Today Current Affairs for Competitive Exams - Current Affairs 2021 Online - 31st July 2021

Defence Expo to be held in Gandhinagar World Ranger Day: 31 July

• Gujarat will host its first Defence Expo, the • World Ranger Day is celebrated on July 31 flagship event of the Ministry of Defence for of every year. the domestic and global industry interested • The day pays tribute to the Rangers who are in the Indian arms market. injured and killed in the line of duty. • The event will be held in Gandhinagar in • The first World Ranger Day was celebrated March 2022, with the theme of ‘India as a on the 15th anniversary of the founding of defence manufacturing hub’. the IRF (International Ranger Federation) in • Past editions of the show have been held at 2007. New Delhi, Goa, Chennai and Lucknow. • This day is organized by the 63 members union of the International Ranger Mike Hendrick passes away Federation.

• Former pacer Mike Hendrick Navies Of India, Indonesia conclude CORPAT passed away in July 2021. • Hendrick had also represented • The 36th edition of India-Indonesia and Nottinghamshire in domestic . coordinated patrol (CORPAT) between the • He went on to represent England in 30 Tests Indian Navy and the Indonesian Navy and 22 ODI matches, besides also being the concluded on July 31, 2021. first professional coach of Ireland. • INS Saryu undertook coordinated patrol • He also held the world record for most Test (CORPAT) with Indonesian Naval Ship KRI without a five- haul. Bung Tomo from July 30 to 31. • The CORPAT between India and Intel partners with CBSE Indonesia also witnessed the participation of Maritime Patrol Aircraft from both nations. • Intel has collaborated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to launch 14 Tiger Reserves get Global CA/TS recognition the 'AI For All' initiative. • It is aimed at creating a basic understanding • 14 Tiger Reserves in India have received of artificial intelligence (AI) for people in the accreditation of the Global Conservation India. Assured|Tiger Standards (CA|TS). • The four-hour open content resource, which • The 14 tiger reserves include Manas, is available in 11 vernacular languages, is Kaziranga and Orang in Assam, Satpura, divided into two sections – AI Awareness Kanha and Panna in MP, Pench in (1.5 hours) and AI Appreciation (2.5 hours). Maharashtra, Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, Dudhwa in UP, Sunderbans in West 1 | P a g e

Bengal, Parambikulam in Kerala, Bandipur • It will speed up the vaccination program in reserve in Karnataka, etc. partnership with industry including health care providers. Bharat BillPay: Noopur Chaturvedi as CEO • The vaccination drive will target communities in the small towns and rural areas to increase the coverage. • Bharat Bill Payment System has appointed former PayU and Airtel Payments Bank • They will ensure to connect hospitals and executive Noopur Chaturvedi as its new corporates to fast track vaccination. CEO. • Chaturvedi, prior to this appointment, was Rs 10 lakh help to families of journalists the country head for small and medium business at PayU. • Families of a total of 36 journalists have • She has earlier worked with Airtel Payments received financial assistance Bank, Samsung, ING Vysya Bank, and which included the family of TV journalist Citibank in various senior roles. Rohit Sardana. • The cheque of the financial help was India to take over Presidency of UNSC distributed in a function in Lucknow, UP on 31 July 2021. • India will take over the Presidency of the UN • Rs 10 lakh financial aid had been Security Council on 1 Aug'21. announced for family members of scribes who died due to COVID-19 by CM Yogi • It will host signature events in three major areas of maritime security, peacekeeping, Adityanath. and counterterrorism during the month. • India’s two-year tenure as a non-permanent Rs 1756 cr allocated under Khelo India member of the Security Council began on January 1, 2021. • The Union Government is promoting sports • India will again preside over the Council in in 13 states which includes Left Wing December 2022, the last month of its tenure. Extremism (LWE) areas, Jammu and Kashmir and North-Eastern states. MGL to set up 10 mobile refuelling units • Under the Khelo India programme, 1,756 crore rupees has been allocated and 272 sports infrastructure projects are in the • Mumbai-based city gas distribution (CGD) pipeline. company Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL) will set • Across the country, 360 Khelo India Centres up 10 mobile refueling units (MRUs) in 2022. have been developed and 24 Centres of • These will be set up to meet the increasing Excellence have been identified. demand for selling compressed natural gas (CNG). • MRUs, used for refuelling, can be BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan finalised conveniently parked at parking lots or open parks and land parcels approved by local • The 6th meeting of the BRICS Counter- authorities. Terrorism Working Group was held virtually on 28-29 July 2021 under the Chairship of CII enters into agreement with SII India. • The main outcome of the Working Group meeting was the finalization of the BRICS • Confederation of Indian Industry, CII, has Counter-Terrorism Action Plan. entered into an agreement with the Serum Institute of India. 2 | P a g e

