[CA/GK] Modi's Diplomatic Visits in 2017

Country	Places Visited	Date	Purpose
Sri Lanka	Colombo Kandy	11–12 May	International Day of Vesak
Germany	Meseberg Berlin	29–30 May	State Visit
Spain	Madrid	30–31 May	State Visit
Russia	St. Petersburg	31 May–2 June	18th India-Russia Annual Summit
France	Paris	2–3 June	State Visit
Kazakhstan	Astana	8–9 June	SCO Summit
Portugal	Lisbon	24 June	State Visit
USA	Washington	25-26  June	State Visit
Netherlands	Amsterdam	27 June	State Visit
Future Visits
Israel	Tel Aviv	5 -6 July	State Visit
Germany	Hamburg	7-8 July	G20  Summit
China	Xiamen	3-5 September	BRICS Summit
Philippines	Manila	13-14 November	12th East Asia Summit

[CA] News: June 29, 2017

Around INDIA

# ISRO launched GSAT-17 from the European Space port of Kourou in French Guiana

- GSAT-17 is the second passenger on the European booster, Ariane-5 ECA VA-238

- It is India's 18th Communication satellite

# Race for Rashtrapathi Bhavan: Ms. Meira Kumar filed her nomination papers

# President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee to attend the 125th Birth Anniversary of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata today

# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi to visit Gujarat from June 29-30, 2017

- Centenary celebrations of Sabarmati Ashram

- To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Shrimad Rajchandraji, a Guru to Mahatma Gandhi

# Election Commission of India (ECI) to launch a ‘Special Drive to enrol left out electors, with a special focus on first time electors from 1st July , 2017 , so as to move in the direction of Commission’s motto that 'NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’ .

# Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas inaugurated Swasth Saarthi Abhiyaan and Fuel Conservation Workshop

# The first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India will be formally launched tomorrow.The program named Innovate in India (i3) will witness an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125 million as a loan from world Bank and is anticipated to be a game changer for the Indian Biopharmaceutical industry. It aspires to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.

# 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Mustafa Dossa dead

# Union Cabinet approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Israel on National Campaign for Water Conservation in India.

# Union Cabinet approved signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between India and the United States of America on Homeland Security.

# Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the recommendations of the 7th CPC on allowances with some modifications. The revised rates of the allowances shall come into effect from 1st July, 2017 and shall affect more than 48 lakh central government employees.

# Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to fourth tranche recommendations of NITI Aayog on strategic disinvestment of CPSE (strategic disinvestment of Air India and five of its subsidiaries) based on the recommendations of Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CGD).

TAMIL NADU

# Union Home Ministry has called for a report on the gutkha scandal

# State Government is mulling an agreement with air ambulance service providers to lift patients in the event of accidents involving mass casualties; health department have asked the district collectors to identify the latitude and longitude where a helicopter could land during an emergency

# Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Indira Banerjee administered the oath of office to six new judges; with these appointments, the total judges strength of the High Court has increased to 54 (total sanctioned strength is 75)

# Government launched an online portal www.tnsand.in, in order to make it easier for consumers and builders to buy sand for construction purposes

STATES SCAN

# Jharkhand: Chief Minister, Mr. Raghubar Das inaugurated country’s biggest fresh water aquarium in Ranchi

# Kerala: Mr. Loknath Behra is appointed as DGP

BILATERAL ISSUES

# Amid a standoff in the Sikkim sector of the border, China warned India that future visits of its pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar through the Nathu La pass will depend on whether it will "correct its errors"

# India-Thailand joint military exercise named Ex Maitree 2017 in Himachal Pradesh from July 3 to 17

WORLD

# Australia: the Sydney Opera House is illuminated for Badu Gili, an event celebrating Australia's aboriginal culture. Badu Gili means "water light" in the language of Gadigal people, the traditional owners of the Opera House site

# China: Navy launched its biggest new generation destroyer weighing 10, 000 tonnes as part of the Communist giant's ambitious plans to become a global naval power

# Germany: is set to legalise same-sex marriage; the reform would grant full marital rights, including child adoption, to gay and lesbian couples, who in Germany are now only able to enter so-called Civil Unions

# Nepal: millions of Nepalis voted in the country's first local elections for two decades, a key step in its post-war transformation from feudal monarchy to federal democracy

ECONOMICS

# Commerce and Industry Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman has written a letter to all Members of Parliament to consider setting up co-working spaces/incubators for Startups in their constituency under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Fund (MPLADS)

