Current Affairs Weekly Updates – JULY Week II

In Current Affairs 2017
July 17, 2017

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AWARDS AND HONOURS

NAME OF THE AWARD	AWARD WINNER	KEY POINTS TO NOTE
Personality of the Year’ award	Kishore Sansi, Managing Director and CEO of Vijaya Bank	Awarded by Skoch Consultancy Services.

APPOINTMENTS

NAME	DEPT/FIELD
Ravi Shastri	Coach of the Indian cricket team
Zaheer Khan	Bowling coach of the Indian Cricket Team
Debi Prasad Dash	Chief of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
Ned Segal	Chief Financial Officer at Twitter
Justice Vikramajit Sen	Chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC)
Aarthi Subramanian	Chief Digital Officer of TATA groups
Mukesh Kumar Jain	MD & CEO of Oriental Bank
Professor Subra Suresh	President of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
Superwoman Lilly Singh	UNICEF’s Global Goodwill Ambassador

INDIAN AFFAIRS

The Income Tax Department has launched an online facility that will enable payment of taxes, tracking of tax deducted at source and filing of applications for permanent account numbers (PAN).
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed an MoU with the Government of West Bengal to formalize its support to set up a state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine at Kolkata.
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the ‘Ashiana Annexe’ in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on July 10, 2017
The National Green Tribunal has imposed a complete ban on ‘manja’, the string used to fly kites, made of nylon or any synthetic material.
Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to provide women an injectable contraceptive for free.
The Maharashtra government has decided to give free medical insurance cover of up to Rs10 lakh to all sitting and former legislators and their families.
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat are the three best-performing states in “ease of doing business.
Rajasthan has fixed minimum educational qualification for candidates interested in contesting elections for elections to village cooperative societies and various other cooperative bodies.
Uttarakhand government has started to provide free coaching for meritorious students of the state for admissions into IIT with the launch of Super-30 scheme.
Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma launched the Livelihood Intervention and Facilitation of Entrepreneurship (Life) programme in Songsak in the East Garo Hills. Songsak is about 210km west of the state capital, Shillong.
The Indian Railways will launch RailCloud tomorrow, a virtual server with an inbuilt security system that will enable faster connectivity at a reduced cost.
A state-of-the-art, indigenous doppler weather radar, capable of predicting with increased accuracy weather events such as cyclone occurring in 500-km radius from Kochi.
The Union Cabinet approved the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the Agreement between India and Bangladesh for to bring clarity to the interpretation of the existing Bilateral Trade and Promotion Agreement (BIPA).
In a landmark order aimed at cleaning up and rejuvenating the Ganga, considered a holy river by millions of Indians, the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to bring a law making social boycott a crime.
An area of 100 metres from the edge of the Ganga between Haridwar and Unnao has been declared a “No Development Zone”.
The Union Cabinet – country’s highest decision making body has approved setting up International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Venkaiah Naidu has released the new version of NHB RESIDEX.
The government launched a national strategic plan for the elimination of malaria and pledged to eradicate the vector-borne disease by 2027.
Raipur’s Swami Vivekananda Airport was once again ranked first in Customer Satisfaction among 49 airports in the country.
National capital police will be the first state police who will get ‘super cop belt,’ a specially designed belt, widely used by Police in UK, USA, Russia and para-military forces like CRPF, CISF, NSG etc.
India is ranked 116 out of 157 nations on a global index that assesses the performance of countries towards achieving the ambitious sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Indian Railways ‘Solar Mission’ to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, Railways launched its first 1600 HP solar-powered DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) train from Safdarjung railway station.
The central government has formed a panel of experts to suggest how to strengthen the cyber security framework of information technology (IT) support systems operated by the rural development ministry.
The government has launched a GST training programme to skill around two lakh youths in six months to handle tax compliance issues like invoice making.
Central Railway has appointed all women staff at suburban Matunga station. Matunga station has thus become countrys first women special station.
July 16, 2017 is the 89th Foundation Day Celebration of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

