DAILY GK UPDATE 20TH JUNE

1.    Today marks World Refugee Day

i. World Refugee Day is being observed today. This year the theme of the day is - Take One Minute to Support a Family Forced to Flee.

ii. The day is observed to honour the courage, strength and determination of people who are forced to flee their homelands under threat of persecution, conflict and violence.

iii. The day was designated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, to bring attention to the plight of refugees around the world.

iv. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called upon countries to work together to mobolize the political will and leadership to prevent and end the conflicts that trigger refugee flows.

v. According to new statistics issued by UNHCR this week, the number of uprooted persons worldwide stood at 42 million at the end of last year. This total includes 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million internally displaced people uprooted within their own countries.

2.    PM announced 1000 crore rupees as Disaster Relief Fund for Uttarakhand

i. Government of India on 19 June 2013 announced a disaster relief fund of 1000 crore rupees to Uttarakhand. Of the total fund announced, 145 crore rupees will be released by the Government immediately. 

ii. The decision of the disaster relief package was decided by the Prime Minister of India after taking an aerial survey of disaster affected areas of Uttrakhand. 

iii. Apart from the relief fund announced for the state, an ex-gratia assistance of 2 lakh rupees each to the families of those who have lost their lives and 50000 rupees to those who have been injured during the landslides and flood in the state will be provided from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

iv. For those, who have completely lost their houses the PMNRF ex-gratia assistance of Rs.1 lakh each will be provided, whereas 50000 rupees each will be given to those whose houses have been damaged. 

NOTE: Uttrakhand in the third week of June 2013 was stuck by flash floods and landslides. During this natural disaster in the state, more than 100 people lost their life.

3.    No Kedarnath-Badrinath pilgrimage for 3 years

i. Pilgrimage to the shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarakhand cannot resume for three years due to extensive damage caused by heavy rains and floods, an official said Thursday.

ii. According to officials of the two shrines, the two pilgrimage towns have been so badly devastated that there was nothing "but mud, devastation and death" around the highly revered temples visited by millions.

iii. Survivor says nothing left in Kedarnath except the temple.

iv. Sukhatia, who has difficulty in standing properly even now, said he is 63 but has never witnessed such a horrible scene earlier.

vi. "It was shocking to watch a place bustling with people metamorphose in a matter of a few hours into an island of death and destruction," he said.

vii. Hotels, shops, houses have all vanished, Sitaram, who came down to Dharali on foot in order to escape the calamity

viii. The chances of reviving the pilgrimage "for the next few years" was grim, chief executive Officer of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee BD Singhsaid.

4.    India proposes China to be principal guest country at IFFI-14

i. India has invited China to become the 'principal guest country' at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2014, which is scheduled to be held in Goa, I&B Min Manish Tewari said.

ii. "We have also requested them to send classical Chinese films to the IFFI in Goa later this year in November," Tewari said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

iii. Fuchao, who is visiting India for the inaugural ceremony of the Chinese Film Festival being held in New Delhi, said the two countries should develop their ties from strategic and long perspective and that included strengthening bilateral ties in areas of film and culture.

iv. The Chinese minister also expressed enthusiam for co-production of films by the two countries.

v. The possibility of having enhanced exchanges in the field of films or exchange of personnel of public broadcasters, cooperation between film industries and regular student exchange between the film institutes in India and the Beijing film school, were also discussed

5.    New Language Discovered Called Light Warlpiri

i. Scientists at the department of linguistics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor discovered a new language called Light Warlpiri in Northern Australia.

ii. The language, Light Warlpiri, is spoken by approximately 300 people in a remote desert community about 644 kilometres from Katherine, a town located in Australia's Northern Territory, said Carmel O'Shannessy, a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

iii. Light Warlpiri is known as a "mixed language," because it blends elements from multiple languages:

iv. Traditional Warlpiri, which is spoken by about 6,000 people in indigenous communities scattered throughout the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory; Kriol, an English-based Creole language spoken in various regions of Australia; and English.

v. "The striking thing about Light Warlpiri is that most of the verbs come from English or Kriol, but most of the other grammatical elements in the sentence come from Warlpiri," O'Shannessy told LiveScience.

vi. In Light Warlpiri, the words are being placed in a sentence in any order and grammatical interpretations are dependent on the suffixes which are associated with the noun. 

vii. This kind of structure cannot be found in any other existing language. This is the reason why Light Warlpiri is seen as a separate linguistic system.

6.    England in CT final

i. Host England sauntered into the Champions Trophy final after South Africa was bowled out for 175 in fairly benign conditions.

ii. Tasked with 176 for victory, England could afford to take its time before a subdued, near-capacity crowd to bag the runs in 37.3 overs with seven wickets to spare.

iii. Jonathan Trott and Joe Root combined for 105 from 126 balls to steer England to the brink of the victory. Trott, indispensable to England, hit the winning runs with his 11th boundary in 82 not out off 84 balls.

iv. England will play the winner of a semifinal between India and Sri Lanka in Sunday’s final.

7.    Champions Trophy:  India & Sri Lanka match in progress

i. Indian skipper M.S Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl against Sri Lanka in the second semifinal of the Champions Trophy at Sophia Gardens on Thursday.

ii. Two changes for Sri Lanka, Dinesh Chandimal is left out and Jeevan Mendis comes in. Thisara Perera takes the place of Shaminda Eranga. On the other side India remains unchanged.

iii. The winner of the match will take on England at Birmingham on Sunday.

Last update: Sri Lanka – 165/7 in 48 over.

8.    James Gandolfini dies after a heart attack

i. Gandolfini, Triple Emmy Award winning actor, famous for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano on ‘The Sopranos’ died in Italy at the age of 51

ii. In Italy to attend the 59^thTaormina Film Festival, Gandolfini died after a suspected heart attack.

iii. He was reportedly scheduled to participate in a festival event this weekend with Italian director Gabriele Muccino.

iv. Gandolfini shot to fame playing a hitman in the 1993 hit 'True Romance' and quickly became a Hollywood legend when he was cast as Tony Soprano in 1999.

v. He won 3 Emmy awards for the role during the show's six season run.