Daily Gk Update [20 June 2015]

Sushma Swaraj leaves for New York for International Yoga Day event

i)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today left for New York where she is going to participate in the International Yoga Day event being organised by the Indian Mission at the United Nations.

ii)She will represent India next week in Nepal at a global donors' conference aimed at raising funds for the earthquake-hit country(Nominated by PM Shri Narendra Modi).

Haryana launches Village Mentoring Project(VMP) to uplift villagers.

i)The Haryana Government today launched a Village Mentoring Project (VMP) to improve healthcare and education of the villagers with a special emphasis on girl child. 

ii) The project would create awareness among the villagers about various issues including educating girl child, health, financial matters etc 

China launched world’s first electric passenger aircraft BX1E.

i)China launched the world’s first electric passenger aircraft named BX1E that could be used in pilot training, tourism, meteorology and rescue operations.

ii)The aircraft was designed together by Shenyang Aerospace University and Liaoning General Aviation Academy located in the northeastern Liaoning Province of China.

Serbia edge Brazil in final to clinch Fifa U-20 World Cup title.

i) Serbia pulled off a historic 2-1 win in extra time to beat heavily favoured Brazil in the final of the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Auckland on Saturday.

ii) Serbia, playing in the FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time as an independent nation, will leave as its champions.Auckland's North Harbour Stadium. Nemanja Maksimovic's decisive, 118th-minute goal settled the final 2-1 in favour of the delirious Serbians, and left five-time champions Brazil to settle for silver.

Brightest Galaxy in Early Universe named after Cristiano Ronaldo as CR7

i)Scientists in third week of June 2015 named a newly discovered galaxy after Portuguese football player Cristiano Ronaldo. The galaxy was labeled as CR7 (COSMOS Redshift 7).

ii)CR7 is three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxy known till now, called Himiko. This brightest galaxy was discovered in the early universe that contains the first generation of stars. For this discovery, they used ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

PM to launch 3 flagship schemes for urban revamp on June 25.

i) The three big ticket projects — Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Housing for All, now named as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), are worth Rs. four lakh crore.

ii)It marks a red-letter day in the history of urban development in the country with the simultaneous launch of AMRUT, PMAY and Smart Cities Mission.

iii) The Prime Minister will also release operational guidelines for the three urban missions besides unveiling logos and tag lines, according to a senior Urban Development Ministry official.

Nikesh Arora appointed SoftBank President

i)India-born former Google executive Nikesh Arora has been appointed the President of Japan’s telecommunications giant SoftBank Corp that paid the “rising star” a whopping US$135 million for the financial year 2014.

ii)Arora, 47, who earlier held the vice president’s post, was appointed company president and chief operating officer at a general meeting of shareholders here yesterday.

India Unlimited’ to boost synergies between Indian and Swedish entrepreneurs.

i)India Unlimited ∞ - a platform for connecting India and Sweden in every field where both stand to gain.

ii)Seeking synergies between Swedish and Indian entrepreneurship, Indian mission in Sweden has launched ‘India Unlimited’ platform.

iii)The aim of the platform ‘India Unlimited’ is promoting Brand India in Sweden and Brand Sweden in India. 

State Government initiative to make Arunachal an organic state.

i) In a bid to make Arunachal Pradesh a hundred per cent organic state, the State government decided to launch “State Soil Health Mission”.The programme aims at proper documentation of soil health and preparation of soil map.

ii)Arunachal Pradesh government which is among the top five states for devolution of powers to Panchayati Raj, has initiated steps to strengthen the urban local self-governance to enhance revenue base of urban local bodies.