Current Affairs, June 2021

29th June, Current Affairs:

• Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Prakash Javdekar virtually inaugurated Asia's longest high-speed test track located in Pithampur, Indore. The NATRAX facility measures 11.3 km in length.
• US vaccine manufacturing giant Moderna has been granted restricted emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine in India. The approval was granted by the Drug Controller General of India. Indian drug manufacturer Cipla has been given permission to import Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine and market it in the country.
• The T20 World Cup 2021 will be held from October 17 to November 14 in UAE and Oman, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday.


28th June, Current Affairs:

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a stimulus package of Rs 6.28 lakh crore in a bid to boost Covid-affected sectors.
• Star Indian archer Deepika Kumari on Monday regained the number one position in global rankings for recurve women following her hat-trick of gold medals at the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Sunday.
• India successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable Agni Prime ballistic missile - a more advanced version of the Agni class of missiles - from a location off the Odisha coast.
• The government has extended the tenure of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal by a year.
• Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven resigns after losing no confidence.

27th June, Current Affairs:

• Sajan Prakash became the first-ever Indian swimmer to breach the Olympic qualification time, clocking 1:56:38 seconds in the men's 200m butterfly event at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy.
• Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Surat in Gujarat were adjudged joint winners of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry's Smart Cities Award 2020, while Uttar Pradesh secured the first position in the state awards category, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• Nearly six years on from the release of Windows 10, Microsoft has unveiled the Windows 11 operating system.
• Shafali Verma became the youngest Indian cricketer to make their debut across all three formats when India Women took on England Women in the first ODI in Bristol. At 17 years and 150 days, she is the fifth youngest player to make her debut in all three formats of the game, and the third youngest among women.
• India's Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das won gold medal at Archery World Cup. Deepika and Atanu bagged the gold medal in recurve mixed team event.

26th June, Current Affairs:

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test fired extended range version of indigenously developed Pinaka rocket from a Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher at Integrated Test Range , Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.
• Around 50 cases of Delta Plus variant have been reported in the country so far. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Ministry has said that this variant has been observed in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka.
• Government has extended the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar till 30th of September.
• Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, which led to the biggest outcry against racial injustice in the US in generations.
• The CoWin portal is now enabling users to link their vaccination certificates to passports for use during travel.

25th June, Current Affairs:

• China today operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi.
• The Serum Institute of India, which get licence to produce Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine in the country under the name Covovax, is began manufacturing the first batch of the vaccine this week at its Pune unit.
• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) today announced that Pakistan will remain on “increased monitoring list”, also known as grey list. Pakistan was put on the grey list by the Paris-based FATF in June 2018.

24th June, Current Affairs:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing an all-party meeting with the political leaders from Jammu & Kashmir in Delhi. This is the first such meeting after 5th August, 2019 when the Centre decided to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status.
• Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first European in World Cup and Euros history to score a combined 20 goals across the two competitions.

23rd June, Current Affairs:

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has transferred assets worth ₹8,441 crore to banks who suffered losses due to frauds by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
• Microsoft Corporation took its place in the history books as just the second U.S. public company after Amazon to reach a $2 trillion market value.
• New Zealand wins the ICC World Test Championship after defeating India in the final at Southampton in England.

22nd June, Current Affairs:

• India has achieved a landmark milestone by administering nearly 86 lakh doses of COVID vaccines in a single day yesterday.
• Bharat Biotech has submitted data from phase 3 trials of the Covaxin vaccine to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Covaxin is among three vaccines being used in the nationwide drive against Covid-19.
• Odisha becomes only state to have all three species of crocodiles. The state have all the three species of the reptile freshwater Gharials at Satakosiya in Mahanadi, muggers in Bhitar Kanika National park and saltwater crocodiles.


21st June, Current Affairs:

• 7th International Yoga Day is celebrated today. The theme of the International Yoga Day event this year is 'Yoga for wellness'.
• World Music Day is also celebrated today.
• More than 75 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered across the country in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day coverage till now.
• The Amarnath Yatra has been cancelled for the second year in a row amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

19th June, Current Affairs:

• UN General Assembly appointed Antonio Guterres as the UN Secretary-General for a second term beginning January 1, 2022.
• Legendary sprinter Milkha Singh died on Friday due to post-Covid complications at the age of 91. Popularly referred to as the 'Flying Sikh', Milkha Singh made his name in the track and field, winning four gold medals at the Asian Games. He also won a gold at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. He was finishing fourth at the 400m final of the 1960 Rome Games.
• Iran's hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi won the country's presidential election in a landslide victory. He will replace Hassan Rouhani in August as President of Iran.
• World Sickle Cell Awareness Day is observed today.

17th June, Current Affairs:

• In a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power, the first astronauts arrived at China's new space station in the country's longest crewed mission to date. The three astronauts blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwest China's Gobi desert, and their craft docked at the Tiangong station around seven hours later, where they will spend the next three months.
• Class 12 results will be announced by July 31 and will factor in students' performance over three years or from Class 10, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) told the Supreme Court today.
• Pashupati Kumar Paras has been elected as the national president of the Lok Janshakti Party.
• Microsoft Corp named Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as its new chairman, in place of John Thompson.

