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The International Albinism Awareness Day (IAAD) is observed every year on June 13 to raise worldwide awareness on albinism and to prevent attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism. Albinism is a genetic disorder resulting in little or no pigmentation in the skin, hair, and eyes. The lack of melanin in the skin makes albinos more prone to sunburn and skin cancers. Albinism is also associated with visual problems such as photophobia, amblyopia (lazy eye),nystagmus, etc.

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Indian shooters Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu have clinched the gold medal in mixed team 10m air pistol event by defeating Russian pair in the final at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rife/Pistol stage held at Gabala, Azerbaijan. They defeated Russian pair 7-6 in the finals. This is the pair’s second World Cup gold following their success in ISSF World Cup in New Delhi in February 2017. In all, 430 athletes from 45 countries are competing for medals at the Gabala World Cup, which is the last chance for rifle and pistol shooters to qualify for the ISSF World Cup Finals (WCF). Only 8 best shooters of the world in each Olympic discipline along with reigning Olympic and World Championship medalists and wild-cards will be able to compete in the WCF. The mixed team air pistol event is one of the new events added for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Lewis Hamilton has won the 2017 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix tournament Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. It is Hamilton’s 6th win at the Canadian Grand Prix and 56th race win of his career.

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The Punjab government will start free mortuary van service for it’s’ citizens in the state. All government hospitals have been directed to provide such vans free of cost. For this, hospital attendants will be required to fill up a form to record whether the family of the deceased has proper arrangements for transporting the body. Till now, there was no provision of providing mortuary vans in the government hospitals of state.

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The water conservation model “Project Jal Sanchay” has been selected for the national award for excellence in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP). The award will be conferred at a function held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on June 19, 2017. The model is adopted successfully by the authorities in Nalanda district of south central Bihar. Under the project, check dams were created and traditional Aahar-Pyne irrigation system and traditional water bodies were desilted and renovated to create awareness about rainwater harvesting. In it, the traditional water conservation system was used in water management and in maintaining water table in the area. Thus, through campaigns and support from local farmers, the water conservation project has not only improved the availability of water but has also positively impacted farm production in the areas covered by the project.

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India’s first underwater metro tunnel will come up in Kolkata, West Bengal, which will pass through the Hooghly River. The tunnel has been constructed 30 metres below riverbed, just a few metres away from the famous Howrah Bridge. It will be connecting two main terminals: Howrah and Sealdah — each of which has a footfall of about 10-12 lakh passengers per day. With the cost of Rs 60 crore, the project is expected to be completed by December 2019. Notably, this is the first time in India that a tunnel has been made under a flowing river.

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Jelena Ostapenk, a Latvian professional tennis player, has won the 2017 French Open Women’s Singles Tennis Tournament by defeating Simona Halep from Romania in the final by 4–6, 6–4, 6–3. With this win, Ostapenk became the first Latvian player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament and the first unseeded woman to win the French Open since 1933. She is known for her highly aggressive playing style, including powerful inside-out groundstrokes and a tendency to aim for the lines.

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India has signed a pact with Mauritius to institutionalize cooperation between Parliaments of the two countries. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Speaker of National Assembly of Mauritius Santi Bai Hanoomanjee after their meeting in Port Louis. The relationship between the two countries provides a platform for the sustained growth of friendship and partnership.

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The four northeast Indian states share 1,643-km border with Myanmar – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur. It is in news recently, because the Indian Government has set up an expert committee to examine the rules which allow free movement of Indian and Myanmarese citizens within 16 kms of the border, but are exploited by militants for smuggling arms, drugs, and fake Indian currency. The committee will be headed by the special secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The committee will give its report for uniform and effective implementation of free movement regime within 3 months. It will also prepare standard operating procedures common for all the four states so that militants, criminals and contraband are filtered at the border without causing inconvenience to genuine people.

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The book “Indira Gandhi – A life in nature” presents the former prime minister’s life as a naturalist and examines how she steered India’s conservation policy, which is authored by Jairam Ramesh, the senior Congress leader and former Environment Minister . The author noted that Mrs. Gandhi used her political authority to save ecologically sensitive areas from destruction like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the entire northeast and the rainforests in the Western Ghats. The book also refers to Indira Gandhi’s association with nature lovers Salim Ali, Billy Arjan Singh, Sunderlal Bahuguna and Anne Wright. In all, the book highlighted the former PM Indira Gandhi’s love for nature, wildlife and forests.