• It contains specific measures to implement • Shaheed Udham Singh was martyred on 31 the BRICS Counter Terrorism Strategy July 1940 and since then the day is adopted by BRICS Leaders in 2020. observed as Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Udham Singh. Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill • He is best known for the assassination of Michael O' Dwyer as retaliation to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. • The Rajya Sabha has passed the Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill, • He became a revolutionary at an early stage of life and toured several countries to serve 2021. the purpose of his life. • The bill seeks to make the post of Chairman, Coconut Development Board a Non- Executive one. Khushi kumar wins award in "IYCSAA" 2020 • The number of members of the board has been raised from four to six after the • Khushi Arun Kumar, a Chennai student from amendment. Stella Maris College has won the 'Best • Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat will be able to Poster' prize in the 2020 'Together Against nominate their representatives in the Board. Corruption,' International Youth Contest for Social-Anti Corruption Advertising Mansukh Mandaviya chairs a review meeting (IYCSAA). • The competition, an initiative of the Anti Corruption Working Group, convened by • Health and Family Welfare Minister Russia within the framework of BRICS, is Mansukh Mandaviya chaired a review held every year. meeting with the National Medical Commission, NMC, on 30 July 2021. • Efforts are underway to ensure that the Rajasthan govt decides to raise minimum wages National Exit Test will be conducted in the first half of 2023. • The Rajasthan government has decided to • A Mock Run is also being planned to test the increase the minimum wages in the state. procedure and remove anxiety among • The minimum wages would be increased by medical students and will be conducted in Rs27 per day for each category. 2022. • Unskilled workers will now get Rs252 per day as against the current Rs225, semi- 12th round of talks between India, China skilled workers will get Rs264 per day as against Rs237 currently. • The increased rates will be applicable from • The 12th round of Corps Commander level July 1, 2020. talks between India and China was held on 31 July 2021. • The Indian delegation at the talks was led by New guidelines for sharing of biological data the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, Lieutenant General PGK Menon. • Science and Technology Minister released a • The 11th round of the high-level military set of guidelines to facilitate sharing of talks had taken place on 9th April 2021 at biological information and data generated by the Chushul border point on the Indian side research groups in the country. of the LAC. • The Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Udham Singh Guidelines will facilitate this and enable exchange of information to promote