CABINET APPROVALS

Cabinet approves establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Cabinet approves MoU between India and Palestine on cooperation in the field of Health and Medicine
Cabinet apprised of MoU between India and Palestine on cooperation in the field of Information Technology and Electronics
Cabinet approves Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) between India and Germany on cooperation in the field of Health
Cabinet approves Joint Interpretative Notes on the Agreement between India and Bangladesh for Promotion and Protection of Investments
Cabinet approves enhancement of the age of superannuation of Medical Officers of Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles
Cabinet apprised of MoU between India and Bangladesh for cyber security cooperation
Cabinet approves creation of three posts of Directors for the three new AIIMS in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra
Cabinet approves Development of Four Laning of Solapur-Bijapur Section of New NH-52 in Maharashtra and Karnataka
Cabinet approves SASEC Road Connectivity Investment Program – Tranche 2

BANKING, BUSINESS AND FINANCE

On 12th July 2017 NABARD celebrated its 36th foundation day.
GMR Goa International Airports Ltd, a subsidiary of GMR Airports Ltd, has executed a debt facility agreement for the development of Greenfield airport at Mopa.
The Chhattisgarh government has decided to merge all the branches of the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) with the state cooperative banks.
Google has acquired Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup Halli Labs for an undisclosed sum.
Country’s largest bank SBI has waived charges for fund transfer of up to Rs.1,000 through its IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) to promote small transactions.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has amended its earlier order asking banks to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against 12 companies which have outstanding loans amounting to over Rs 5,000 crore as on March 2016.
YES BANK has launched GST-Ready products for MSMEs. GST ready Current Account, in partnership with Numberz and Cleartax.
Markets regulator SEBI has put in place new regulations for debenture trustees, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued.
Digital payments company MobiKwik has partnered Samsung Pay, under which consumers will be able to make payments with a single tap using select Samsung handsets.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The IAF has recently participated in a joint exercise with Sri Lankan forces. A transport aircraft of IAF had ferried a contingent of 65 members of IAF personnel on 09 Jul 17 to Sri Lanka with an aim of carrying out joint training.
India has contributed an additional million dollars to a UN partnership fund launched to support sustainable development projects across the developing world.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

A Pikachu-themed train was launched in Japan as a disaster relief project after 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
The 22nd World Petroleum Congress, the largest gathering for the oil and gas industry, began in Istanbul with a view to addressing the challenges facing the sector.
The US House of Representatives has passed a $USD 621.5 billion defence policy bill that proposes to advance defence cooperation with India.
Bastille Day is a day of celebrations of French culture. Many large-scale public events are held, including a military parade in Paris, as well as communal meals, dances, parties and fireworks.
A Model United Nations Regional Conference is being held at Kathmandu. The event is organised by the US Embassy in partnership with the Youth Thinker’s Society.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A vaccine has for the first time been shown to protect against the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea, scientists in New Zealand say.
In a significant discovery, a team of Indian astronomers have identified a previously unknown, extremely large supercluster of galaxies located in the direction of constellation Pisces.

SPORTS

WINNER	TITLE	SPORT/ VENUE
P V Sindhu	Sportsperson of the Year award	Maruti Suzuki Sportsperson of the Year’ Charity Gala Awards.
Sundar Singh Gurjar	World Para Athletics C’ship (Gold)	Javelin Throw
Garbine Muguruza	Women’s Wimbledon title	shattered Venus
Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot	Men’s doubles title in Wimbledon	─
Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina	women’s doubles Wimbledon title	─
Dameet Singh	IAFF World U-18 Championships (Sliver)	Held in Nairobi, Kenya

Mithali Raj has been India’s premier player ever since she made her debut in 1999. Her exploits in the international stage in both Tests and ODIs have made her India’s premier player.

OBITUARY

NAME OF THE PERSON	FIELD
Ray Phiri	South African jazz musician
Liu Xiaobo	Chinese Nobel Peace laureate
Maryam Mirzakhani,	First woman to win Fields Medal in maths

IMPORTANT DAYS

DATE OBSERVED	DAY OBSERVED	Theme / Purpose
July 11	World Population Day	‘Family Planning- Empowering People, Developing Nations
July 15	World Youth Skills Day	Skills for the Future of Work

IMPORTANT BOOKS AND AUTHORS

BOOK NAME	AUTHOR
Ganga Avahan – The Epic Tale of a Historic Swim	It is on the first-ever human effort to swim down the entire stretch of the river.
‘President’s Lady’ (Pranaber Preyosi)	Sangeeta Ghosh