16th June, Current Affairs:

• Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal moves past Michel Platini to become all-time leading scorer at Euro Cup finals. Cristiano Ronaldo has now 11 goals in the Euros. He has now also extended his record as the only player to score in five separate Euros finals, and has also played the most games, with the match against Hungary being his 22nd since he made his debut in 2004.
• Hallmarking on gold jewellery and other related items will become mandatory from today, said the Union ministry or consumer affairs, food and public distribution.

15th June, Current Affairs:

• As per the World Giving Index 2021 report, India is 14th most charitable country.
• Union Health Ministry said that anyone over the age of 18 can walk in to the nearest vaccination centre to get registered on the CoWIN digital platform and be inoculated against COVID-19. It is not mandatory to pre-register online or book an appointment to get the vaccine.
• Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.


14th June, Current Affairs:

• World Blood Donor Day is observed today. For 2021, the World Blood Donor Day slogan is “Give blood and keep the world beating”.
• In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu`s record 12-year run as prime minister ended after Naftali Bennett elected as the new Prime Minister of Israel.

13th June, Current Affairs:

• India’s Vinoo Mankad, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower were among 10 cricket icons to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
• Novak Djokovic wins the French Open Men's Single title after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

12th June, Current Affairs:

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been waived for two critical drugs against COVID-19 and black fungus, Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B, while tax rates have been reduced to 5% on 14 major pandemic relief goods. Now, a 5 per cent GST will continue to be applied on vaccines, while 12 per cent to 5 per cent GST will be charged on oximeters.
• Leaders of the G7 begin their three days of meetings in United Kingdom, in which they will discuss Covid-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy.
• Indian-origin journalist Megha Rajagopalan along with two contributors has won the Pulitzer Prize for innovative investigative reports on prisons and mass internment camps secretly built by China for detaining hundreds of thousands of Muslims in its restive Xinjiang region.
• Bikaner in Rajasthan is set to become the first city in the country to launch a door-to-door Covid vaccination drive. The exercise will start from Monday for 45+ age group.
• Czech Barbora Krejcikova defeated Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the French Open Women's single final to win the title.

10th June, Current Affairs:

• Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Joe Salisbury of Britain won the mixed doubles title at the French Open. The pair defeated Russians Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.
• Asian Games gold medal-winning former boxer Dingko Singh died today after a long battle with liver cancer. He was 42.
• The Health department of Bihar revised its total COVID-19 related death toll to more than 9,300 from about 5,400. Following a recent direction by the Patna High Court, the Bihar government recounted its COVID-19 toll.


9th June, Current Affairs:

• President Ram Nath Kovind appointed retired Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer Anup Chandra Pandey to the post of Election Commissioner.
• India’s economy is expected to grow at 8.3% for Fiscal Year 2021-22 as per the World Bank’s latest projections.
• The Central Government has capped the price of Covid vaccine administered by private hospitals. The price of Covishield has been fixed at ₹780, Covaxin at ₹1,410, and Sputnik V at ₹1,145.
• El Salvador to become the world's first nation to adopt a cryptocurrency after congress passes law that will classify Bitcoin as legal tender.
• National Geographic announced that it is officially recognizing the Southern Ocean as the Earth's fifth ocean.
• Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives has won an election as the next president of the United Nations General Assembly.

8th June, Current Affairs:

• Indian footballer Sunil Chhetri has surpassed Argentina's global superstar Lionel Messi to become the second-highest active international goal-scorer with 74 strikes. He achieved the feat with his brace against Bangladesh in the joint preliminary qualifying round match for 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
• Union Health Ministry said the country reported less than one lakh daily new cases after 63 days. On 7th June, 86 thousand 498 new cases were reported which is lowest in 66 days.

5th June, Current Affairs:

• Raimona in Kokrajhar district has become Assam’s sixth national park. The 422 sq ft wildlife habitat in Kokrajhar district adjoins western-most buffer to Manas Tiger Reserve.
• World Environment Day is observed today. This year, the theme of World Environment Day is "Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.".

4th June, Current Affairs:

• The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy committee (MPC) kept the key lending rate or the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent for a sixth straight time.
• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) today approved the Navy’s proposal for construction of six submarines at an approximate cost of Rs 43,000 crore.

3rd June, Current Affairs:

• World Bicycle Day is observed today.
• The third edition of the Sustainable Development Goals SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21 was released by Niti Aayog. According to report, the country’s overall SDG score has improved by 6 points, from 60 in 2019 to 66 in 2020-21.
• The clinical trial of Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN on children began at AIIMS Patna.


2nd June, Current Affairs:

• CBSE class 12 exam and ICSE class 12 exams have been cancelled due to Covid pandemic.
• Justice (Retd) Arun Kumar Mishra today took charge as the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC in New Delhi.
• Telangana state is celebrating its 8th Formation Day today.

1st June, Current Affairs:

• China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country's eastern Jiangsu province. H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low.
• Vice Admiral Ravneet Singh, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), and Nausena Medal (NM) holder, assumed charge as the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.