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Nandan Nilekani: Advisor to a government panel
- Nandan M Nilekani has been included in a 9-member advisory council.
- The council will advise the government of India on measures needed to design and accelerate the adoption of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
- Nandan is the co-founder and non-executive Chairman of Infosys.
- Besides Nilekani, other members include RS Sharma, Adil Zainulbhai, Anjali Bansal, Arvind Gupta, etc.
8th BRICS Education Ministers meeting held
- Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre chaired the meeting of the 8th BRICS Education Ministers in virtual mode on 6 July’21.
- This meeting was held as part of the 13th BRICS Summit being hosted by India in 2021.
- Earlier, the International Governing Board, IGB of the BRICS Network Universities met on 29 Jun’21, to take a look at the progress made by member states under this initiative.
4th phase of PMGKAY to be implemented in WB
- Food Corporation of India( FCI), West Bengal region is all set for implementing the Fourth Phase of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna (PMGKAY).
- Union Government has announced a further extension of PMGKAY for another five months till November 2021.
- It has allocated 9.02 lakh MTs of wheat and 6.01 lakh MTs of rice for distribution under the fourth phase of the flagship scheme.
KN Bhattacharjee: New Lokayukta in Tripura
- Veteran advocate Kalyan Narayan Bhattacharjee has been appointed as the new Lokayukta in Tripura.
- He has been appointed to the post for three years with effect from July 1, 2021.
- The Lokayukta Act has been in force in Tripura since 2008.
- Bhattacharjee is the third Lokayukta in the state and the first to hold the post as a lawyer.
- In 2012, the first Lokayukta was appointed in Tripura.
J&K ends 149-year-old Darbar move tradition
- The bi-annual tradition of shifting capitals between Srinagar and Jammu called ‘Darbar move’, ended on June 30, 2021.
- The 149-year-old tradition of shifting capitals by moving piles of files, which count approximately a hundred papers in trucks on the highway of Srinagar and Jammu has been stopped.
- Srinagar served as the summer capital, while Jammu served as the winter capital.
26-member team for Tokyo Olympics announced
- The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has announced a 26-member team to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
- The athletics events at the Olympics will start on July 31 and it will run through August 8, 2021.
- The team includes Dutee Chand (women’s 100m and 200m), MP Jabir (men’s 400m hurdles), Gurpreet Singh (men’s 50km race walk), Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw), etc.
Project on Open Network for Digital Commerce
- The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has initiated a project on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
- It aims at promoting open networks developed on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.
- The task has been assigned to the Quality Council of India.
Health Ministry launches ‘COVID GuruKool’
- Health Ministry has launched COVID GuruKool, an informational video series on its social media platforms.
- It is aimed at disseminating authentic information on COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccination program.
- Leading public health experts, policymakers, doctors, scientists and health professionals will participate and will help in sensitization of people towards Covid appropriate behaviour.
ASCI partners with FSSAI
- The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has signed an agreement with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
- Under the agreement, ASCI will set up a three-member expert panel to evaluate food and beverages advertising identified by the ASCI monitoring team.
- The aims is to safeguard consumers against misleading claims in food and beverage (F&B) advertisements.
52nd IFFI to be held in Goa
- The 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Goa from 20th -28th November 2021.
- Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar released the regulations and poster of the festival on 5 July 2021.
- The festival is organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), in collaboration with the Goa government and the Indian Film Industry.
Ministry of Tourism signs MoU with Yatra
- The Ministry of Tourism signed an MoU with Yatra on 2nd July 2021.
- The primary objective of this MoU is to provide extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI (System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for the Hospitality Industry) on the OTA platform.
- Yatra.com is an Indian online travel agency and travel search engine based in Gurugram.
Mary Kom to be India’s flag bearer at Olympics
- Boxer M C Mary Kom and men’s hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh will be flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
- Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flag bearer at the closing ceremony on August 8, 2021.
- For the first time, India is having two flag-bearers, one male and one female at the upcoming Tokyo Games to ensure “gender parity”.
Sanath Jayasundara banned for seven years
- Sanath Jayasundara, a former performance analyst at Sri Lanka Cricket, has been banned for seven years under the ICC Anti-corruption code.
- He has been banned after the ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal found him guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
- The ban is backdated to 11 May 2019, when he was provisionally suspended.
