Population of Asiatic Lions in Gujarat’s Gir Forests increase by 28.87 percent in five years to 674

• The population of Asiatic Lions in the Gir forest region of Gujarat has witnessed a massive jump of 28.87 percent in the last five years, from 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020.
• The state forest department conducted an exclusive population estimation exercise called Poonam Avalokan (full-moon night estimation exercise), on the night of June 5 and 6 when there was full moon.
• The population of 674 comprises of 161 males, 260 females, 116 sub-adult lions and 137 cubs.
• It is the highest growth rate recorded so far.
• Besides this, the exercise also reveals that the area inhabited by lions (distribution area) has increased by 36 percent from 22,000 sq km in 2015 to 30,000 sq km in 2020.

Uttarakhand opens its biggest biodiversity park in Haldwani

• The Uttarakhand forest department has opened state’s biggest biodiversity park in Haldwani on 5 June 2020, on the occasion of World Environment Day, to encourage conservation of flora, especially medicinal plants.
• The Uttarakhand Forest Research Wing Biodiversity Park is spread across 18 acres and has 40 thematic sections with around 500 species of plants.
• The plant species in the biodiversity park is divided into spiritual & religious, scientific, human health, and aesthetic value sections.
• The objective of the park is to showacse the importance of each plant in human lives.

GRSE delivers ‘ICGS Kanaklata Barua’, fifth and final ship in Fast Patrol Vessels’ series to Indian Coast Guard

• Kolkata-based premier warship builder Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) delivered ICGS Kanaklata Barua, the fifth and final ship in the series of Fast Patrol Vessels (FPV) for the Indian Coast Guard on 9 June 2020.
• This is the 105th vessel delivered by the GRSE tot he Indian Coast Guard.
• The first three FPVs in the series are ICGS Priyadarshini, ICGS Annie Besant and ICGS Amrit Kaur.
• The fourth ship named Yard 2116 in the series of FPVs is earmarked for export delivery to the Seychelles Coast Guard.
• GRSE will make another ship for the ICG as a replacement to the one diverted to the Seychelles Coast Guard.

International News

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Apple becomes first US company to hit $1.5 trillion market cap

• On 10 June 2020, US based tech-giant Apple Inc’s market capitalization surpassed $1.5 trillion, making it the first U.S. company to reach that mark.
• Market capitalization is the share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares of the company’s stock, yielding the company’s overall stock market value.
• At a current price of around $352 per share and with roughly 4.3 billion shares outstanding, Apple’s market capitalization is now at around $1.53 trillion.

Bangladesh launches online plasma exchange network ‘Shohojodha’ for COVID-19 treatment

• The Government of Bangladesh has launched an initiative named ‘Shohojodha’, which is an online network to facilitate plasma exchange between recovered patients of COVID 19 and those undergoing treatment for Corona infection in the country.
• The initiative has been launched by the ICT division of the government of Bangladesh in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a2i innovation lab and eGeneration to facilitate collection and distribution of plasma from patients who have recovered from Coronavirus.

Banking & Economy News

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S&P’s Retains India’s Sovereign Rating at BBB- with Stable Outlook

• Global rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has retained India’s sovereign credit rating at BBB- with stable outlook for 13th year in a row.
• BBB- is the lowest investment grade.
• Some of the factors that led to S&P retaining the sovereign rating at BBB- with a stable outlook was India’s above average real GDP growth, sound external profile, strong democratic institutions that promote policy stability as well as economy’s limited external indebtedness, compared to peers at a similar level of income.

OECD Projects India’s GDP at -7.3% for FY21 if coronavirus strikes again

• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its OECD Economic Outlook, has projected India’s economy to contract 7.3 percent in the current fiscal year 2020-21 if there is a second wave of the coronavirus (Covid-19) later this year.
• However, OECD expects the economy to contract 3.7 percent during the year 2020 if there is no second wave.
• Further, for the fiscal year 2021-22, GDP is estimated at 8.1 percent in case of a second wave and at 7.9 percent in other case, i.e no second wave.

Fitch Ratings Projects Indian economy to grow at 9.5% in FY22

• Fitch Ratings has forecast India’s GDP growth rate of 9.5 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22.
• Earlier, Fitch Ratings had forecast a 5 percent contraction in the GDP in the ongoing financial year 2020-21.
• Further, it estimates that India’s GDP growth is likely to return to higher levels than ‘BBB’ category peers after the global crises.

World Bank Gives Rs 1,950 crore loans to West Bengal Govt for tackling COVID situation and support development work

• The World Bank has sanctioned loan amount worth Rs. 1,950 crore to the West Bengal Government for tackling COVID situation and developmental work in the State.
• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informed that out of the total loan amount, Rs. 1,100 crore will be spent for creating Industrial infrastructures and remaining Rs. 850 crore have been allocated for spending on various Social-Welfare schemes.

