12th JUNE CURRENT AFFAIRS IN ENGLISH

1. 11th World Hindi Conference to be Held in Mauritius

The 11th World Hindi Conference (WHC) is being organized from 18-20 August 2018 in Mauritius by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in association with the Government of Mauritius.

• The main theme of the Conference is “Hindi Vishwa Aur Bharatiy Sanskriti”.
• The first World Hindi Conference was held in 1975 in Nagpur, India. Since then, ten such Conferences have been held in different parts of the world.

2. Indians form 2nd largest group of international students in US

With 1,86,000 Indian students currently studying in the United States, India is the second highest sender of foreign students to the US, next only to China.

• US consul general in Kolkata, Craig Hall, said that the United States is the top destination for foreign students worldwide and the number of Indian students in the US has more than doubled in the last 10 years.

3. India to have its 1st police museum in Delhi

India will soon have its first national police museum as the central government has decided to establish the unique facility in Lutyens' Delhi.

• The museum will come up as an underground facility in the premises of the national police memorial in Chanakyapuri area of the national capital.
• The museum is expected to be inaugurated on October 21 (Police Commemoration Day) at the hands of either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

4. India's first lithium ion cell factory to come up in Andhra Pradesh

Munoth Industries Limited will set up India’s first lithium ion cell production project by investing Rs 799 crore in three phases in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

• It will provide a trigger for enabling mobile component manufacturing in India that will also lead to value addition in overall mobile phone manufacturing.
• In the first phase, Rs 165 crore will be invested to produce li ion cells having total storage capacity of 200,000 Ah (Ampere hour) per day.

5. Grand Finale of the First Hardware edition of Smart India Hackathon 2018

The Ministry of  HRD along with AICTE, Persistent Systems, i4C and IIT Kharagpur is all set to host the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2018 – Hardware edition from Jun 18-22, 2018.

• This was disclosed by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar.
• He said that the Smart India Hackathon 2018 is in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and is proving to be an important vehicle for scouting new ideas and help them convert them into products and businesses.

6. Shri Piyush Goyal launches “Rail Madad”

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways & Coal launched a new App “Rail Madad” – An App to expedite &  streamline passenger grievance redressal.

• RPGRAMS (Railway Passenger Grievance Redressal and Management System),which has been developed by Northern Railway (Delhi Division) and comprises many novel features including ‘Rail Madad’ – a  mobile App  to register complaints by passengers through mobile phone/web. 
• It relays real time feedback to passengers on the status of redressal of their complaints.

7. Union Steel Minister dedicates to nation rebuilt Blast Furnace-1 of Rourkela Steel Plant

The Union Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh dedicated the rebuilt Blast Furnace-1 ‘Parvati’ of SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to the Nation.

• Parvati is the first Blast Furnace of SAIL that was dedicated to the nation on 3rdFebruary 1959 by the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
• The Blast Furnace was put down on 6th August 2013 for total rebuilding. Although erected on the old foundation, the rebuilt furnace equipped with superior technology has a higher production capacity.
• With the rebuilding, the annual production capacity, of the furnace has increased from 0.438 Million tonnes (MT) to 1.015 MT.

8. India gives Rs 99 million to Nepal for installing shallow tube wells

India has extended a financial aid of Rs 99 million to Nepal for the construction of 2,700 shallow tube well irrigation systems in 12 districts of the country's southern Terai region to boost agricultural productivity.

• The assistance has been extended as part of the final payment for the Nepal-Bharat Maitri Irrigation Project, which was launched in January last year to boost growth to the Himalayan nation's agricultural sector through enhanced facilities.
• India's Ambassador to Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri, handed over a cheque of 99.21 million Nepalese Rs to the country's Energy Secretary, Sanjay Sharma.

9. Vettel wins Canadian GP

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel dominated the Canadian Grand Prix to retake the championship lead as Lewis Hamilton could finish only fifth for Mercedes.

• Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas finished second.
• Red Bull's Max Verstappen took third after a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to pass Bottas.