GK & Current Affairs: June 20, 2013

Kochi
The World Economic Forum (WEF) India 2013 meet will be held in Kochi during November 8-9. Top leaders from industry and government, social entrepreneurs and young leaders will attend the meet. The decision to hold the conclave in Kochi was taken at the WEF headquarters in Davos, Switzerland.

Karnataka
Recently Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment Bill) 2013 was passed in the Legislative Assembly. The bill envisages disqualification or removal of a member of a grama panchayat who fails to convene a meeting of the ward sabha and removal of the president of the GP who fails to convene a meeting of grama sabha. The bill provides for grama panchayat members to convene meetings of ward sabha and president to convene meetings grama sabha at least once in six months.

Operation Rahat
In a bid to evacuate people and rescue operation in the badly affected area of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh by heavy rain, the Indian Air Force has launched Operation “Rahat” to rescue stranded pilgrims in after heavy rains wreaked havoc in northern India.

July 18
In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared 18 July “Nelson Mandela International Day” in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom.

World Bank
India has inked a loan agreement of US 255 million with the World Bank for the National AIDS control Project (NACP-IV).

Hassan Rouhani
Reformist backed cleric Hassan Rouhani has won Iran’s presidential election, securing just over 50% of the vote.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
MERS is nothing but Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. An international team of doctors who investigated nearly two dozen causes in eastern Saudi Arabia found the new coronavirus has some striking similarities to SARS. The team said MERS not only spreads easily between people, but within hospitals. MERS
cases have also reported in Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. Most have had a direct connection to the Middle East region.

UK
The 39th G8 summit was held on 17-18 June 2013 in Northern Ireland, UK. It was the sixth G8 summit to be held in the United Kingdom. The earlier G8 summits hosted by the United Kingdom were held at London (1977, 84, 91), Birmingham (1998) and Gleneagles (2005).

2017
Union government has set a target to achieve 80% literacy rate in the country by 2017. The current literacy rate of the country stands at 74%. As part of this effort government will strengthen Panchayat raj institutions as its serves as an important leverage to promote education in general and literacy in particular.

K Ratnaprabha
Union Ministry of Women and Child development recently constituted a committee to examine aspects related indecent portrayal of women in mass media. The addition secretary and mission director (National Mission for Empowerment of Women) K Ratnaprabha was appointed as the head of the constituted committee.

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