June 5th 2015 - Current Affairs

Nitin Gadkari inaugurates first Oil Spill Response Centre for Mumbai & JNPT Harbour

• India’s first of its kind Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre (OSRC) for Mumbai Port Trust (MBT), Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and ONGC’s facilities at Nhava and Uran was inaugurated on 5 June 2015.
• It was inaugurated by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari to tackle pollution and oil spills in and around Mumbai.

Facts about Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre (OSRC)

•  OSRC is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment in operational readiness for combating Tier-I oil spill upto 700 tones.
• The objective behind setting up this centre is to develop appropriate and effective systems for the detection and reporting of spillage of oil in order to ensure adequate protection to the marine environment and public health.
• This centre will also ensure prompt and appropriate response technique to control, combat and prevent oil pollution and dispose recovered waste material in an environmental friendly manner. The OSRC is equipped with skilled and trained personnel and wireless communication facilities for immediately responding to any oil spill.
• It will monitor on 24/7 basis. It also includes various plans like Contingency Plan, Health Safety and Environment Plan.
• The facility is funded by Participating Oil Companies (POCs). While, MPT will take the responsibility for tendering and monitoring of Tier-I OSR facility.

05 June: World Environment Day

• Every year World Environment Day (WED) is observed on 05 June to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth.
• The theme for year 2015 is Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care. The theme highlights the need to respect the carrying capacity of the planet earth and to manage natural resources efficiently to ensure prosperity and wellbeing globally. Observing this day is global initiative of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The host country for the WED 2015 is Italy.
• To mark this day Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a tree plantation campaign across India by planting Kadamb sapling at the lawns of his Race Course Road residence.

About World Environment Day (WED)

•  WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of United Nations Conference on the Human Environment 1972 which began in Stockholm.
• The first World Environment Day was observed in 1973 and since then it is being held every year with a different themes.

Delhi Metro gets first driver-less train from South Korea

• Delhi Metro has received its first driver-less train from Republic of South Korea which is capable of running without a driver.
• The six-coach train has been manufactured at Changwan in South Korea and had arrived by sea at the Mundhra port in Gujarat and was brought to Delhi by road.

Facts about driver-less metro train

• The train is equipped with several advanced features and will be operational from by the end of 2016.
•  It has undergone significant technological as well as eco-friendly upgrades.
• It is more energy efficient as it has improved design features such as better regeneration of energy during braking, energy efficient sub systems like LED lighting and air conditioning systems.
• Many additional features have been added in this train to increase passenger comfort.
• This train can accommodate 2280 passengers, which is 240 more than the regular six-coach Metro train because of absence of cabin for the operator coach.
•  It is designed for a maximum speed of 95 kmph and operational speed of 85 kmph

Such driver-less trains will ply on sections of Phase-III of the Delhi metro network. They will run on the over 58 km-long Majlish Park-Shiv Vihar and the over 38 km-long Janakpuri (West)-Botanical Garden corridors of the Phase-III. A total of 20 six-coach trains will be manufactured in South Korea by the end 2015. While, 61 trains will be manufactured at the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) plant located in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

India loses poultry case against United States at WTO

India has lost a poultry case against United States at World Trade Organization (WTO) after WTO’s Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) ruled that India’s ban on import of poultry meat, eggs and live pigs from US is inconsistent with the international norms.

What is this case?

• India had banned imports of various agriculture products including poultry meat and eggs from the US in 2007.
• These poultry products were banned as a precautionary measure to prevent outbreaks of Avian Influenza and bird flu fears.
• In March 2012, US had dragged India to the WTO for banning these products and had contended India’s import prohibition saying that it was not based on the relevant international standard or on a scientific risk assessment.
• Earlier in October 2014 WTO Appellate Body had ruled in favour of US and clearly mentioned that India’s ban measures are arbitrarily and unjustifiably discrimination on international trade and constitutes a disguised restriction on it.
• India had challenged WTO’s this ruling and had appealed to the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) of the WTO.

With this WTO ruling, US which is one of the world’s largest exporters of chicken meat will be able to export their poultry products to Indian market without any trade barriers.

This will help US farmers and poultry industry to supply their products to Indian broiler meat consumers which has increased to 3.72 million tonnes in 2014 from 3.45 million tonnes in 2013.

Union Government inks loan pact with World Bank for Tamil Nadu Urbanisation Project

• Union Government has signed a loan and project agreement with World Bank to provide $400 million to the Tamil Nadu government for its Sustainable Urban Development Project.
• The loan agreement, signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Onno Ruhl, Country director of World Bank (India).
• Tamil Nadu’s sustainable Urban Development Project aims at improving urban services in participating Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in a financially sustainable manner.
• It also seeks at piloting improved urban management practices in selected cities.

The project consists of three parts

• Investment in urban services including water, municipal solid waste, sewerage, urban transportation and storm water drainage.
• Results-based grants for urban governance. Urban sector technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of ULBs and urban sector officials.
• The size of the project is US 600 million dollars, of which 400 million dollars would be financed through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Syed Asif Ibrahim appointed as PM’s Special Envoy for Counter-terrorism

• Former Director of Intelligence Bureau (DIB) Syed Asif Ibrahim was appointed as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Counter Terrorism and Extremism in National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat.
• His appointment was confirmed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). His rank will be of Secretary to the government for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Syed Asif Ibrahim’s role will be to

•  Help Union government to evolve strategies to deal with radicalisation of youths in India due to rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
• Liaise security challenges with governments of West Asian countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He will directly report to National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit K Doval and will carry out work in the National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat in New Delhi.

About Syed Asif Ibrahim

Syed Asif Ibrahim was Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre of 1977 batch. He has served as Director of the Intelligence Bureau from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014 and was the first Muslim to hold this important position.

India’s Sundaram Ravi inducted in ICC Elite Panel of Umpires

• India’s Sundaram Ravi was inducted into the Elite Panel of International Cricket Council (ICC) Umpires for year 2015-2016.
•  Decision in this regard was taken by the ICC Umpires Selection Panel consisting of Chairman Geoff Allardice and others members after annual review and selection process.

Machettira Raju Poovamma and Liksy Joseph win silver medals in Asian Athletics Championship

• India’s Machettira Raju Poovamma and Liksy Joseph have won silver medal each in 21st Asian Athletics Championships held in Wuhan, China.
• Quarter-miler Poovamma won silver medal in women’s 400m finals event by clocking 53.07 secs.
•  China’s Yang Huizhen (52.37 sec) won the gold medal and Anastasiya Kudinova (53.41 sec) of Kazakhstan won bronze medal in this event. While heptathlete Joseph won the silver medal in the 800m race with a time of 2:13.44.