# Aadhaar-PAN card linkage from July 01, 2017

SPORTS

# Roger Federer defeated Alexander Zverev to lift the ninth Halle Open title

# Junior World Shooting Championship (held in Suhl, Germany): India's Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Anmol won gold in the mixed team event

- With 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze, India placed second in the medals table behind China, which topped with 9 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze

MISC

# Rajesh V. Shah as Chairperson of NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology)

# Dr. Manoj Soni, former Vice Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, took the Oath of Office and Secrecy as Member, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC); the Oath was administered by the UPSC Chairman Prof. David R. Syiemlieh.

# The words "Chana" and "Chana Dal" were added to the OXford English Dictionary

- "Chana" means Chickpeas and "Chana Dal" means split chickpea lentils

# UNESCO named Sharjah, a city in UAE as the "World Book Capital" for 2019

[CA] News: June 28, 2017

Around INDIA

# Diaspora can convert Person of Indian Origin (PIO) cards to Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards by Dec 31

# Supreme Court refused to pass an interim order against the Centre's notification making Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes, with the government assuring it that no one would be deprived of welfare for want of this identification

# Government's mandate and responsibility to control the states' fiscal deficit means that it has the power to control their finances even at a time of large-scale loan waivers by a number of states: 14th Finance Commission Secretary A. N. Jha

TAMIL NADU

# State Dairy Development Minister, Mr. K. T. Rajendra Balaji said the milk powder from Nestle and Reliance contained chemicals like caustic soda and bleaching powder that were "Silent killers"

# Just N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court has asked the State government to answer why teachers of government / government-aided schools should not be prohibited from starting associations or unions, like police personnel; Judge also asked the State to answer why it should not be made mandatory for the government teachers to admit their children only in government schools?

STATES SCAN

# Bihar: Government has planned to set up a nuclear plant of around 3000 MW capacity at Rajauli in Nawada Dt

# Gujarat: more than one lakh textile traders in the state have started a three - day strike against imposition of 5% tax under the soon-to-be introduced GST

# Haryana: Government launched “ebhoomiharyana.org,in" portal for purchase of land for development projects

# Odisha: steady increase in sightings of salt water crocodile nests in the swamp creeks of Bhitarkanika National Park for three consecutive seasons

# Uttar Pradesh: Government to observe 2017 as year of "Garib Kalyan Varsh"

BILATERAL ISSUES

# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and US President Mr. Donald Trump jointly declared that bilateral ties between India and the U. S. would continue to grow

- Mr. Trump said the relationship "has never been stronger, has never been better"

# India and the Netherlands signed agreements on water management, cultural cooperation and Social security for Indians working in Dutch companies

# China confirmed that it had suspended the entry of Indian pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and lodged a formal protest with India, following an alleged cross-border incursion by Indian troops

# 6th India – Myanmar Joint Trade Committee (JTC) Meeting held in New Delhi

WORLD

# Australia: Indians made up the second highest number of migrants living in Australia at 1, 63, 000 since 2011, only preceded by people of Chinese origin

# EU: slapped a record of 2.4 billion (in Euro) anti-trust fine on Google, dealing a fresh blow to the U.S tech giant and risking the anger of U. S. President, Mr. Donald Trump

# Romania: Mr. Mihai Tudose is the new Prime Minister

# USA: Government named Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" (SDGT)

# USA: Scientists have found that Uranus' magnetic field gets flipped on and off like a light switch ever day as the planet rotates (NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft)

# WHO: release a new device (Called as "GeneXpert") to countries, recommending the use of multi-disease testing devices for TB, HIV and Hepatitis

ECONOMICS

# An agreement for IBRD Credit of USD 35 Million from World Bank for “Assam State Public Financial Institutional Reforms Project” was signed

# Break up Coal India Limited into seven smaller companies: NITI Aayog

# World's first ATM turned 50; first ATM was launched by Barclays Bank in London on June 27, 1967

# Former CEA, Mr. Kaushik Basu is the new International Economic Association President

# Facebook, Twitter and YouTube joined hands with Microsoft to launch "Global Internet Forum" to counter terrorism

SPORTS

# Rajeev Shukla to head a newly-formed seven member committee to suggest a way forward for implementing the administrative overhaul prescribed in the Supreme Court order on July 18, 2016

