• National

Centre sets up committee headed by Kirit Parikh to review LPG marketing

• The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is looking to review the existing structure of LPG marketing in India, to bring in more private players.
• For this,the Centre has set up a 5-member committee headed by economist Kirit Parikh.
• The new committee, set up on May 30, will look into issues related to definition or quality standards of LPG being marketed.
• Its terms of reference also include scope for liberalising government policies for private participation.
• The committee is expected to submit its report by end-July.

Note:

About LPG

LPG: Liquefied petroleum gas

LPG: Propane +Butane

• National

India hosting Intersessional meeting of Kimberley Process 2019

• More than 300 delegates will participate in the inter-sessional meeting of Kimberley Process being hosted by India from June 17 to 21 in Mumbai.
• The Kimberley Process is a commitment to remove conflict diamonds from the global supply chain.
• Conflict diamonds means rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments.
• Kimberly Process members are responsible for stemming 99.8 per cent of the global production of conflict diamonds.

Note:

About India

Capital: New Delhi

President: Ram Nath Kovind

Prime minister: Narendra Modi

• National

D Sarangi re-elected as SRFI president, while Cyrus Poncha is the new Secretary-General

• Debendranath Sarangi, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the 1977 batch was re-elected as president of Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) while Dronacharya awardee and national coach Cyrus Poncha was made secretary-general.
• They were elected unopposed for a period of four years from 2019 to 2023.
• Sarangi and Poncha, a Dronacharya awardee and till now national coach, were elected unopposed for a four-year term (2019-23).

Note:

About SRFI

SRFI: Squash Rackets Federation of India

President: Debendranath Sarangi

Sport: Squash

Regional affiliation: Asian Squash Federation

• International

Zuzana Caputova sworn in as first female president of Slovakia

• On June 15, 2019, lawyer and Anti-corruption campaigner, Zuzana Caputova (45) sworn in as country’s Slovakia’s first female president.
• She defeated Smer-SD candidate Maros Sefcovic.
• Victory for the anti-corruption activist breaks a trend of populist, euroskeptic politicians gaining traction across the European Union.

Note:

About Slovakia

Capital: Bratislava

Currency: Euro

Prime Minister: Peter Pellegrini

• Sports

Joshna Chinappa wins record 17th national squash title.

• Joshna Chinappa won a record 17th national squash title after outplaying Tamil Nadu’s Sunayna Kuruvilla in the final.
• Chinappa won the match 11-5, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5 and thus broke a 27-year-old record set by Bhuvneshwari Kumari, who had won 16 titles.
• Joshna, who is also a two-time Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medallist, was in control of her match from the beginning.
• She led by two games before Sunayna rallied to take one back.

Note:

About squash

Equipment: Squash ball, squash racket, goggles

First played: 1830 at Harrow School, London.

• Awards

44th Matri Shree Media Awards 2019 conferred upon 29 journalists

• Twenty-nine journalists from print and electronic media were Sunday felicitated with Matri Shree Media Awards for their contribution towards journalism.
• Apart from media personalities, a social activist was also presented the Bharat Mata shield at the 44th Matri Shree media award ceremony organised here.
• Working President of Punjab Kesari Delhi Swadesh Bhushan Jain and Chairman of the Committee Ashok Aggarwal, Harish Chopra, Ankush Aggarwal, Chetan Sharma, Ramesh Bajaj, Vishal Rana and Kailash Agrawal presented the shield and a pen to the winners.

• Appointments

Ravinder Singh Dhillon takes over as Director (Projects) at PFC

• Ravinder Singh Dhillon has taken over as the Director (Projects) in Power Finance Corporation.
• Dhillon has more than 34 years of experience in various areas of the power sector.
• He is an Electrical Engineer with PG in Power Systems from IIT-Delhi.
• He had worked with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Central Electricity Authority before joining PFC.
• He has worked in various capacities for over 25 years, handling Project Appraisal, Business Development, Stressed Assets Revival and Monitoring of projects in PFC.

Note:

About PFC

PFC: Power Finance Corp

Headquarters: New Delhi

Owner: Government of India

Founded: July 1986

• Appointments

Denmark’s Inger Andersen appointed as UNEP’s Executive Director

• On June 15, 2019, Inger Andersen, Denmark’s Economist and Environmentalist, took over as United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Executive Director, headquartered at Nairobi, Kenya, for 4 years.
• She was nominated for the post by United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres and approved by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in February 2019.
• She succeeded Joyce Msuya of Tanzania.

