Current Affairs is the most important area in all competitive exams. But the difficulty level is very high. That’s why; many aspirants get confused, how to select Current Affairs for Preparation of Competitive Examination? In this Post, Daily Current Affairs 13 June 2021, we have tried to cover each and every point and also included all important facts from National/ International news that are useful for upcoming competitive examinations such as UPSC, SSC, Railway, State Govt. etc.
Daily Current Affairs 13 June 2021
PM Modi calls for open vaccine chains, ‘one world, one health’
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi emphasised the “special responsibility of democratic and transparent societies to prevent future pandemics” and calls for open vaccine chains, ‘one world, one health’.
Addressing the G-7 outreach session, Modi also expressed India’s commitment to support collective endeavours to improve global health governance.
This came days after French President Emanuel Macron supported India’s demand for lifting restrictions on export of raw materials needed to manufacture vaccines.
The session, titled ‘Building Back Stronger – Health’, focussed on global recovery from the pandemic and strengthening resilience against future pandemics.
Modi sought the G-7’s support for a proposal moved by “India and South Africa at the WTO for a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on Covid-related technologies”. Sources said Australian PM Scott Morrison and others came out strongly in support of this.
Fastly fixes CDN glitch caused the websites to go down
A glitch at Fastly, a popular CDN provider, left websites like Twitch, Amazon, Spotify facing an outage. Fastly has also updated its Status page confirming that it is facing an outage.
Fastly is an American cloud computing services provider.
It describes its network as an ‘edge cloud platform’, which is designed to help developers extend their core cloud infrastructure to the edge of the network, closer to users.
The Fastly edge cloud platform includes their content delivery network (CDN), image optimization, video and streaming, cloud security, and load balancing services.
A content delivery network is an arrangement that allows customer websites to store data such as images and videos on various mirror servers across countries so that the data is closer to users, and thus shows up faster.
Customers rely on Fastly and its rivals to host and protect their website data from denial-of-service attacks and disruption from spikes in traffic.
Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act of 2021
Democrat Representative Zoe Lofgren and Republican John Curtis, introduced the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act of 2021 will “benefit the US economy by allowing American employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merit, not their birthplace.
The bipartisan act seeks to phase out the seven per cent per-country limit on employment-based immigrant visas and raises the per-country limit on family-sponsored visas from seven per cent to 15 per cent. It provides for a nine-year period for the elimination of this limit.
The seven per cent limit was introduced in the mid-20th century, which has led countries with relatively small populations to be allocated the same number of visas as a relatively large-population country.
Think-tank Cato Institute had reported in March 2020 that 75 per cent of the backlog for employment‐based visas was made up of Indians.
With the EAGLE Act, the per-country cap would be removed, which may expedite the petitions for those applying for employment-based green cards.
However, since the highest number of applicants are from India and China, the EAGLE Act also seeks to reserve visas for ‘Lower Admission States’ for nine fiscal years (FY).
Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta passed away
National Award-winning Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta passed away at the age of 77. He was suffering from kidney disease and undergoing regular dialysis.
He was an Indian Bengali poet and filmmaker, most known for films like Bagh Bahadur, Tahader Katha, Charachar and Uttara.
Five of his films have won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. As a director, he has won National Film Award for Best Direction twice.
Over the years he has published several works of poetry including Govir Araley, Coffin Kimba Suitcase, Himjog, Chhaata Kahini, Roboter Gaan, Sreshtha Kabita, and Bhomboler Ascharya Kahini O Ananya Kabita.
Dasgupta brought Indian cinema back on the international stage after the death of Satyajit Ray in 1992, winning several international accolades.
He will be remembered among the greats of Indian cinema that Bengal has produced, including the legendary Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.
Ban of entry to the ordinary citizens in Sri Nanjundeshwara temple
Despite the Ban of entry to the ordinary citizens in Sri Nanjundeshwara temple, son of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, B.Y. Vijayendra has admitted to entering the temple in Nanjangud.
The Karnataka High Court asked the State government why the ordinary citizens are not allowed to enter temples like B.Y. Vijayendra despite a ban imposed in view of COVID-19 lockdown.
The Nanjundeshwara Temple is also called Srikanteshwara Temple.
It is an ancient temple in the Hindu pilgrimage town of Nanjanagudu in the Karnataka.
It is dedicated to god Nanjundeshwara (another name for the god Shiva, also known as Nanjundeshwara).
Nanju in Kannada means poison; the name Nanjundeshwara means the “God who Drank the Poison” (halahala), a word that has its origins in the legend of the Great Churning of the Ocean of Milk; thus the town got the name ‘Nanjangudu’ which means “the abode of the god Nanjundeshwara”.
First meeting of WHO high level coalition on health, energy
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan addressed the first meeting of the World Health Organization High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy Platform of Action.
