The Union Cabinet has decided to extend the Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to State agencies and Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs), as well as federations of cooperative organisations, Farmers Producers Organizations and self help groups.
Twitter has appointed Vinay Prakash as its Resident Grievance Officer for India, according to its website.
The micro-blogging site has also published its first compliance report, which is mandatory under the new digital rules.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar attended the formal handing- over ceremony of the holy relics of 17th century queen St. Ketevan to Georgia, nearly 16 years after they were found in Goa.
St. Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen.
Her relics were found in 2005 at the St. Augustine Convent in Old Goa, on the basis of medieval Portuguese records.
The relics are believed to have been brought to Goa in 1627 and interred in St. Augustine Complex.
State Current Affairs
The Uttar Pradesh Population policy 2021-2030 was launched to reduce maternal and infant deaths in a time bound manner. The policy aims to
decrease the total fertility rate from 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026 and 1.7 by 2030.
increase modern contraceptive prevalence rate from 31.7% to 45 % by 2026 and 52 % by 2030.
increase male methods of contraceptive use from 10.8% to 15.1 % by 2026.
decrease MMR from 197 to 150 by 2026 and 98 by 2030.
decrease IMR from 43 to 32 by 2026 and 22 by 2030.
decrease Under 5 Mortality Rate from 47 to 35 by 2016 and 25 by 2030.
Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Virbhadra Singh passed away on July 8, 2021.
Virbhadra Singh, a six-time Chief Minister, had won nine Assembly elections and five Lok Sabha elections.
The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to allow only vaccinated people into the State.
The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission will base its final report on the 2011 Census and will also take into account the topography, difficult terrain, means of communication and convenience available while delimiting seven additional seats for the 83-member Assembly of the Union Territory (UT), besides granting reservation to the Schedule Tribe (ST) and Schedule Caste (SC) communities.
24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) would not be delimited in this process.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was appointed Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the West Bengal Assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee. Mr. Roy, who had bagged the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency on a BJP ticket, joined the TMC almost a month ago on June 11.
The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has prepared a proposed draft bill for population control in the state, under which a two-child norm would be implemented and promoted.
A person who procreates more than two children after the law comes to force would be debarred form several benefits such as government sponsored welfare schemes, ration card units would be limited to four, and the person will be barred from contesting elections to local authority or any body of the local self-government.
The person contravening the law would also become ineligible to apply for government jobs under the the State government, will be barred from promotion in government services and will not receive any kind of government subsidy. The provisions would come into force one year after the date of publication of the gazette.
The Assam government has launched a scheme entailing a one-time financial assistance of ₹2.5 lakh to women who lost their husbands to the novel coronavirus since March-April 2020.
The Chief Minister’s COVID-19 Widows Support Scheme is for women of low-income families with a total annual income of up to ₹5 lakh.
Business Current Affairs
Fitch Ratings has cut its projection for India’s real GDP growth in 2021-22 to 10%, from 12.8%, citing a slower recovery due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions.
The Finance Ministers from the Group of 20 countries endorsed the plan that includes a 15% global minimum corporate levy to deter big companies from resorting to low-rate tax havens at a meeting on July 10, 2021. in Venice.
International Current Affairs
Ethiopia’s ruling party won a landslide in a landmark parliamentary poll, ensuring a new five-year term for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed despite a brutal war in the northern region of Tigray.
Sri Lanka has issued a commemorative coin marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.
Gunmen assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse , inflicting more chaos on the Caribbean country that was already enduring gang violence, soaring inflation and protests by Opposition supporters who accused the leader of increasing authoritarianism.
Haiti has asked Washington and the UN for troops to secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise opened a power vacuum in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation.
Norwegian telecoms group Telenor said that it was selling its subsidiary in Myanmar, where it is one of the major operators, as a result of the military coup in the country.
Jacob Zuma began a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, becoming post-apartheid South Africa’s first President to be jailed.
