11-12 JUNE 2016
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski wins Peru's Presidential Election
Peruvian economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski defeated his rival Keiko Fujimori with a thin margin to become Peru's next President.
The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) on 9 June 2016 announced that the Peruvian political organization Peruanos Por el Kambio received the most votes representing 50.12% of valid votes.
The difference in the total votes was of 41438 with 8580474 votes for Kuczynski and 8539036 for Fujimori.
Who is Pedro Pablo Kuczynski?
• Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard, popularly known as PPK, is a Peruvian economist, politician and public administrator.
• He served as Prime Minister of Peru from 2005 to 2006.
• He worked in the United States before entering Peruvian politics. He held positions at both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before being designated as general manager of Peru's Central Reserve Bank.
• He later served as Minister of Energy and Mines in the early 1980s under President Fernando Belaúnde Terry.
• He serves as Minister of Economy and Finance and Prime Minister under President Alejandro Toledo in the 2000s.
• He was also a presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential election.
• He went on to stand in the 2016 election, where he defeated Keiko Fujimori in the second round.
About 2016 Peruvian general election
• General elections took place in Peru on 10 April 2016.
• Incumbent President Ollanta Humala was ineligible to run due to constitutional term limits.
• In the race for the presidency, candidates Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski passed the electoral threshold for a second round, which took place on 5 June 2016.
India Post launches logo and tagline design contest for India Post Payments Bank
India Post on 10 June 2016 launched a logo and tagline design contest for the soon to be set up India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) on the MyGov website.
Union Cabinet gave its approval 1 June 2016 to set up the IPPB under the Department of Posts to further financial inclusion in India.
India Post wants to involve the people of India in designing the DNA of the India Post Payments Bank. So, it is conducting a contest for the design.
It has also initiated a nationwide survey to understand the needs of different segments of customers.
About the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)
• IPPB will offer digitally enabled payments, banking and remittance services of all kinds between entities and individuals.
• It also provides access to insurance, mutual funds, pension and credit products in partnership with third party financial service providers and Banks.
• Cocreating value propositions and products with its customers and other stakeholders is one of the guiding principles of IPPB.
• It is poised to emerge as the main vehicle of financial inclusion in the country by bringing the physical reach of 1.55 lakh post offices.
• It will be a modern payments platform powered by ubiquitous information and communication technologies together to create a national payments architecture that can be accessed by all users like never before.
• The roll out of the IPPB is to be completed by September 2017.
Reward for the Contest
• The contest is open to all Indian citizens, institutions, agencies and entities for a period of one month, until 9 July 2016.
• The best entry will be awarded 50000 rupees.
• A panel of eminent designers/ experts will help shortlist 20 best entries which will thereafter be put up for voting on the MyGov platform for the final selection of the winner.
Iceland scientists turn CO2 into Stone under CarbFix Project
Scientists of Iceland found a technique to capture and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep underground by turning it into rock.
The technique will provide a safer, faster way to sequester CO2 and limit global warming. And it was identified it as a potentially significant way to combat climate change.
This method of the speedy carbonation could be a viable way to store CO2 underground permanently and without risk of leakage.
The research was published in the journal Science on 10 June 2016.
Finding of the Research
• Scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other institutions tested the technique as part of a pilot program called the CarbFix project. It was launched in 2012 at the Hellisheidi power plant in Iceland.
• The Scientists injected 220 tons of CO2 into layers of basalt between 400 and 800 meters below the surface. They also added extra water to react with the gas to form a key driver of mineral reactions, carbonic acid.
• It triggered a reaction that rapidly forms new carbonate minerals, potentially locking up the gas forever.
• Within two years, 95 percent of the carbon injected into the basalt below the plant had solidified into stone.
• The process requires a significant amount of water 25 tons for every ton of CO2 which will become a hurdle in some parts of the world.
• The technique has to clear such high hurdles to become commercially viable.
