DAILY GK UPDATE 12th JUNE

1.Today is World Day against Child Labour

i. Today is World Day Against Child Labour. This year, the theme is - "No to Child Labour in Domestic Work".

ii. The World Day Against Child Labour is an International Labour Organization - sanctioned holiday for the purpose of raising awareness and activism to prevent child labour in both economic and military fields

iii. It is currently held each June 12. The ILO created this observance in 2002 and it has been held annually since then.

iv. According to the International Labour Organisation, ILO, throughout the world, there are around 215 million children who work, many of them, full-time.

v. The ILO is marking the day by calling for action to build a worldwide movement against child labour. It stresses on legislative and policy reforms to ensure that child labour in domestic work, is eliminated.

iv. The Child Labour (Prohibition of Regulation) Act makes employing a child under 14 years of age, a cognizable offence.

2.    End of the Telegram Era; BSNL to shut the 160-year old service

i. Smart phones, emails and SMS seem to have pushed the humble telegram service to a quiet corner with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) deciding to discontinue the 160-year-old telegraph service from 15th July.

ii. Once the main source of quick and urgent communication, the service delivered many happy and sad news to people spread all over the country. But with the advent of technology and newer means of communication, the telegram found itself edged out. 

iii. As per a circular issued by Shameem Akhtar, Sr. General Manager (Telegraph Services) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Corporate office, New Delhi, the telegraph service is to be discontinued with effect from July 15, 2013.

iv. The circular sent to various telecom district and circle offices as per the instruction of a competent authority denotes that telegram services will be closed from 15 July and as a result all telegraph offices under the management of BSNL will have to stop booking telegrams from July 15.

v. The BSNL has instructed that surplus telegraph staff members would be deployed to mobile services, landline telephony, broadband services and shifting could take place within the next 3 months.

Note: Faced with declining revenues, the government had in May 2011, revised the telegram charges after a gap of 60 years. The telegram charges for inland services was hiked to Rs. 27/50 from Rs. 3/50, 4/50 earlier. Two months ago, telegram services for overseas communication was withdrawn by BSNL

3.    World's oldest ever man dies aged 116

i. The world's oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116, officials in Japan said on Wednesday.

ii. Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early today morning "from old age", an official in Kyoto's Kyotango city said in a statement.

iii. Kimura, who was from Kyotango, was hospitalised in early May suffering from pneumonia. A few days ago doctors noted that his condition was worsening.’

iv. Kimura was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in December 2012, after a woman from the United States died at the age of 115.

v. However, he was well off the all-time record set by French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, making her the longest living person in history.

vi. Encouraged by Kimura and 94 other people in Kyotango who will this year be 100 years old or more, the 60,000-strong city, together with 36 other municipalities, is planning to launch a research project to examine their diets and find the secrets of their longevity.

4.    No cable TV after June 25 if CAF is not submitted: Trai

i. Cable TV subscribers in NCR will face disconnection of services if they fail to submit the mandatory customer application form (CAF) giving personal details and choice of channels by June 25.

ii, "If a customer fails to submit his CAF to local cable TV operator or MSO (multi-system operator) by June 25, his services will be terminated and will not be resumed till the time form is submitted.

iii. Out of 2.8 million set top boxes (STB) installed in the National Capital Region, only 20 per cent subscribers have complied with the norms

iv. It’s the law. As of November 1, (2012), if you are a customer, you have not filled up the form ... you are not entitled to service. He (MSO) has not terminated your signal because out of kindness of his heart ... it is because we have exercised some amount of regulatory forbearance," TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar said.

v. Local cable TV operator will have to collect and submit form to MSO who provides signal feed to them.

vi. MSO are also mandated to provide bill to their customers and charge as per the amount mentioned in the bill.

