NATIONAL NEWS

Mascot And Logo for FIDE

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin unveiled the mascot and the logo named ‘Thambi’ for FIDE Chess Olympiad in Chennai.
• The international event will be held at Mamallapuram near Chennai from 28th July to August 10, 2022.
• This year marks the 44th edition.
• Over two thousand players from 186 countries will be taking part in the event.
• This is the second major international chess event to be hosted by Chennai after the World Championship match between India’s Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

India's First COVID-19 Vaccine for Animals

• Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched Ancovax, India's first COVID-19 vaccine for animals.

• The vaccine has been developed by Haryana based-Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the National Research Centre.

• It is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Delta vaccine, which induces the immunity of animals and nutralises both Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19.
• The vaccine contains inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (Delta) antigen with Alhydrogel as an adjuvant and is safe for dogs, lions, leopards, mice and bunnies.

Book on Sports Marketing

• International Institute of Sports Management (IISM) launched India’s first-ever book on Sports Marketing in the country as part of a series that will aim to enrich students with industry knowledge.

• The book is authored by Sports Marketer Vinit Karnik.
• The first book titled ‘Business of Sports:The Winning Formula for Success’ was launched by Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Governor of Maharashtra.
• This is a book about Indian, by an Indian for an Indian sports market.

ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting

• India is to host the Meeting of foreign ministers of ASEAN nations from June 16 to 17.

• It is to mark the 30th anniversary of our dialogue relations and the 10th anniversary of our strategic partnership with the ASEAN.

• There are 10 member states in Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
• The meeting will be attended by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Ministers of ASEAN Countries.
• The year 2022 has been designated as the ASEAN – India friendship year.

Action Plan for 2022-23

• Ministry of Coal finalizes action plan for 2022-23.

• Coking coal production enhances from 45million tonnes in 2020-21 to 140million tonnes by 2029-30.

Dharohar

• National museum of customs and GST - "Dharohar" was inaugurated by Finance Minister Smt.Nirmala Sitharaman in Goa as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NASA to Launch 3 Rockets

• NASA will launch a research rocket from remote northern Australia in June 2022 from a commercial space port outside the United States.

• Three suborbital sounding rockets will be launched from the Arnhem Space Center on Indigenous-owned land near the mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory on June 26, July 4 and July 12, 2022.

• The 12.2-meter and 2,200-kilogram (4,900-pound), Canadian-designed Black Brant IX rockets would focus on the Alpha Centauri A and B star systems.
• A third mission would study X-rays emanating from the interstellar medium, the clouds of gases and particles in the space between stars.

BANKING

Ather Energy Partners with SBI

• Ather Energy has partnered with State Bank of India (SBI) to provide customers with vehicle financing.

• As part of the association, Ather Energy’s customers will get instant loans at interest rates starting from as low as 9.55 percent per annum.
• Pre-approved loans will also be administered depending on the buyer’s credit worthiness.
• This partnership is aimed at increasing the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the domestic market.
• SBI will offer the vehicle loan on the YONO mobile application as well as at their branch network.

ICICI Bank with ZestMoney

• ICICI Bank has partnered with ZestMoney to expand its cardless EMI, commonly known as buy now pay later (BNPL), facility for purchases done at retail and e-commerce platforms.

• The bank’s customers will have the option to convert transactions up to ₹10 lakh into EMIs by providing their registered mobile number, PAN and OTP received on registered mobile number.

• Customers of ICICI bank will be able to utilize Zest Money’s flagship ‘Pay-in-3’ offering, where the bill would be split into three Equated Monthly Installments (EMIs) without extra costs.

ECONOMY NEWS

Fitch Upgrades India Outlook to Stable

• Fitch Ratings has revised the outlook on India's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to stable from negative and has stated the rating at 'BBB-'.

• Fitch forecasts India's GDP Groeth to remain at 7.8% in FY23.

• However, it is a downward revision from its 8.5% forecast in March due global commodity price shocks.
• The Reserve Bank of India retained its GDP growth forecast at 7.2 % for the current fiscal.

Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

• It is a Crypto market based financial intermediation in which all financial transaction performed on computer network without central intermediary.

Flipkart and Spices Board

• Flipkart has announced a tieup with Spices Board under its initiative Flovourit Spices Trading Ltd. to provide national market access to farmers.

SPORTS

Para-Shooting World Cup

• Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adhana won silver in the Mixed Team 50m Pistol SH1 event Chateauroux Para-shooting World Cup 2022 in Paris.

• Akash was the only Indian to qualify for the P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 finals. He was eventually placed fifth with a score of 159.4 points.
• With this, India has secured three gold medals and two silver medals.

RANKS, INDICES & REPORTS

UNCTAD Report

• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a report on Foreign Direct Investment.

• India's rank moved one position up to the seventh position among top recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in 2021 despite drop in inflows.

• Flows to India declined to $45 billion.
• The US ($367 billion) remained the top recipient of FDI, followed by China ($181 billion) and Hong Kong ($ 141 billion) secured 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Geological Map of The Moon

• China has released the World’s ‘most detailed to date’ new comprehensive geologic map of the moon.

• The new map of Scale 1:2,50,000 was published by Science Bulletin.

• The map includes 12,341 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 17 rock types and 14 types of structures, providing abundant information about the geology of the Moon and its evolution.
• it is expected to contribute greatly to scientific research, exploration and landing site selection on the Moon.
• The “high-resolution topographic map” is based on data collected by Chang’e.
• Chang’e is the Chinese lunar exploration project, attributed to collecting data based on various research.
• The Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences led the project of mapping the Moon.

IN-SPACE

• PM inaugurated IN - SPACE = Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center in Bopal,Ahmedabad.
• The centre will act as regulator and facilitator of space activities in India.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

CEO of Prasar Bharati

• Mayank Kumar Agrawal, director general of Doordarshan and Doordarshan News has been given additional charge as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Prasar Bharati.

• Agrawal succeeded Shashi Shekhar Vempati who completed his five-year tenure as CEO of the public broadcaster.
• Prasar Bharati is India’s Public broadcaster and has headquarters in New Delhi.

Director of the Asia and Pacific Department (APD)

• Indian economist Krishna Srinivasan has been appointed as the Director of the Asia and Pacific Department (APD) by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

• Srinivasan will succeed Changyong Rhee who was nominated as a candidate for Governor of the Central Bank of Korea.

• He is currently a Deputy Director in APD where he oversees the department's surveillance work on a number of large and systemically important countries such as China and Korea, and smaller states in the Pacific such as Fiji and Vanuatu. He will assume charge on June 22.