Daily Current Affairs 18 June 2024, OPSC Exam Current Affairs

Daily Current Affairs for OPSC Exam

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Priyanka to make electoral debut from Wayanad

• Former Congress president and lawmaker Rahul Gandhi will retain Raebareli, the constituency long associated with the Gandhi family, and vacate his Wayanad seat where the party will field Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, party president Mallikarjun Kharge announced on Monday.
• Both Rahul and Priyanka—the latter set to make her electoral debut—assured that they will simultaneously take care of Raebareli and Wayanad.d

• Nine people were killed and at least 60 injured when the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express collided with a goods train near New Jalpaiguri station in West Bengal.
• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reached the accident site on Monday evening, to take stock of the situation. He also visited the injured receiving medical treatment at a nearby hospital.
• Speaking to the reporters, Jaya Varma Sinha, Chairman and CEO of the Railway Board, indicated that initial findings suggest human error as the likely cause of the accident. d
• "Prima facie suggests human error as the cause. The first indications suggest that this is a case of signal disregard. Kavach needs to proliferate, as planned for West Bengal," said Sinha.

• • KAVACH is supposed to be a state-of-the-art electronic system which was designed to help the Indian Railways achieve Zero Accidents. It is an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system which has been indigenously developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry with trials facilitated by South Central Railway to achieve the corporate objective of safety in train operations across Indian Railways.
  • It activates the train braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions.
  • Once implemented, KAVACH will be the world’s cheapest automatic train collision protection system, costing ₹ 50 lakh per kilometre to operate compared to about ₹ 2 crore worldwide. It also opens avenues of export of this indigenous technology for Railways.

• On March 4, 2022, the successful trial of KAVACH was conducted between Gullaguda–Chitgidda Railway stations of South Central Railway.

• Further, KAVACH automatically reduced the speed to 30 kmph from 60 kmph as the locomotive entered the loop line.
• Simply put, it is a set of electronic devices and Radio Frequency Identification devices installed in locomotives, in the signalling system as well the tracks, that talk to each other using ultra high radio frequencies to control the brakes of trains and also alert drivers, all based on the logic programmed into them.d
• One of its features is that by continuously refreshing the movement information of a train, it is able to send out triggers when a loco pilot jumps signal, called Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD), a grave offence in railway operations with respect to safety, and the key to accidents like collision. The devices also continuously relay the signals ahead to the locomotive, making it useful for loco pilots in low visibility, especially during dense fog.
• Indian Railways had plans to implement  KAVACH protection system to an extent of 2000 km during 2022-23. Around 34,000 km of network will be brought under KAVACH.
• It was said, 96 per cent of railway Traffic is carried on Indian Railway High-Density Network and Highly Used Network routes. To transport this traffic safely, KAVACH works are being taken up in a focused manner by the Railway Board.
• The first priority was high-density routes and on New Delhi - Mumbai and New Delhi - Howrah Sections for 160 kmph with Automatic Block Signaling & Centralised Traffic Control, since such sections have higher chances of human errors on the part of drivers as trains run closer to each other.

Two-Day India-IORA Cruise Tourism Conference Concludes In New Delhi

• • The two-day India-IORA Cruise Tourism Conference concluded in New Delhi. The Conference provided a platform for stakeholders to share best practices and policy initiatives towards developing and strengthening the cruise tourism sector in IORA Member States.

• Discussions covered infrastructure development, regulatory issues, sustainable tourism, employment generation, inclusion of women and business opportunities among others.
• Two-Day India-IORA Cruise Tourism Conference Concludes In New Delhi Officials and experts from the Indian Ocean Rim Association, IORA Member States including Bangladesh, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Seychelles and Tanzania participated in the Conference.

India to host its first multinational air exercise Tarang Shakti in August

• • The Indian Air Force’s first multinational air exercise ‘Tarang Shakti-2024’ will be held in August. The IAF keenly looks forward to hosting the participating contingents from other countries during Tarang Shakti-2024, which is the first ever Indian multinational air exercise to be held later this year.