5.    INDRA military exercise will take place in October 2013

i. Indo-Russian INDRA 2013 military exercise is scheduled to take place in October 2013 at Mahajan field firing range of Rajasthan in India.

ii. There will be a practice of joint planning and execution of anti-terrorist missions and leading intelligence activities by the serviceman.

iii. In year 2012, The Indo-Russian Joint Military Exercise Indra 2012 was held from August 7-16, at Burduny training range in the Siberian republic of Buryatia in Russia and had involved over 500 servicemen and 50 Russian combat vehicles.

iv. It is worth mentioning here that that the two countries have already conducted six Indra-series joint drills since 2003.

6.    Indian Railways to start Mobile Payment Ticketing Facility

i. Indian Railways decided to start offering train tickets via mobile SMS. The services of IRCTC, the subsidiary of Indian Railways will come into effect from July 2013.

ii. The service will be made available to all mobile subscribers. Charge per SMS has been fixed at Rs 3, while payment gateway charges for tickets amounting up to Rs 5,000 and more than Rs 5,000 have been fixed at Rs 5 and Rs10, respectively.

iii. To book a train, the passenger will just have to send the information of travel as in train number, destination and travel date to the IRCTC after which a transaction ID will be received by the sender on his mobile.

iv. Then he will have to send another SMS with message PAY followed by the ID, MMID received from the bank and the password.

v. The launch of the SMS-based ticket booking system is being considered as a move to make the most of the fast expanding mobile phone market in India.

7.    Mumbai to host non-fiction book festival

i. Focussing on genres like business, management, leadership, health, fitness, politics, media and cinema, India's first non-fiction festival will be held in Mumbai June 21 to 23.

ii. The three-day festival, India Non-Fiction Festival (INFF), is centred on the theme "Be Bold, Stay Real", and will see panel discussions, conversations with authors, book launches, and book signing sessions to engage book lovers thoroughly at the Nehru Centre in Worli.

iii. This festival, with a unique focus on non-fiction, is a welcome initiative that would promote non-fiction authors and their ideas in India.

iv. This will give readers an opportunity to listen to, learn and engage with top Indian and international minds,” said Vinay Hebbar, managing director India, Havard Business School Publishing.

v. Apart from these activities, the maiden non-fiction book festival will also act as a platform to create awareness and have discussions on subjects like Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders (LGBT) in society and promoting philanthropy.

8.    India enter semis of Champions Trophy

i. India stormed into the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament with a resounding eight-wicket victory over West Indies, riding on Shikhar Dhawan's second consecutive ODI century.

ii. The Indians first restricted the West Indies to 233 for nine as Ravindra Jadeja (5/36) ripped through the middle-order as Dhawan yet again took centrestage with dazzling strokeplay to give India its second win in as many matches in group B.

iii. The stylish left-hander yet again sizzled at the Oval as his unbeaten knock of 102 helped the 'Men In Blue' chase down a target with 65 balls to spare. Dhawan smashed 10 fours and a six in the process.

iv. India thus made it to the last four of the Champions Trophy after a gap of 11 years with the last time being way back in 2002.

v. India will now play Pakistan in Birmingham on June 15.

9.    China launches Fifth manned space mission

i. China, on Tuesday successfully launched its fifth and longest space mission, ‘Shenzhou-10’ with three astronauts including a woman on board.

ii. As part of efforts to build a permanent space lab of its own by 2020, the Shenzhou-10 spaceship carrying three astronauts blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu.

iii. The event which was telecast live was attended by President Xi Jinping.

iv. Set on a 15 day long mission, the spaceship will dock with Tiangong-1 space lab orbiting the Earth and will also be conducting a series of experiments.

v. Currently, US and Russia are the two nations to send independently maintained space stations into orbit.

vi. This is China's fifth manned mission and would last a fortnight compared to last year's 13 days.

10.  Andaman system can give tsunami alert in 3 mins after quake

i. The Early Tsunami Warning System installed at Rangachangin Andaman and Nicobar Islands can predict a tsunami immediately after an earthquake.

ii. Chief Scientist of the National Institute of Ocean Technology Vinith Kumar said that the system can predict tsunami within 3 minutes after the occurrence of the initial tremors and send alerts.

iii. After that, tsunami alerts would be issued to the risk zones by the Centre in consultation with Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, INCOIS at Hyderabad.