25 June 2016 Current Affairs
Dutee Chand qualifies for Rio 2016 Olympics
Indian sprinter Dutee Chand on 25 June qualified for Rio Olympics in the women’s 100 metre event. She qualified in the games after meeting the qualification mark at 26th International Meeting G. Kosanov Memorial in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Dutee clocked 11.30 seconds beating the Rio Olympics qualification mark of 11.32 secs. With this, she became the first Indian woman sprinter to qualify for the event since qualification started for the event. PT Usha had qualified for the event in 1980 Olympics. In the 26th International Meeting G.Kosanov Memorial, Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Zyabkina won won the race with personal best performance of 11.15s.
PM Modi Launches ‘Smart City Mission’ Projects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 June launched the ‘Smart City Mission’ involving 83 projects from 20 different cities in the country. The ambitious mission of Union Government was launched at function held at Pune’s Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex one year after it was announced. The Smart City Mission’ projects launched included 14 projects of Pune (Maharashtra) and 69 projects from 20 different shortlisted cities in the country to be implemented at a cost of 1,770 crore rupees. PM Modi also inaugurated ‘Make Your City SMART’ contest, aimed at involving citizens’ participation in designing smart cities. ‘Smart Net Portal’ was also inaugurated by PM Modi. The portal enables the cities under different urban missions to share solutions and ideas for various issues during the implementation of various missions.
Mahashangarh Declared as the SAARC Cultural Capital For 2016-17
Mahasthangarh, the 3rd century BC archaeological site in Bogra, Bangladesh, has been declared as the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SARRC) cultural capital for the year 2016-17. As a SARRC cultural capital, the historic place will host festivals on literature, films, foods and dances from October 2016 to September 2017. The year 2016-17 has also be declared the SAARC Year of Cultural Heritage. Mahasthangarh is one of the earliest urban archaeological sites so far discovered in Bangladesh.
First Su-30 MKI with BrahMos Missile Flies Successfully
BrahMos Aerospace for the first time successfully demonstrated integration of the world’s most formidable supersonic cruise missile system BrahMos on the Sukhoi SU-30 MKI fighter aircraft. In this regard, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Nasik division on 24 June conducted a test flight of a 2,500 kg supersonic BrahMos missile integrated with SU-30 MKI aircraft at its Nasik airport. With the successful integration of BrahMos missile system with Su-30 MKI aircraft Indian Air Force (IAF) became the first air force in the world in procession of a supersonic cruise missile system with a long range fighter aircraft. IAF also moved few steps closer towards actual test firing when a 2.5 tonnes supersonic BrahMos air-to-ground missile from the Su-30 MKI.