Note:

About Denmark

Capital: Copenhagen

Currency: Danish krone

• Appointments

RBI appoints Rabi Mishra as Executive Director

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has promoted Rabi N Mishra as the central bank’s executive director (ED), after the position fell vacant on Rosemary Sebastian’s retirement.
• Mishra was principal chief general manager of the bank’s risk management department.
• As ED, Mishra would be looking after the newly-created specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre within the RBI.

Note:

About RBI

Headquarters: Mumbai

Founder: British Raj

Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata

Governor: Shaktikanta Das

• Obituaries

Franco Zeffirelli, Legendary ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Director dies at 96

• The Italian legend director and two-time Oscar-nominee, Franco Zeffirelli passed away in Rome, Italy at the age of 96. Born in Florence, Italy in 1923, he was best known for his film career.
• He earned his big hit with 1968 film of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in which he famously cast then-teenagers Leonard Whiting & Olivia Hussey.
• The film has earned four Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture but won Oscars for its costume design and cinematography.

Note:

About Italy

President: Sergio Mattarella Trending

Capital: Rome

Currency: Euro

• States

Assam Transport Minister launches State Transport Corporation's Chalo app

• Assam Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary launched the State Transport Corporation’s Chalo app for Guwahati.
• The app will help commuters to know about the live arrival time of their bus so they can plan their travel accordingly.
• People can also track the live GPS position of their bus on a map. It will also ensure safe travel with features such as Emergency SOS.
• The project includes the introduction of electronic ticketing in State Transport buses with the latest generation of cutting-edge Electronic Ticket Issuing Machines which can accept all modes of payment, including cards, mobile payments, QR code payments and other forms of digital payments.

Note:

About Assam

Capital: Dispur

Literacy (2011): 72.19%

Sex ratio (2011): 958 ♀/1000 ♂

Chief minister: Sarbananda Sonowal

• States

Jammu and Kashmir Bank now under RTI, CVC guidelines

• The J&K Bank will come under the purview of Right to Information Act and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines.
• The decision comes days after Parvez Ahmed was removed as the Chairman of the J&K Bank for alleged corruption, nepotism and favouritism.
• “J&K Bank Board of Directors decided to bring the bank under the purview of CVC guidelines & J&K RTI Act-2009 to ensure greater transparency & accountability.

Note:

About Jammu and Kashmir

Capitals: Srinagar

Governor: Satya Pal Malik

• States

ADB sanctions Rs 1,650cr infra projects in Tripura

• On June 16, 2019, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a project submitted by the Urban Development Department (UDD) of Tripura amounting to Rs. 1650 crore for overall infrastructure development of seven districts headquarter towns of Tripura.
• The Urban Development Department of Tripura government had submitted the projects’ details to the ADB through the Central government on which the ADB gave its nod.
• “The ADB would give 80 per cent of the amount as grant-in-aid and the Tripura Government would have to repay back only 20 per cent loan in due course of time’’.

Note:

About Tripura

Capital: Agartala

Chief minister: Biplab Kumar Deb

Governor: Kaptan Singh Solanki

• States

Bihar Cabinet approved the proposal to punish children who abandon their elderly parents

• Bihar Cabinet led by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar approved the proposal seeking provisions to punish children who abandon their elderly parents.
• They could face jail time over charges of abandonment.
• The cases will be lodged on the complaints of the parents and will be registered under the non-bailable section.
• The cabinet in the meeting discussed 16 other agenda and took a total of 15 decisions. It was also decided that government jobs will be given to the dependents of martyrs of the Pulwama and Kupwara terrorist attacks who belong to the state.

Note:

About Bihar

Capital : Patna

Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar

• Agreements

BSF and BGB agreed to increase coordinated patrols

• On June 15, 2019, Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) signed a Joint Record of Discussion at the 48th Director General (DG)-level talks which concluded in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• It was signed between DG, BSF, Rajni Kant Mishra and DG, BGB, Major General Md Shafeenul Islam.
• Both sides agreed to undertake joint efforts to bring down the killing incidents to zero.
• They will increase the coordinated patrols in the areas vulnerable to cattle and narcotics smuggling, educate the border population about the sanctity of International Border (IB) and prevent criminals from crossing the IB.

Note:

About Bangladesh

Capital: Dhaka

Currency: Bangladeshi taka

Prime minister: Sheikh Hasina

About BSF:

Headquarters: New Delhi

Founded: December 1, 1965

Motto: Duty Unto Death

About BGB:

Headquarters: Pilkhana, Bangladesh

Type: Paramilitary