Current Affairs 19-06-2020

India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the term 2021-22 after winning 184 votes in the 193-member General Assembly. Along with India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway also won the Security Council elections.
India’s overall objective during the fresh tenure in the UN Security Council will be the achievement of O.R.M.S. which stands for New Orientation for a Reformed Multilateral System.

The Kodumanal excavation of 10 pots and bowls, instead of the usual three or four pots, placed outside three-chambered burial cists and inside the cairn-circle, has thrown light on burial rituals and the concept of an afterlife in megalithic culture.
Kodumanal is a village located in the Erode district in Tamil Nadu. It is located on the northern banks of Noyyal River, a tributary of the Cauvery.
It was once a flourishing ancient trade city known as Kodumanam, as inscribed in Patittrupathu of Sangam Literature.
The site is an essential archaeological place, under the control of the State Archaeological Department of Tamil Nadu.

The Minister for Science & Technology inaugurated and flagged off India’s first I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) for COVID testing in rural and inaccessible areas of India.
Below this Consortia, India’s first I- lab (infectious disease diagnostic lab) has been developed at AMTZ in a record time of 8 days from the date of receipt of Automotive Chassis, from Bharat Benz.
This is a mobile diagnostic unit with a biosafety facility. The I- lab is a BSL-2 facility with on-site ELISA, RT-PCR, Biochemistry analyzers.
It can be deployed in remote areas and can be lifted from Automotive Chassis and can be put on goods train for sending to any spot in the country.

As tensions between India and China remain high on the disputed border, a search for military options is leading to questions about the current status of the mountain strike corps, sanctioned seven years ago but stalled two years ago for lack of funds.
The Panagarh-headquartered 17 Corps of the Indian army was sanctioned in 2013. The first division of the mountain strike corps was raised in the eastern sector but the raising of the second division at Pathankot in 2017-18 was never completed.
This had followed the raising of two new divisions in 2010 to strengthen the deployment in Arunachal Pradesh, along with an armored, artillery, and infantry brigade for other sectors of the LAC.

RBI has released a draft of the proposed changes in regulations applicable to Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) for public comments.
The proposed changes in the rules have come following RBI’s taking over as the regulator of mortgage lenders from the National Housing Bank (NHB) in August 2019.

Union Minister for Petroleum announced that India is set to double its refining capacity for crude oil to 450-500 million tonnes per annum by 2030.
The construction of a new refinery in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra with a refining capacity of 60 million tonnes per annum is set to start soon.
The project has received investment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s national oil companies — Saudi Aramco and ADNOC respectively — which together own 50 percent of the project while the remaining 50 percent is owned by Indian PSUs, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has rolled out a unique project to produce Neera and Palm jaggery which has huge potential to create employment.
The project that aims at promoting Neera as a substitute to soft drinks while also creating self-employment to Adivasis and traditional trappers was launched at Dahanu in Palghar district of Maharashtra.
India has an abundance of palm fields in states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that can make India a leading producer of Neera globally.

The power ministry has asked state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) to set up a central transmission utility (CTU) with separate accounting and board structure.
PGCIL is engaged in power transmission business with the responsibility of the planning, implementation, operation, and maintenance of the Inter-State Transmission System.
The subsidiary would be separated from the PGCIL into a new CTU Ltd, a wholly-owned Government of India company, within six months or till the completion of formalities.

The sixth annual International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict 2020 is being observed on 19 June.
The term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage, and any other form of sexual violence perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict.
The day aims to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence and to honor the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world

National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), an enterprise of DSIR, Ministry of Science, has licensed the manufacturing know-how of a PPE Suit being named as NavRakshak to five MSME clients to meet the ongoing countrywide demand of quality PPE kits.
These manufacturers put together are planning to mass-produce more than 10 million PPEs per year.
The manufacturing know-how of NavRakshak PPE has been developed at the Innovation Cell of the Institute of Naval Medicine, INHS Asvini Hospital (Mumbai).