Empays partners Mastercard to enable contactless ATM withdrawals in India

• Empays Payment Systems India, a cloud-based payment solutions provider, has joined hands with Mastercard to launch contactless ATM solution in India, in order to mitigate the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
• Under the partnership, Mastercard will help Empays to launch ‘Cardless ATM powered by Mastercard®’.
• Empays will be upgrade the basic technology behind the IMT Payment System to incorporate the requirements of Mastercard Cardless ATM enabling a true EMV-capable cash withdrawal transaction.
• The initiative will help users to digitally locate the nearest enabled ATM and initiate a withdrawal by following these 4 simple steps:
  1. Open banking app
  2. Scan QR on ATM
  3. Authenticate withdrawal amount on banking app
  4. Pick-up cash from ATM.
• Through this initiative users can withdraw money without the need to insert the physical debit/credit card into the ATM, and thereby minimising any unnecessary contact, making it safe, quick and easy for people to access cash.
• After USA, India is the only other country to make such contactless ATM facility available to users.

Rankings

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Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Virtually releases “India Rankings 2020” for Higher Educational Institutions

• The Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, virtually released ‘India NIRF Rankings 2020’ of Institutions of Higher Education on 11 June 2020 in New Delhi.
• The India NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) Rankings 2020 is the fifth consecutive edition of India Rankings of the institutions of higher education in India.
• The 2020 ranking has been released in 10 categories subject domains.
• The ranking framework evaluates institutions based on five broad groups of parameters: which are: Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR).
• These rankings acts as:
  • Guide to students for selection of universities based on a set of criteria,
  • Helps universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement.
  • Instill a competitive spirit amongst institutions to perform better and secure higher rank in international ranking.
• List of top Institutes in each category
  1. Overall – Indian Institute of Technology Madras
  2. University – Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
  3. Engineering – Indian Institute of Technology Madras
  4. Management – Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
  5. Colleges – Miranda House, Delhi
  6. Pharmacy – Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
  7. Medical – All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
  8. Architecture – Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
  9. Law – National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
  10. Dental – Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Delhi

Only three Indian institutes make it to the top 200 in QS World University Rankings 2021; MIT Tops

• None of the Indian institutions have featured in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.
• Only three educational institutes from India managed to find place in the top 200 list of the ranking which includes 1000 universities.
  • These are Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and IIT Delhi.
  • IIT Bombay grabbed the top spot among Indian institutes with global rank of 172 followed by IISc, Bengaluru (185) and IIT Delhi (193).
  • Also, only 21 Indian institutes have been listed in the overall ranking of 1,000 universities. Last edition of the ranking had 25 Indian institutions from India.
  • The list also includes at least 10 institutions marked by the government under the Institution of Eminence (IoE) scheme.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States has achieved the top spot.
  • Stanford University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology and UK’s Oxford University took the first 5 positions respectively.
• The QS World University Rankings evaluates the institutes on six metrics. These include academic reputation (40 percent weightage), employer reputation (10 percent), faculty/student ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio/student ratio (5 percent each).

Awards

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Indian origin Renjith Kumar gets “NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal”

• Virginia-based Indian entrepreneur and engineer, Dr. Renjith Kumar has been bestowed with NASA Distinguished Service Medal by US space agency for his administrations to NASA agency through executive leadership, engineering contribution, technical excellence and consumer loyalty.
• ‘Renji’, as he is popularly called, is only the second Indian after R K Chetty Pandipati to win the coveted award. RK Chetty Pandipati won the honour in 2002.
• The 57-year-old Dr. Renjith, hailing from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, has about 30-year long association with NASA, and had even helped redesign the International Space Station(ISS).
• He is presently the CEO Emeritus of the Virginia based Analytical Mechanics Associates(AMA).
• The NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal is the highest honor given by NASA  to anyone who was not a government employee when the service was performed.

Sports

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CAS Imposes 4-year doping ban on Russian High Jumper Alexander Shustov

• Alexander Shustov, a Russian high jumper and 2010 European champion, has received a four-year ban for anti-doping violations.
• He has been suspended until 2024 for “use or attempted use of a banned substance or prohibited method” by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
• Shustov retired from competition in 2017.
• On 29 July at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, he achieved his personal best (2.33 metres) and won gold medal.

Obituary

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Television actor Jagesh Mukati passes away at 47

• Television actor Jagesh Mukati has passed away after he developed breathing issues. He was 47.
• He was best known for playing Lord Ganesha on the 2000 mythological serial “Shree Ganesh”.
• Mukati had worked extensively in Gujarati theatre and also featured on popular shows like “Amita Ka Amit”, and feature films Sidharth Malhotra-Parineeti Chopra starrer “Hasee Toh Phasee” and Aamir Khan’s “Mann”.

Important Days

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World Accreditation Day (WAD): 9 June

• The World Accreditation Day (WAD) is celebrated every year on 9 June to promote the role of accreditation in trade & economy.
• The theme for WAD 2020 is “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety”.
• WAD is a global initiative, jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), to raise awareness of the importance of accreditation.

World Day Against Child Labour: 12 June

• The World Day Against Child Labour is held every year on June 12 to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.
• The theme for 2020 is “COVID-19 – Protect children from child labour now, more than ever”.
• It is an International Labour Organization (ILO)-sanctioned holiday first launched in 2002, and is intended to foster the worldwide movement against child labour in any of its forms.
• This year, the World Day will be conducted as a virtual campaign and is being organized jointly with the Global March Against Child Labour  and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) .

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Current Static GK in News – June 2020