About Carbon Sequestration
• It means capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or capturing anthropogenic (human) CO2 from large-scale stationary sources like power plants before it is released to the atmosphere.
• Once captured, the CO2 gas (or the carbon portion of the CO2) is put into long-term storage.
• There are two major types of CO2 sequestration: terrestrial and geologic.
Terrestrial Sequestration
Terrestrial (or biologic) sequestration means using plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and then storing it as carbon in the stems and roots of the plants as well as in the soil.
Geologic Sequestration
Geologic sequestration is putting CO2 into long-term storage in geologic zones deep underground.
• Many projects around the world have sought to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of curbing CO2 emissions from power plants. Very few have been scaled up, owing to prohibitive costs, estimated at 50 to 100 dollars per ton of CO2 sequestered.
Gordie Howe, legendary ice hockey player dies
The legendary Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe was died on 10 June 2016 after a lengthy illness. He was 88.
He was nicknamed as Mr. Hockey and is considered to be one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time.
About Gordie Howe
• He was born in 1928 in Floral, Saskatchewan.
• He played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA).
• He led the Detroit Red Wings to four Stanley Cup titles.
• He was the all-time leader in career goals and points.
• He retired in 1971 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1972.
• He was the inaugural recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
• He continues to hold NHL records for most games and seasons played.
Union Railway Minister dedicates Champaran Satyagrah Express at Motihari
He inaugurated six rail facilities in Bihar on the occasion which includes three Road Over Bridges (ROBs) at Danapur (Patna), Motihari and Begusarai railway stations, the broad guage conversion work of Banmankhi-Purnea rail section, besides converting Piprahan station into a crossing station.
Champaran Satyagrah Express train
• It was introduced to mark 100 years of the historic Champaran Satyagraha (movement) that was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917.
• The train will run between Bapudham, Motihari and Anand Vihar, Delhi.
Background
The Champaran Satyagraha was first Satyagraha in India;
Mahatma Gandhi led the movement in 1917 against the oppressive policies European indigo planters that led to exploitation of tens of thousands of landless serfs, indentured labourers and poor farmers in Champaran and neighbouring areas.
IEP released the 2016 Global Peace Index, India ranks 141
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) on 10 June 2016 released the 2016 Global Peace Index (GPI). It is 10th edition of GPI that measured peace, its causes and its economic value during 2015 for 163 countries.
India ranked 141 among the 163 countries with 2.566 GPI score. It showed an improvement in peace building as it held 143th rank in 2014 and 2015.
Highlights of 2016 GPI
• The Index shows that the world became less peaceful in 2015, reinforcing the underlying trend of declining peace over the last decade.
• The GPI records a historically less peaceful and more unequal world in which many countries also improved.
• The countries improved in Peace are 81 while deteriorated counts 79.
• The countries that topped the 2016 GPI for being most peaceful are Iceland (1), Denmark (2), Austria (3), New Zealand (4), Portugal (5), Czech Republic (6), Switzerland (7), Canada (8), Japan (9) and Slovenia (10).
• The least peacepul countries are Pakistan (153), Libya (154), Sudan (155), Ukraine (156), Central African Republic (157), Yemen (158), Somalia (159), Afghanistan (160), Iraq (161), South Sudan (162) and Syria (163).
Pakistan (153rd), Libya (154th), Sudan (155th), Ukraine (156th), Central African Republic (157th), Yemen (158th), Somalia (159th), Afghanistan (160th), Iraq (161st), South Sudan (162nd) and Syria (163rd).
Read more at: http://currentaffairs.gktoday.in/
• The majority of the global deterioration is due to the developments in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) which is already the least peaceful region in the world.
• It shows that amidst the global deterioration the world continues to spend enormous resources on creating and containing violence but very little on peace.
• The indicators with the largest yearly deterioration were the impact of terrorism and political instability.
• The countries with the largest deteriorations were Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Poland, Burundi, Kazakhstan and Brazil.
