Daily Current Affairs, 22nd June 2018

1) President 3-Nation Visit: Arrived In Cuba On Final Leg

•President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Cuba on the final leg of his three-nation tour to Greece, Suriname and Cuba. He is accompanied by a delegation including Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai. Mr Kovind was received in Santiago by Vice President of Cuba, Ms Beatriz Johnson.

•The President was escorted first to the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery where he witnessed Change of Guards ceremony. He then paid respects to Jose Marti Memorial. Jose Marti was Cuba’s legendary poet who led the 1895 Cuban revolution. 

2) PM Modi To Inaugurate 3rd AIIB Meeting In Mumbai

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Mumbai. In the past, AIIB annual meetings have been held in Beijing, China, in 2016 and in Jeju, South Korea, in 2017.

•The theme for this year's meeting is "Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration" that will see leaders from varied organizations and levels of government to share ideas and experiences for creating a sustainable future through sound infrastructure investment.

3) PM Modi Laid Foundation Stone Of Paperless Vanijya Bhawan

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Paperless Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi. Once ready, the new building will house Department of Commerce. The building will accommodate about 1000 officers and staff. 

•It will be a completely paperless office with state of the art facilities such as smart access control, central air-conditioning, video conferencing, and completely networked systems. The Department of Commerce is currently housed in Udyog Bhawan.

4) Gujarat Launches Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Policy

•The Gujarat government announced wind-solar hybrid power policy - 2018, aiming to make optimum utilisation of the land and grid. The policy, which will have a coverage period of five years, provides encouragement to renewable power producers supplying to the grid as well as to those having captive use.

•The electricity generated from wind-solar hybrid projects will be exempted from energy charges. The policy provides 50% concession for cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge when the generated energy is sold to a third party. Gujarat currently generates over 5,500 MW of wind power and 1,600 MW of solar power.

5) Russia To Supply Technical Security Equipment To India

•Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) had announced that its subsidiary Nikiret has signed an agreement with Indian engineering services firm Core Energy Systems Pvt Ltd for the promotion of its technical security equipment in India.

•The partnership will explore opportunities in the Indian government’s Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) project.

6) SIPRI Yearbook 2018 Released, Number Of Peacekeepers Declined

•The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) launches the findings of SIPRI Yearbook 2018, which assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security. 

•Key findings include the following: 
1. All the nuclear weapon-possessing states are developing new nuclear weapon systems and modernizing their existing systems; 
2. The number of personnel deployed with peace operations worldwide continues to fall while the demand is increasing.

•At the start of 2018 nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) - possessed approximately 14,465 nuclear weapons. This marked a decrease from the approximately 14 935 nuclear weapons that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2017.

•The decrease in the overall number of nuclear weapons in the world is due mainly to Russia and the USA—which together still account for nearly 92% of all nuclear weapons—further reducing their strategic nuclear forces pursuant to the implementation of the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.