Current Affairs Update 18-19 June 2017

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This Current Affairs Update covers all the necessary topics like national News, international news, financial updates, sports news etc.You can also go through our weekly Current Affairs Update Antibiotics , Monthly Current Affairs Capsule INSHORTS.

Competition Commission slaps Rs87 crore fine on Hyundai Motor India.

• Competition Commission imposed a penalty of Rs87 crore on Hyundai Motor India for unfair business practices with respect to providing discounts for cars. Besides, the company has been directed to cease and desist from such anti-competitive practices.
• In a 44-page order, the regulator said the company’s anti-competitive conduct include putting in place arrangements that resulted in resale price maintenance by way of monitoring of maximum permissible discount level. This was done through discount control and penalty mechanisms for non-compliance of the discount scheme, it added.
• It was alleged that the company has discount control mechanism whereby dealers are permitted only to provide a maximum permissible discount and not beyond the recommended range. The watchdog has slapped a fine of Rs87 crore on the car maker. The penalty amount translates to 0.3% of the company’s average relevant turnover in the last three financial years from 2013-14.

Katy Perry has become first person to reach 100 Million Twitter Followers.

• Katy Perry just keeps soaring in popularity. On Friday, the Witness singer and pop culture lightning rod became the first person to reach 100 million followers on Twitter, making her the most-followed person on the platform, Twitter reports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates Kochi Metro, dedicates the first phase to the nation.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the first phase of Kochi Metro to the nation on Saturday.
• Soon after his arrival at the Naval airport in Kochi from New Delhi, Modi drove to the Palarivattom station and took a ride from Palarivattom to Pathadippalam.
• Kerala governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu and 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan were among those who accompanied the prime minister in the train.

Union Minister of Foreign affairs Mrs Sushma Swaraj has inaugurated ‘Know India Programme’ for young overseas Indians.

• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated Know India Programme, KIP, for young overseas Indians at a function in New Delhi yesterday. Mrs Swaraj said, the programme is aimed at promoting awareness on different facets of life in India and the progress made by the country in various fields such as economic and education.
• The Know India Programme is a three-week orientation programme for the Indian diaspora. It provides a unique forum for students and young professionals of Indian origin to visit India, share their views, expectations and experiences and develop closer bonds with the contemporary India.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has passed away.

• Helmut Kohl, who served as German chancellor from 1982 to 1998, and presided over the end of the Cold War, has died at the age of 87.
• The so-called “father of reunification” was modern Germany’s longest serving chancellor, coinciding with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall that separated the communist East from the capitalist West. 

Former Chief Justice of India Bhagawati Prasad passed away.

• Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati, 95, who introduced the concept of Public Interest Litigations (PILs), passed away in New Delhi on Thursday. He was a member of a five-judge Supreme Court bench, which had ruled in favour of the government’s stand that a person arrested during the Emergency was not entitled to fundamental rights. The question before the Supreme Court was whether it could admit a habeas corpus petition for a man arrested during the Emergency that Indira Gandhi’s government had declared in the 1970s.

Coimbatore based Air carnival’s flying license has been cancelled by DGCA.

• Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended the flying licence of Coimbatore-based carrier Air Carnival, which has not operated a single flight since early April. With this, Air Carnival has become the third regional carrier, after Air Pegasus and Air Costa, whose air operator permit has been suspended by the DGCA in the last eight months.

Atal Pension Yojana can be subscribed digitally from now onwards.

• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has now introduced “APY@eNPS” which involves a complete digital enrolment process. This is the latest in the series of various initiatives taken by PFRDA for expansion of outreach of Atal Pension Yojana (APY), to give additional push to cover the as yet unreached population at greater ease. PFRDA has conducted meetings with Banks and Deptt of Post at Kolkata, Bengaluru & Mumbai respectively for the earliest roll out of the facility call.

Tirumala Milk Products and SBI tied up to provide loans to dairy farmers.

• State Bank of India has entered into a tie-up with Tirumala Milk Products, a South- based company which was acquired by Groupe Lactalis in 2014, to provide loans to dairy farmers who supply milk to the latter.
• France-based Groupe Lactalis, which also acquired Indore-based Anik Dairy in 2016, wants to double the number of dairy farmers under its fold to three lakh and ramp up the amount of milk it procures daily to 25 lakh litres by 2020 from 14 lakh litres now.

AIIB has approved membership of Argentina, Madagascar, Tonga.

• The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Friday approved the membership of Argentina, the Republic of Madagascar and the Kingdom of Tonga at its second annual meeting of governors.
• The AIIB's board of governors adopted resolutions approving the three applicants to join the bank at the second annual meeting, which kicked off earlier in the day in South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju.

DIPP sets up GST facilitation cell.

• The industry department today said it has established a GST facilitation cell to address any tax issue that can come up in sectors related to the DIPP. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) looks after policies related to sectors including leather, cement, paper, salt and explosives. The GST (Goods and Services Tax) facilitation cell is headed by Sudhansu Sekhar Das, Economic Adviser of the department.
• The Department of Commerce too has set up a similar cell and a help desk to aid exporters and importers. It shall be the first point of contact for addressing any issue faced by any sector related to the department. The new indirect tax regime – GST – will be rolled out from July. It will subsume central excise, service tax and state VAT among other indirect levies on manufactured goods and services.