• The indicator with the largest improvement is UN peacekeeping funding, while the second largest improvement was recorded in the security officers and police rateindicator.
• UN member states have formally recognised the critical nature of peacefulness in advancing global development for the first time.
• The 17 SDGs are a new set of goals to target poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change by 2030.
• IEP recommends that independent third party organisations provide complimentary support to NSOs and offer a useful benchmark against which to compare results.
About Global Peace Index (GPI)
• GPI as a measure of world peace was launched in 2007.
• It is the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
• The Index is composed of 23 indicators, ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the percentage of prison population in 163 countries.
• The IEP is a Sydney-based international and independent think tank dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
Union Ministry of Civil Aviation proposes passenger centric amendments to CARs
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju along with MOS Dr Mahesh Sharma on 11 June 2016 presided over a presentation made by DGCA with regard to Passenger Centric Initiatives.
The Ministry is committed to ensure that flying for most Indians becomes a pleasant experience along with the growth of the Airline industry. Accordingly, it proposed certain amendments to the existing Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs)
Category wise proposals in the amendments of CARs:
Category –I: Refund of Air Tickets
• The Ministry proposed that the refund process should be completed within 15 working days in case of domestic travel and 30 working days in case of international travel.
• It also proposed that in case of cancellation of tickets, statutory taxes and user development fee/airport development fee/passenger service fee shall be refunded.
• The Ministry also proposed in this category that under no circumstances cancellation shall be more than the basic fair.
Category –II: Denied Boarding, flight cancellation and flight delays
• The Ministry has proposed that an amount equal to 200 percent of booked one way basic fair plus airline fuel charge subject to maximum of 10000 rupees would be paid to passengers in case airline arranges alternate flight that is to depart after one hour but within 24 hours of the booked scheduled departure.
Category –III: Persons with reduced mobility
• Airlines shall develop a procedure for making advance request of stretcher and same should be displayed on airline's website.
• Airlines, airport operators, security personnel, customs and immigration shall conduct training programme, as per training module provided by Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment for all their personnel engaged in passenger services for sensitization and developing awareness for assisting persons with disability or reduced mobility.
• Foreign carriers operating to/from India shall refund the tickets in accordance with regulations of their country of origin.
Luggage:
• The Ministry proposed that the Airline should restrict additional baggage charge 100 rupees per kg With regard to checking baggage charges for the baggage between 15 to 20 kilograms.
The above proposal will be put up on the Union Aviation Ministry's website for 15 days during which Stakeholders are free to give their suggestions and comments.
After that the Ministry will finalize the proposed amendments and implement them very soon.
Satya Pal Jain appointed as Law Commission member
Additional Solicitor General of India and former Parliamentarian Satya Pal Jain was on 10 June 2016 appointed as a part-time member of the 21st Law Commission of India.
The appointment will be in addition to his charge as an Additional Solicitor General of India.
About Satya Pal Jain
• He is a noted constitution lawyer and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
• He has been the Dean of the Law Faculty of Panjab University and is a Member of the Panjab University Senate for the last 40 years.
About 21st Law Commission of India
• The President constituted the 21st Law Commission of India on 1 September 2015 and will end on 31 August 2018.
• Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan, retired Judge of the Supreme Court, is the Chairman of the Commission and Justice Ravi R Tripathi, retired judge of Gujarat High Court and Bimal N Patel Director, GNLU are the other nominated members of the Commission.
• The Secretary Department of Legal Affairs & Secretary, Legislature Department of Ministry of Law & Justice of the Government of India are ex-officio members of the Commission.
Law Commission of India
• It is an executive body established by an order of the Government of India in 1955.
• It works for legal reforms and its members will be primarily legal experts, who are entrusted a mandate by the Union Government.
• The Commission is established for a fixed tenure of three years and works as an advisory body to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
• The First Law Commission was established in 1955 with the then Attorney-General of India MC Setalvad as its Chairman.