U.S. President Joe Biden pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to act against groups conducting ransomware attacks from Russia.
Ransomware – a breed of malicious software which hackers use to hold data hostage in exchange for payment — has become an increasingly powerful scourge for businesses across the world.
Cybercriminals have used it to paralyze thousands of American organizations, setting off a series of increasingly high-profile crises.
Senior police officers of the Interpol’s member countries have endorsed measures to boost the role of its National Central Bureaus (NCBs), in view of the evolving threats, technology and the pandemic shifting the foundations of police work.
In India, the CBI is the NCB for Interpol.
About 300 officers from 167 countries attended the Interpol’s 16th annual conference, held virtually from July 6 to 8.
In spite of the pandemic, the number of records entrusted to Interpol by the NCBs over the past year has increased by 10% to reach a record 115 million.
The meeting heard that ransomware activities generated $350 million in 2020, according to Chainalysis, a 311% increase over the previous year.
Sports Current Affairs
Two-time Olympics gold medallist Keshav Chandra Datt, the last surviving member of the Indian hockey team in the historic 1948 London Games, passed away.
Argentina won Copa America Cup by defeating Brazil.
The victory was Argentina’s 15th Copa America triumph and means they draw level with Uruguay as the all-time leading winners.
Messi finished the tournament’s joint top goal scorer with four goals and was elected joint best player along with Neymar.
Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian woman to win the singles trophy at Wimbledon since Evonne Goolagong in 1980, beating Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3.
This was her second Slam overall, after French Open 2019.
In the battle between the legends who have 11 World titles between them, Viswanathan Anand defeated Garry Kasparov in the Croatia Grand Chess Tour at Zagreb.
Italy won the European Championship for the second time by beating England 3-2 on penalties.
Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon by defeating Matteo Berrettini 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the final.
He tied Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal by claiming his 20th Grand Slam title .
The 34-year-old from Serbia is now the only man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the first three major tournaments in a season. He can aim for a calendar-year Grand Slam — something last accomplished by a man when Laver did it 52 years ago — at the U.S. Open, which starts Aug. 30.
Science Current Affairs
Richard Branson takes off first in space tourism race
The nearly 71-year-old Mr. Branson and five crewmates, including aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla, from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of about 88 kilometres over the New Mexico desert — enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth — and then safely glided back home to a runway landing.
Mr. Branson became the first person to blast off in his own spaceship, beating Mr. Bezos by nine days. He also became only the second septuagenarian to depart for space. (John Glenn flew on the shuttle at age 77 in 1998.)
Ms. Bandla became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to travel in space.
Health Current Affairs
Sanofi and GSK have received approval for their Phase 3 clinical study in India, to assess the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Cuba develops the world’s first conjugate vaccine for COVID-19 :
Cuba’s State-run corporation, BioFarma, said that its indigenously produced Soberana 2 vaccine was 91.2% efficacious in phase-3 trials.
The most common conjugate vaccines are those used for Haemophilus influenza type b and the pneumococcal bacteria.
However, a unique aspect of the Soberana vaccine is that it is by far the only one among coronavirus vaccine candidates that relies on the conjugate vaccine technology.
Experts say that while there are no inherent disadvantages to taking a conjugate-vaccine approach for coronavirus vaccines, they have generally been used against bacteria and not viruses.
Person in News Current Affairs
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday nominated Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to the post of Ambassador to India.
The 2020 Millennium Technology Prize, announced in May, has been awarded to Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman, “for their development of revolutionary DNA sequencing techniques.”
Awarded by the Republic of Finland, along with top Finnish academic institutions and industries, The Millennium Prize has a 21st century outlook, with a strong emphasis on innovation.
Past winners include Tim Berners-Lee (for implementing the world-wide web) and Frances Arnold (for her work on directed evolution in a laboratory setting).
Three of the eleven awardees so far have subsequently won Nobel prizes.
