down its outlook on the latter to negative on sour assets worries.

•It downgraded ICICI Bank’s ‘support rating’ to ‘3’, from ‘2’, its support rating floor to ‘BB+’, from ‘BBB-’. But the agency has affirmed the issuer default ratings and viability ratings of ICICI Bank and Axis Bank at ‘BBB-’ and ‘BBB-’. Axis Bank’s rating degraded to negative from stable, pointing to the high proportion of NPAs.

6) Veteran Journalist Adiraju Venkateswara Rao Passes Away

•Senior journalist and writer Adiraju Venkateswara Rao passed away. He was 79.  Rao worked in different Telugu and English newspapers. He also authored several books.

•He played an active role in the separate Telangana agitation in 1969 and the state government honoured him during the Telangana formation day celebrations recently.