Important Current Affairs of 18th June

NATIONAL:

India to host COP-14 of UNCCD.

• India will be hosting the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the first time. COP-14 will be held between September 2 and 14 in Delhi.

Participants: It is expected that atleast 5,000 delegates from nearly 197 countries will be participating.

• The Centre launched a flagship project, part of a larger international initiative called the Bonn Challenge ahead of the COP-14. The flagship project aims to enhance India’s capacity for forest landscape restoration (FLR).

• The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land under restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.

COP-13 of UNCCD:

• The 13th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-13) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Ordos, China. Around 113 countries had agreed to specify concrete targets with clear indicators, to rehabilitate more land and reverse degradation, which currently affects over a third of the world’s land resources.

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):

Drafted: 17 June 1994

Signed: 14 October 1994

Location: Bonn, Germany

Parties: 197 (196 states + the European Union)

UNCCD aims to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS:

Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed is appointed as Pakistans Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence.

• Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed has been appointed as Pakistan’s Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (DG-ISI), a powerful spy agency. He assumed his office on 17th June 2019.The Pakistan Army also announced a number of changes to postings of its top generals.

Lt. Gen. Hameed was appointed as Director-General of the ISI in place of Lieutenant General Asim Munir. Munir was transferred and appointed as Corps Commander Gujranwala. Lt. Gen. Munir was appointed as ISI chief in October 2018 after the retirement of his predecessor Lt. Gen. Naveed Mukhtar.

Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed:

• Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed is a three-star rank general in the Pakistan Army. He is currently the 24th Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (DG-ISI).

• On April 12, the Pakistan Army promoted then Major General Hameed to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed him Adjutant General at the General Headquarters (GHQ) later that month.

He was previously serving as the head of the Counter Intelligence wing in the ISI.

Indiabulls Housing appoints Chief Risk Officer after new rules.

• Indiabulls Housing Finance on Monday said it has named Naveen Uppal as Chief Risk Officer to comply with regulator National Housing Bank's direction. Uppal has been associated with Indiabulls Housing Finance for 12 years and presently heads Risk and Compliance. He'll directly report to the company's Vice-Chairman, MD and CEO or the board-constituted risk management committee of the company.

Paytm Mall names Rudra Dalmia as Exec Director, Board member.

• Paytm Mall has named Rudra Dalmia as the Executive Director and also appointed him to its board. Dalmia is an SRCC alumnus and has an MBA from Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. "I welcome [Dalmia] to Paytm family...am proud to see him as a board member of Paytm e-commerce," Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.

SPORTS:

Eoin Morgan breaks world record for hitting most sixes in an ODI.

• England captain Eoin Morgan set the world record for most sixes (17) in an ODI, achieving the feat during his 71-ball 148-run knock against Afghanistan in World Cup today. The previous record (16 sixes) was jointly held by Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers. Morgan also smashed the fastest World Cup hundred by an England player (57 balls).