# Emirates New Zealand won the America's Cup 2017 (Yatching) b defeating Oracle Team of USA

MISC

# Human RIghts Activist Shabnam Hashmi retrned the National Minortiy Rights Award received in 2008

# Playyback singer SOnu Nigam sings patriotic song for ITBP

# Google shuts its G-Chat messaging service after 12 years of operations, replaces it with Hangouts

# Hackers have cased widespread disruption across Europe, hitting Ukraine especially hard

- Virus is identified as "Petrwrap", a modified version of the Petya ransomware that hit last year and demanded money from victims in exchange for the return of their data

[CA] News: June 27, 2017

Around INDIA

# The committee for preparation of final draft of National Education Policy has been constituted under the Chairmanship of eminent Scientist Padma Vibhushan Dr K. Kasturirangan.

- On MyGov platform 26, 000 people gave their views online. TSR Subramaniam committee has given its detailed input. All these suggestions and inputs will be considered by the committee.

# Union Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley has written a letter to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Membooba Mufti Sayeed urging for introduction of the goods and services tax in Jammu and Kashmir from 1st July, 2017 along with the rest of the States.

# The first-ever picture of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration over India shows that it is way above the safety mark and in line with what has been observed in other parts of the world

# The first Scorpene submarine Kalvari is all set to join the Navy by August and would go for its normal refit in 2023. The remaining five submarines are expected to be inducted at nine-month intervals

# Railways will pilot a project (called as Project "Swarn" (Gold)) to revamp services on its Rajdhani and Shatbadi trains

TAMIL NADU

# Leader of Opposition, Mr. M. K. Stalin wants the removal of the AIADMK government

STATES SCAN

# Assam: 8 districts were affected de to severe flood; over 1 lakh people have been hit hard; altogether 170 hectares of agriculture land have been submerged

# Karnataka: Agriculture Price Commission has recommended to the government to provide coconut oil as edible oil under the Public Distribution System in Malnad and coastal districts

# Kerala: posts its worst dengue affected; 118 affected with dengue

BILATERAL ISSUES

# India and Mexico have agreed to hold an important conference on regional and global disarmament

# India may ask Myanmar to revoke its ceasefire pact with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland- Khaplang (NSCN-K)

WORLD

# China: Nobel Peace Prize winning rights activist Liu Xiaobo has been released from prison on medical parole. Liu was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after he helped write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms in China

# France: President, Mr. Emmanuel Macron said that France refuses to recognise Russia's "annexation" of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea

# UK: Prime Minister, Ms. Theresa May struck a deal to prop up her minority government by agreeing to at least £1 billion in extra funding for Northern Ireland in return for the support of the province's biggest Protestant party

# USA: scientists have built simple machines out of DNA, which can be used to make nanotech sensors, amplifiers and even a molecular computer

ECONOMICS

# Government to change the financial year to January- December from the existing April-March from 2018

# GSTN (GST-Network) portal has begun accept registration requests from businesses

# Japan's Takata Corporation (the firm at the centre of the auto industry's biggest-ever product recall) filed for bankruptcy protection in USA and Japan

# US-India Business Council (USIBC) set up a task force under the head of Palash Roy Chowdhury to identify opportunities in India's civil aviation sector

# HPCL has joined the Indian consortium negotiating the acquisition of a 49% stake in Russia's Vankor Cluster oilfields in the Arctic region

SPORTS

# Yashaswini Singh Deswal won the 10m air pistol gold and Anish Bhanwala won gold at the 25m standard pistol at the junior World Shooting championship (held in Moscow)

[GK/Geog] State wise length of NHs

State/UT	NHs (Length in Km)
Uttar Pradesh	8483
Rajasthan	7886
Maharashtra	7048
Karnataka	6432
Madhya Pradesh	5184
Tamil Nadu	5006
Gujarat	4971
Bihar	4701
Andhra Pradesh	4670
Odisha	4645
Assam	3784
West Bengal	2910
Uttarakhand	2842
Jharkhand	2632
Jammu & Kashmir	2593
Arunachal Pradesh	2513
Himachal Pradesh	2466
Haryana	2307
Punjab	2239
Chhattisgarh	2079
Kerala	1811
Manipur	1746
Mizoram	1381
Meghalaya	1204
Nagaland	1080
Tripura	577
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	331
Sikkim	309
Goa	262
Delhi	80
Puducherry	64
Chandigarh	15