• The Indian Air Force’s first multinational air exercise, Tarang Shakti-2024, will be held in August, and is likely to see the participation of ten countries, in addition to a few others acting as observers.
• The exercise is now scheduled to be held in two phases. The first will be held in southern India in the first two weeks of August and the second will be in the western sector from the end of August to mid-September. Among the countries sending contingents are Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Smriti Mandhana becomes second-highest International Run-Getter in Women’s Cricket

• India opener Smriti Mandhana etched her name into the history book by becoming the second-highest run-scorer for the nation.
• With her fighting hundred against South Africa, she went past the 7000-run mark and joined former India star Mithali Raj in the elite list. Mandhana played a fighting knock of 117 off 127 deliveries, which took her overall international tally to 7,059 runs.d
• Her tally at the global stage is only bettered by former captain Mithali’s 10,868 runs. While India captain Harmanpreet Kaur isn’t far behind from achieving the feat.
• She has 6,870 runs in the international circuit across all formats and could achieve the feat in the ongoing series against South Africa

Lovlina Borgohain secures Silver Medal in Grand Prix 2024 competition

• Olympic medalist Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain secured a silver medal in the Grand Prix 2024 competition held in the Czech Republic.
• Lovlina lost 2-3 in her third bout against Li Qian of China. Lovlina won her first bout 3-2 against England’s Chantal Reid but lost the second bout 0-5 against Cindy Ngamba of the Olympic Refugee team.d
• Lovlina will be one of the boxers to represent the country in the Paris 2024 Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.

Cyril Ramaphosa secures second term as South African President

• Cyril Ramaphosa has secured a second term as the President of South Africa after he was elected by the South African Parliament.
• Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected after a deal was signed between his African National Congress (ANC) Party and the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) and other smaller parties to form a coalition government.
• Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as the President of South Africa for the first time on 15 February 2018
• For the first time since the implementation of the 1996 constitution, the ruling ANC party has failed to secure a majority in the South African Parliament. The ANC got only 40 per cent of the votes in the parliamentary election held on 29 May 2024.

Peter Pellegrini sworn in as Slovakia’s president

• Peter Pellegrini was sworn in as the president of Slovakia in a ceremony that took place amid heightened security following an assassination attempt on his close ally, populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, a month ago.
• Pellegrini called for national unity in his speech at a special session of Parliament that took place at the seat of the Slovak philharmonic, becoming Slovakia’s sixth president since it gained independence after the disintegration of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

• Capital- Bratislava
• Currency- Euro
• President - Peter Pellegrini
• Prime minister: Robert Fico
• Official language - Slovak

Shantaram, Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 will be given to Subbiah Nallamuth

• Shantaram, Lifetime Achievement Award for this year will be given to Subbiah Nallamuthu, a renowned, award-winning Wildlife filmmaker from Chennai.
• He filmed “Living on the Edge” , the longest running wildlife series.
• The award is announced by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan at Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF 2024). Murugan also attended the Opening Film at MIFF National Geographic’s documentary, ‘Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story’.

Museum in memory of Gujarat earthquake victims listed for UNESCO’s Prix Versailles Award

• UNESCO has shortlisted seven most beautiful museums for the prestigious Prix Versailles Award, including the Smritivan Earthquake Memorial Museum of Bhuj.
• The Smritivan Earthquake Memorial Museum in Bhuj has been listed among the 7 most beautiful museums in the world under the prestigious Prix Versailles Award, which is announced annually at UNESCO for architecture and design.

• Covering approximately 470 acres, Smriti Van celebrates the resilience of the people who endured the 2001 earthquake, which had its epicenter in Bhuj and claimed around 13,000 lives.
• The Memorial, includes the names of those who perished in the disaster, was inaugurated by PM Modi in August 2022.
• The state-of-the-art Smritivan Earthquake Museum is organised into seven thematic blocks: Rebirth, Rediscover, Restore, Rebuild, Rethink, Relive, and Renew.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

• World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is held on June 15th and is an annual international UN observance day on the same date each year.
• The day came about as a result of UN resolution 66/127.
• Theme 2024 – Spotlight on Older Persons in Emergencies
• Elder abuse is global and comes in many forms including physical, emotional, sexual and financial abuse and also neglect. Elderly people are human and deserve the same dignity and respect as people of all other age groups.

International Day of Family Remittances

• • The International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) is celebrated on 16 June each year.
  • The IDFR recognizes the crucial contribution of over 200 million migrant workers who send money to over 800 million family members in low- and middle-income countries.

• Theme 2024 – Digital remittances towards financial inclusion and cost reduction.

• Digital remittances towards financial inclusion and cost reduction.