Sudhanshu Mittal re-elected as KKFI President
- The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) has elected the new Office Bearers of KKFI for the term 2021-2025.
- Incumbent President Sudhansu Mittal was unanimously re-elected for a fresh tenure as per the election result.
- Mahender Singh Tyagi was re-elected as the General Secretary while Surendra Kumar Bhutiyani was elected as the Treasurer.
Telangana CM inaugurates 1,320 flats
- Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao inaugurated a housing community for the poor in Sircilla having 1,320 flats, on 4 July 2021.
- The housing community named “KCR Nagar” is located at Mandepalli and built at a cost of ₹ 80 crores.
- Each of these flats has a 560 sq feet area with two bedrooms, a common bathroom, hall, kitchen, and attached bathroom.
Verstappen wins Austrian Grand Prix
- Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position on 4 July 2021.
- He clinched a third straight victory and extending his lead over Lewis Hamilton to 32 points after nine races.
- It was Verstappen’s fifth win of the season compared to three for Hamilton, who dropped down from second place to fourth.
Cochin Airport launches ‘Operation Pravaah’
- The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has launched ‘Operation Pravaah’.
- It is a multifaceted infrastructure programme scoping to integrate flood mitigation projects already initiated by CIAL with District Administration and various local self-governments.
- CIAL is spending around Rs 130 crores for comprehensive flood mitigation activities.
Rs 388 crore sanctioned for various projects
- Nabard has sanctioned Rs 388 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for four drinking water and 20 rural road projects in Odisha.
- The RIDF assistance is for setting up of four mega piped drinking water supply projects, one each in Boipariguda Block of Koraput district, Nilgiri block of Balasore district, and two in Malkangiri district.
Vulture conservation plan chalked out in Bihar
- Authorities in Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) have started planning for the conservation of vultures after 150 of the birds were sighted recently in the protected area.
- About 75-80 vultures, the highest number, were spotted at the Ganauli range, followed by Madanpur and others.
- A proposed plan for vulture conservation has been sent to the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats.
India targets $400 bn merchandise export
- India has set a target of USD 400 billion in merchandise exports for 2021-22.
- This was informed by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
- India recorded the highest ever exports in the first quarter of April-June 2021.
- The highest ever merchandise export in a quarter of USD 95 billion has been achieved from April to June 2021 despite the severity of the second wave of COVID-19.
Pakistan on Child Soldier Recruiter List
- The United States of America has added Pakistan and 14 other countries to a Child Soldier Recruiter List.
- The list identifies foreign governments having government-supported armed groups that recruit or use child soldiers.
- The recruitment or use of children below the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Egypt inaugurates its largest naval base
- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the country’s largest naval base in the northwest coast of Gargoub on 3 July 2021.
- The Naval Base covers an area of 10 million square metres along the Mediterranean.
- The naval surface units, submarines, and aircraft at the base will provide security for Egypt along the northern and western strategic directions.
World Zoonoses Day: 6 July
- World Zoonoses Day is marked on July 6 every year.
- Zoonosis is an infectious disease that is transmitted from animals to humans and later from humans to humans and ultimately, it becomes a pandemic.
- The theme of World Zoonoses Day 2021 is – “Let’s break the chain of zoonotic transmission.”
- Common zoonotic diseases include swine flu, bird flu, ebola virus, rabies, etc.
Activist Stan Swamy passes away
- Activist Stan Swamy passed away in July 2021.
- He was accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case.
- Stanislaus Lourduswamy, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was an Indian Roman Catholic priest and was a tribal rights activist for several decades.
- Swamy was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.
RBI announces changes in a methodology
- The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has informed that benchmark securities of tenor 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, 14-year tenor and Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs) will be, henceforth, issued using the uniform price auction method.
- For other benchmark securities i.e. 30-year and 40-year, the auction will continue to be multiple price-based auction, as hitherto.
CBSE announces special assessment scheme
- The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced a special assessment scheme for class 10 and 12 board exams 2022.
- Under the new scheme, the academic sessions will be divided into two terms.
- First-term exams will be held in November-December and second-term examinations will be scheduled in March-April.
- CBSE Term 1 will mostly involve Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ).
Thawarchand appointed as Karnataka Governor
- Union Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot has been appointed as Karnataka Governor and Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel was named as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh.
- Gehlot is the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.
- Hari Babu Kambhampati and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar have been appointed as Governors of Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh respectively.
