02 June 2017 Current Affairs
India will be first in world to run all government ports on green energy
All 12 major domestic ports will soon switch to renewable energy to meet their entire power requirements, making India the first country to have all government-owned ports running on solar and wind energy. As part of this the government plans to install almost 200 megawatt solar and wind power generation capacity at the ports by 2019.
A high-level conference attended by shipping minister, Nitin Gadkari, top officials and chairmen of several port trusts was held at JNPT in Mumbai to discuss the road map of implementing the green ports project. These renewable energy projects will help in reduction of carbon emission and lead to improvement of environment around the ports.
Few major Government Ports are Listed Below:
- Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.
- Visakhapatnam Port, Andhra Pradesh.
- Kochi Port, Kerala.
- New Mangalore Port, Karnataka.
- Mundra Port, Gujarat.
- Kandla Port, Gujarat.
- Port of Quilon – The oldest and second largest port in Kerala
70th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland
The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the Organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget. The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland.
Telangana launches T-Wallet for people with and without mobile phones
The Telangana Government has launched a digital wallet, named T-Wallet, which doesn’t charge transaction fee from consumers. The government is planning to use the wallet, available in Google Play, for remittances under job guarantee scheme MNREGA and scholarships for students. Telangana became the first state in the country to launch official e-wallet.
Inauguration of MITS Mega Food Park at Rayagada
The first Mega Food Park in the state MITS Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd at Rayagada has been inaugurated today by Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries. This is the 7th Mega Food Park operationalized in the last 3 years by the present government.
On this occasion Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, MoS (Food Processing Industries), Government of India, were also present. Ministry of Food Processing Industries is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and ‘Make In India’ initiative of the government.
UN General Assembly elects Slovakian Miroslav Lajcak as new president
The United Nations General Assembly picked Slovak foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak to be its next president. The 193-member assembly, the U.N.’s most representative body, burst into applause when current President Peter Thomson of Fiji announced that Lajcak had been elected by acclamation to lead its 72nd session beginning in September.
India ranked 137th in the Global Peace Index 2017
India has ranked 137th out of 163 countries on Global Peace Index 2017 published by The Institute of Economics and Peace. This is the eleventh edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). Iceland has been named the world’s most peaceful country, topping the Global Peace Index for the tenth consecutive year followed by New Zealand and Portugal at second and third position while Syria has been named the least peaceful country.
Prithvi-II missile successfully test-fired
India today successfully test-fired its indigenous developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile from a test range in Odisha as part of a user trial by the Army. The trial of the surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here at around 9.50 am, official sources said.
The Prithvi-II missile is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target with precision and accuracy.