The meeting was attended by several dignitaries and national heads, and representatives of various stakeholders like World Bank, UNDP, UNHRC, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) etc.
An expert body called the National Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health was constituted by government of India with the multiple objectives of creating awareness amongst the general population, health-care providers and policy makers regarding impact of climate change on human health.
This National Expert Group submitted its report recently in April 2021 with inclusion of Subject Specific Health Action Plans on identified Climate Sensitive Diseases and ‘One Health’.
In the context of “Green and Climate Resilient Healthcare Facilities”, India became signatory to the Malé Declaration in 2017 and agreed to promote climate-resilient healthcare facilities to be able to withstand any climatic event.
Discovered Small Field bid round-III for international competitive bidding
Discovered Small Field (DSF) bid round-III for international competitive bidding was launched by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel to awarding discovered acreages and monetize the unmonetized discoveries.
Encouraged by the success of DSF bid rounds-I &II, the Government of India has extended the DSF Policy by launching DSF bid round-III.
Previous two DSF rounds had a resounding success. In DSF Round – I launched in 2016, 134 bids were submitted for 34 contract areas by 47 companies.30 Revenue Sharing Contracts were signed.
In DSF Round – II launched in 2018, 145 bids were submitted for 24 contract area. 24 Revenue Sharing Contracts were signed.
The DSF policy has multiple attractive features like revenue sharing contract model with low regulatory burden, no minimum biddable work programme, no prior technical qualification required, no upfront signature bonus, etc.
US signed new Atlantic Charter on trade with UK
US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a new Atlantic Charter, modeled after the 1941 agreement, that outlines eight key areas on which the US and the United Kingdom plan to collaborate.
The agreement was signed at the first face-to-face meeting between Johnson and Biden at the 2021 G7 Summit in Cornwall, England.
The agreement is a new version of the Atlantic Charter, signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
The charter commits to combating the modern challenges of cyberthreats and climate change and to bringing the pandemic to an end.
CHIME telescope yields unprecedented results
Scientists have assembled the largest collection of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in the telescope’s first FRB catalogue with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Collaboration, which include researchers at the Pune-based Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).
CHIME is an interferometric radio telescope. It is located in British Columbia, Canada.
It consists of four antennas consisting of 100 x 20 metre cylindrical parabolic reflectors with 1024 dual-polarization radio receivers suspended on a support above them.
The antenna receives radio waves from hydrogen in space at frequencies in the 400–800 MHz range.
While catching sight of an FRB is considered a rare thing in the field of radio astronomy, prior to the CHIME project, radio astronomers had only caught sight of around 140 bursts in their scopes since the first FRB was spotted in 2007.
Maharashtra proposed amendments for protection of ‘heritage’ trees
Maharashtra (Urban Areas) proposed amendments for Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975 to bring in the concept of “heritage trees” which was approved by the Cabinet.
The Cabinet also green-lighted the formation of the Maharashtra Tree Authority, which will take all decisions regarding protection of trees.
It will have responsibility related to protection and conservation of trees, including “heritage trees”.
Under the proposed amendment, a tree with an estimated age of 50 years or more shall be defined as a heritage tree.
It may belong to specific species, which will be notified from time to time.In addition to the age, the state climate change department (which will be implementing the Tree Act), will also consider a tree’s rarity, its botanical, historical, religious, mythological and cultural importance in defining a heritage tree.
The local Tree Authority will have to ensure tree census to be carried out every five years along with counting of heritage trees.
G7 rivals China with grand infrastructure plan
The Group of Seven richest democracies sought to counter China’s growing influence by offering developing nations an infrastructure plan that could rival President Xi Jinping’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative.
Leaders of the G7 – the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Japan – want to use their gathering in the seaside resort of Carbis Bay to show the world that the richest democracies can offer an alternative to China’s growing clout.
The re-emergence of China as a leading global power is considered to be one of the most significant geopolitical events of recent times, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union that ended the Cold War.
The G7 and its allies will use the B3W initiative to mobilise private-sector capital in areas such as climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) scheme, which Xi launched in 2013, involves development and investment initiatives that would stretch from Asia to Europe and beyond.
India’s Forex reserves cross $600 billion for first time
The forex reserves of India crossed the $600-billion mark for the first time on the back of continued foreign investment flow into the capital markets.
India is now less than $200 million behind Russia, which has an almost identical level of reserves.
The pile-up of foreign exchange reserves is an outcome of the RBI’s strategy of buying dollars when there is a sudden spurt of inflows, which causes volatility in the forex markets.
In FY20, the RBI added over $100 billion to the reserves. It has also sold dollars when the rupee came under pressure. In February and March, the central bank had depleted its stockpile by almost $10 billion by selling dollars.
China has the highest Forex reserves with $3,399.9 billion of U.S. dollars. At that time India’s rank is 8th after Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
