¤ Current affairs- 30th June 2013 ¤
1) Who will be the 40th Chief Justice of India? – P. Sathasivam (He
will take place of present Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, who retires on
18 July 2013. President Pranab Mukherjee recently approved appointment
of Sathasivam, who is a judge of the Supreme Court at present)
2) India became the first South Asian country to impose a ban on
testing of cosmetics and its ingredients on animals. The decision to
impose this ban was taken in a meeting of which organization on 28 June
2013? – Bureau of Indian Standards – BIS (BIS’ Cosmetics Sectional
Committee, chaired by the Drugs Controller General of India took this
decision after paying attention to appeals from several quarters. Any
cosmetic product which carries out animal testing will face action as
per provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Animal Cruelty
Act. Violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by any person or corporate
manager or owner is liable for punishment for a term which may extend
from 3-10 years and shall also be liable to fine which could be Rs.500
to Rs.10,000, or with both. 27 member countries of the European Union
and Israel have implemented both testing and sales bans to bring an end
to animal suffering in their respective jurisdictions)
3) Tour de France, which kicked-off on 29 June 2013 from France’s
Corsica Island, completed how many years of its existence? – 100 years
(Tour de France is a high endurance cycling event that was first held in
1903 and has been held every year except the World War years. The race
is approximately 3,200 km long and takes 23 days to complete. It is held
in France and adjoining countries)
4) The Reserve bank of India on 28 June 2013 announced setting up of a
committee to study issues relating to financial-benchmarking and examine
if they have become obsolete and need changes. Who has been appointed
as the head of this committee? – Vijay Bhaskar, Executive Director, RBI
(The committee will study all major financial benchmarks in India to
assess their relevance, fallback mechanisms if a benchmark becomes
obsolete, suggest inclusion of new benchmarks or exclusion of some of
the existing ones. The committee, which will have representation from
select market participants, Clearing Corporation of India Limited
(CCIL), and academia, has been asked to submit its report by 31 December
2013)
5) How much govt. stake is to be disinvested in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), which has been opposed by several labour unions of NLC? – 5% (The Union Cabinet on 21 June 2013 cleared government’s 5 % stake sale in NLC, which would help garner around Rs. 466 crore for the exchequer. The Tamil Nadu-headquartered firm is facing stiff protests over the disinvestment decision and 17 trade unions representing its 17,000 employees have already announced they would go on indefinite strike from the midnight of July 3, 2013 till the decision of disinvestment is withdrawn)