Five portals of Ayush sector launched
- Five portals of Ayush sector were launched and four publications were released by the Union Minister of Ayush Shri Kiran Rijiju in an online event, on 5 July 2021.
- The Minister launched CTRI portal pertinent to Ayurveda Dataset along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI, and e-Medha portals.
- He also released four publications related to the Traditional Indian Medicine System of India.
Indian scientists get funding from Ignite LSF
- A team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) that has been working on developing mRNA has received funding from the Ignite Life Science Foundation.
- Ignite is a Bengaluru-based non-profit scientific research institute that Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan launched in 2020.
- The 3-year grant will fund research to develop the platform technologies for mRNA vaccine development.
Delta variant shows 8-fold sensitivity
- The Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus shows eight-fold approximately reduced sensitivity to vaccine-elicited antibodies compared to the Wuhan strain.
- This was revealed in a recent study on the B.1.617.2 Delta variant on over 100 healthcare workers (HCWs) across three centres in Delhi.
- The study was in collaboration with scientists from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology.
Appointments and Resignations
- Mahindra & Mahindra has roped in Pratap Bose (formerly with Tata Motors) as its Chief Designer. Two more senior resources in the design team have been appointed- Ajay Saran Sharma from Tata Motors, and Pankaj Dhamane from Renault.
- Raymond’s CEO of its lifestyle business Joe Kuruvilla has decided to step down. He had joined Raymond in Oct’20. Prior to that, he was with FMCG major Unilever PLC.
PhonePe partners with Flipkart
- PhonePe has partnered with Flipkart to enable pay-on-delivery service for Flipkart’s orders.
- PhonePe’s dynamic QR code solution will enable customers who earlier opted for ‘cash on delivery’ to pay digitally through any UPI app at the time of delivery.
- This will help reduce personal contact while ensuring safety and drive contactless payments for customers.
Scientists to map brains of covid survivors
- Indian neuroscientists will map the brains of individuals who both recovered from covid-19 or have been asymptomatic to the illness.
- This will be done to perceive the explanations behind rising circumstances of despair, obsessive-compulsive dysfunction, nervousness, and post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
- Scientists at the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) will do the mapping.
The new facility at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust
- Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will now have two mobile x-ray scanners at Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal and APM Terminal in Mumbai.
- It will help scan the containers inside the terminal premises.
- These scanners will help enhance efficiency and considerably reduce import dwell time due to independent scanning facilities for each terminal.
Tamil Nadu ERC notifies new provisions
- Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission has notified new provisions in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Distribution Code.
- It has mandated the installation of the residual current device in all electricity connections in both single and three-phase connections of all constructions.
- The residual operating current not exceeding 30 milliamperes must be installed to avoid electrical shock.
TCS enters into a pact with SonyLIV
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has entered into a strategic partnership with India’s premier OTT streaming platform, SonyLIV.
- It will help create an innovative business model enabled by digital technologies and enhance customer experience.
- TCS will set up a world-class Experience Design Center, where it will deploy its Location Independent Agile Model to accelerate innovation.
Scripbox partners with Stockal
- Digital wealth management service, Scripbox is enabling direct US stock investment on its platform to cater to a full spectrum of customers’ wealth diversification needs.
- Scripbox has partnered Stockal, a global investment platform, to offer the service.
- The new service will allow users to invest in stocks of leading global companies listed on the US stock exchanges.
75 major projects completed in Varanasi
- UP government has completed 75 major projects worth more than Rs 736 crores in Varanasi.
- The 75 major projects which are complete now include the international facility center Rudraksh.
- Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- A proposal of 64 other major projects of infrastructure development worth more than 417 crore rupees has already been approved.
James Anderson reaches 1,000 wickets
- James Anderson on 5 July 2021, reached a remarkable milestone in his career as he took his 1,000th first-class wicket.
- He achieved the feat during Lancashire’s County Championship match against Kent at the Old Trafford Stadium.
- With that wicket, he also completed his 51st first-class five-wicket haul.
- He became just the 14th player to reach 1,000 first-class wickets this century.
Golf Training Academy launched in Srinagar
- J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched Golf Training Academy at the Kashmir Golf Club, in Srinagar on 5 July 2021.
- The initiative is aimed to continue the endeavors of promoting and strengthening the sports ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Eminent coaches will impart training and the 1st batch itself is starting with the world-renowned player and Coach of the Indian team Amandeep Johl.