20th June Current Affairs:
Special Days
1. The United Nations’ (UN) World Refugee Day will be observed on June 20 to honors the courage,
strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under
threat of persecution, conflict and violence.
• The theme of this year’s celebration is “One family torn apart by war is too many.”
Appointments
1. BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi took over as the chairperson of the New Delhi
Municipal Council (NDMC).
• An official notification regarding the appointment of the New Delhi MP as chairperson of NDMC was
received from the Home Ministry.
• Lekhi takes over from Jalaj Srivastava, a 1984-batch IAS officer who was appointed the NDMC
chairperson in August last year.
Awards
1. Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh has been chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award for 2013.
• Singh is the 10th Hindi writer to receive the honour and joins the likes of Sumitra Nandan Pant,
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar among others. He will be the recipient of 49th Jnanpith award.
• The award includes Rs 11 lakh and a citation.
2. Salman Rushdie has been awarded the 2014 PEN/Pinter Prize, given annually to a British writer or
writer in resident in Britain.
• The award, established in 2009 by English PEN in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter,
recognizes an individual of "outstanding literary merit," who, in Pinter's words, casts an “unflinching,
unswerving” gaze upon the world and shows a “fierce intellectual determination…to define the real
truth of our lives and our societies."
Banking
1. RBI permitted residents and non-residents, [except Pakistanis and Bangladeshis] to carry up to Rs
25,000 in Indian currency notes while leaving the country.
• As per Foreign Exchange Management (FEMA) Act, a resident can carry to Nepal or Bhutan, Indian
currency without any limit in denominations not exceeding Rs 100.
Prior norms for Indians and foreigners
• Prior, maximum allowed (Indians) travelling abroad was up to Rs 10,000. And foreigners were not
allowed to carry Indian currency while leaving the country.
2. RBI announced new features in RTGS System, which is even faster and smother than earlier.
• The maximum time a transaction would be in “normal” queue is 10 minutes.
• All transaction will be made automatically changed to “urgent” mode.
• Settlement charges will be 10% of the balance.
ECONOMY
1. The World Bank's Development Marketplace, a competitive grants program, has given grants worth
$1.4 million (about Rs 8.4 crore) to 12 social enterprises in the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya
and Mizoram for development activities.
• Of the 12 enterprises that received the grants, nine got $150,000 each to implement development
projects over 24 months.
• The remaining three got $25,000 each to invest in capacity building.
2. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture of steel tycoon L N Mittal and Hindustan Petroleum, shut a
small unit.
• This Guru Gobind Singh Refinery is located in, Bhatinda, Punjab, India.
3. Oil India Ltd (OIL) signed a MoU with Russian gas firm Gazprom for jointly pursuing exploration
opportunities worldwide, as well as collaborating on liquefied natural gas (LNG).
• The MoU also provides an option to the companies for technological association. Any area or project
of common interest would also be covered under the purview of MoU
• Chairman of OIL : S.K. Srivastava
4. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has signed a deal with Russia's largest oil and gas producer Rosneft to jointly
explore hydrocarbons in the offshore Arctic.
• Chairman of ONGC : DK Sarraf
Deaths
1. Veteran director and producer Rama Narayanan died in Singapore following a brief illness. He was 65
years old and is survived by a son.
• Narayanan has directed 125 films in nine languages in a career spanning 36 years.
• In the 1980s, he was known as a director who specialized in commercial films, while most of the films
he made in the 90s had devotion and spirituality as the underlying theme.
International
1. European Union Finance Ministers are expected to give Lithuania a green light to adopt the euro
currency next year, during talks in Luxembourg.
• The move, which must still be approved by EU leaders and reviewed by the European Parliament,
would pave the way for Lithuania to become the eurozone’s 19th member on January 1, 2015.
• Lithuania would be the last Baltic nation to adopt the euro, after Estonia did so in 2011 and Latvia
followed suit this year.
National
1. The railways sought to correct the long running distortion in the fare structure by hiking passenger
fares by 14.2 per cent across all classes and freight charges by 6.5 per cent.
• The increase takes effect immediately.
• The previous government had decided to hike fares from May 20, but its implementation was stayed
because the announcement was made on the same day as declaration of election results.
2. Labour Minister Shibu Baby John told the Assembly that the government had drafted a law mandating
minimum wages for teachers in unaided schools.
• The department has also prepared a draft for a law to ensure welfare of migrant workers.
• It proposes to make enrolment of the workers in the labour welfare fund mandatory by the employers.
Though the government had formed a welfare fund for the workers, many were not remitting
contributions for want of awareness
3. Government Constitutes Committee to Inquire Cause of Gas Leakage in Bhilai Steel Plant
• The Government has constituted an independent High Level Committee to inquire about the cause of
gas leakage in Bhilai Steel Plant on June12, 2014.
• The Committee headed by its Chairman, Shri K.K. Mehrotra, former CMD, MECON, will have three
members, Shri K.A.P. Singh, Former M.D. Bokaro Steel Plant, Shri S. B. Mathur, Director General,
Directorate General of Factory Advice Service & Labour Institute (DGFASLI), Mumbai and Dr. Soumitra
Tarafder, Chief Scientist, National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur.
Persons in News
1. South Africa's AB de Villiers has replaced Virat Kohli at the top of the latest International Cricket
Council One Day International rankings issued.
• The swap came as a result of Kohli's decision to skip the recently concluded three-match series against
Bangladesh.
• De Villiers is also at the top of the batting table in the Test batsmen list, while Kohli is at the 10th
position.
Sports
1. Feliciano Lopez of Spain beat Richard Gasquet of France to retain his title at the ATP-WTA Eastbourne
International on 21st June.
The results:
• At s’-Hertogenbosch (Topshelf Open):
Men: Final: Roberto Bautita Agut bt Benjamin Becker.
Women: Final: Coco Vandeweghe bt Jie Zheng.
• At Eastbourne (Aegon International):
Men: Final: Feliciano Lopez bt Richard Gasquet.
Women: Final: Madison Keys bt Angelique Kerber.
State (Andhra Pradesh)
1. Senior Telugu Desam leader Kodela Siva Prasada Rao is expected to be declared unopposed as the
first Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly post-bifurcation as his was the sole nomination to be
filed.
• Dr. Siva Prasada Rao, who hails from Guntur district, has been elected from Narsaraopeta Assembly
constituency for five times consecutively from 1983 to 2004.
• He won from Sattenapalli constituency in 2014 elections.
2. Andhra Pradesh Minister for NRI Empowerment Palle Raghunantha Reddy has directed the Collectors
of 13 districts to gather information on employees working and also caught in the crisis in Iraq.
• He said that a helpline with phone Nos. 040 23454946 and 99490 54467 was opened and would be
given wide publicity in all the districts for people to send the details of those working in Iraq.