Current Affairs Updates : 09 June 2014

Current Affairs Updates : 09 June 2014

Written By Admin on June 11, 2014 | Wednesday, June 11, 2014

1) Arun Jaitley becomes the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad Leader of the Opposition: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition. Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari made the announcement on the first day's sitting of the Upper House after the Lok Sabha elections. Jaitley (61), a senior BJP member was earlier Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha during UPA government, while Azad (65) was Union Health Minister. Both Jaitley and Azad lost elections from Amritsar in Punjab and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir respectively in this Lok Sabha polls but the tenure of their Rajya Sabha membership still remains. Jaitley had lost to Amarinder Singh of Congress while Azad lost the Lok Sabha polls to BJP's Jitendra Singh, who is now Minister of State in PMO. While Jaitley is a member of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, Congress leader Azad is a member from Jammu and Kashmir.

2) BrahMos missile test-fired from warship INS Kolkata: India on Monday successfully test- fired the 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile from the country's largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. The Mazagon Dockyards Limited-built INS Kolkata is yet to be formally inducted into the Navy and will have the capability to launch 16 BrahMos missiles in one go when it enters operational service. The missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series, off the coast of Karwar on Monday morning and all the parameters were met during the test, defence officials told PTI.

3) Sourav Ganguly joins Mudgal panel: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Sunday joined the Supreme Court-appointed Mudgal committee, which is probing the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal, as an expert on cricketing affairs. The panel is headed by Retd Justice Mukul Mudgal and includes advocates L. Nageswara Rao, Niloy Dutta and senior IPS officer B.B. Mishra. “We had requested Sourav Ganguly to join the IPL probe panel and he has agreed to join us in the investigations. I had telephoned Sourav and he confirmed me about coming on board. We haven’t yet decided on the day when we will meet,” Justice Mudgal told PTI.

4) Kudankulam becomes India’s first nuclear plant to generate 1,000MW power: The Unit 1 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant (KNPP) has reached full capacity generation of 1,000MW on Saturday. The Russian-designed Voda Voda Energo Reactor (VVER) achieved the final milestone nearly eight months after power generated at the plant was connected to the grid. This is the first nuclear power plant in the country to touch 1,000MW of power generation.

5) Kathleen Stephens takes charge as US interim Ambassador: Kathleen Stephens, the new US interim Ambassador, took charge of the American Embassy in New Delhi and said she was looking forward to working with India for strengthening and broadening the Indo-US partnership. She will head the US mission until a new permanent ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the US Senate. A career foreign service officer, Stephens was US ambassador to South Korea from 2008 to 2011 and previously served in senior positions in Washington, Asia and Europe.

6) Pradeep Chandra's 'Aamir Khan: Actor, Activist, Achiever' book launched: Dalip Tahil, Pritish Nandy, Prahlad Kakar and many others were spotted at the launch of Pradeep Chandra`s Coffee table book `Aamir Khan: Actor, Activist, Achiever` in Mumbai. Speaking at the event, Pritish Nandy said, "Aamir is a great actor, famous activist; he has done some remarkable movies. And he is a remarkable man. But this book is more about a man who has paid tribute to Aamir Khan ." The book published by Niyogi Books is a pictorial biography that contains rare pictures of the actor