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research and innovation in different research • Ultrahuman has tied up with Visa to make groups across the country. good health accessible to Its cardholders. • The partnership would be extended across Meghalaya signs MoU with 'Invest India' all Visa partner banks. • Ultrahuman is a fitness platform that helps • Meghalaya State Investment Promotion people meditate, work out efficiently, and Society (MSIP) signed an MoU with Invest optimize their sleep with the help of athletes, India of the Ministry of Commerce and neuroscientists, artists, and psychologists - Industry to boost trade and industries in the all in one place. state. • The objective of the MoU is to leverage CSIR develops machine for visually impaired investment opportunities in key development sectors to boost trade and industries in the • Council of Scientific and industrial research, state. Chandigarh has developed a reading • This would also focus on promoting one machine for the visually impaired through product-one district programme. which any printed or digital document can be accessed in the form of speech output. First Muslim religious freedom ambassador USA • The reading device "DivyaNayan" uses language-dependent optical character recognition to convert the image into text • US President Joe Biden has nominated and a text-to-speech converter. Indian-American attorney Rashad Hussain as the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Australia to return 15 artifacts to India • Hussain is the first Muslim to be nominated to serve as the Ambassador-at-Large for • National Gallery of Australia has decided to International Religious Freedom. return 15 artifacts to India through the • Deborah Lipstadt has been nominated as concerted efforts of the Ministry of Culture Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti- and Ministry of External Affairs. Semitism with the Rank of Ambassador. • The artifacts include - Painting of Shrinathji, Page from Ragmala series, Yaksha Bhairav, 10cr families covered under AB scheme Kali yantra, Shri Lakshman Chand ji before Shri Dursham Ram ji, Krishna and Arjuna, Shiva and Parvati, Baby Krishna on a • Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, 10 banyan leaf, etc. crore families have been covered in the country. • Now 50 crore people are eligible for free Ashutosh to be new Secretary of MOES treatment of up to an amount of five lakh rupees under the scheme. • The Secretary of the Department of • Ayushman Bharat, a flagship scheme of the Sciences and Technology Ashutosh Sharma Government of India, was launched as has been given the additional charge of recommended by the National Health Policy Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences. 2017, to achieve the vision of Universal • The decision has been taken by the Health Coverage (UHC). Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ultrahuman partners with Visa • Sanjay Agarwal has been given the additional charge of the post of Secretary of the newly formed Ministry of Cooperation.

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India, US sign Second Amendment • Consequently, the bank ceases to carry on banking business, with effect from the close • India and the US have signed the Second of business on July 29, 2021. Amendment to the Statement of Guiding • The central bank has cancelled the licences Principles on Triangular Cooperation for of at least half a dozen co-operative banks global development. in the recent past citing institutional failure • The agreement, signed in November 2014, and has initiated punitive actions on many underscores the contribution of the India-US others. partnership to global stability and prosperity. • Under the agreement, both will continue to FamPay ties up with Visa offer capacity-building assistance to partner countries in multiple sectors. • FamPay has launched India’s first Visa Prepaid Card for teenagers with Philippines restores key defense pact with US personalized doodles on it. • The card will allow teens to make NFC- • The Philippines has restored a bilateral enabled contactless payments on the Visa military deal with the US related to the network in India. presence of American troops in the • The card will be available in two different Southeast Asian country. designs - the FamCard and FamCard Me. • Manila has officially backtracked on its • Users can select from a range of 200+ threat to rescind the Visiting Forces doodles and signature fonts to create unique Agreement (VFA), which was ratified in 1999 designs on their FamCard Me. and exempts US military personnel from passport and visa regulations in the India has 500 mn tonnes of gold ore reserves Philippines. • India has 501.83 million tonnes of gold ore Satpura Reserve bags Natwest Heroes Award reserves as of April 1, 2015, according to National Mineral Inventory data. • The Satpura Tiger Reserve of MP has • Out of these, 17.22 million tonnes were received the Natwest Group Earth Heroes placed under the reserves category and the Award in the Earth Guardian category for rest under the remaining resources best management. category. • The reserve has also been included in the • The largest reserves of gold ores are potential list of World Heritage. located in Bihar, followed by Rajasthan, • Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, district is spread over an area of 2130 and Jharkhand. square km. • It is part of the Deccan Bio-Geographic Chitkara University: District Green Champion Region. • It is the oldest forest wealth in the country. • Chitkara University, Patiala, has been recognized as the ‘District Green Champion’ RBI cancels licence of Madgaum Coop. Bank for the Patiala district for the academic year 2020-21. • The RBI has cancelled the licence of the • It has been recognized by the Mahatma Madgaum Urban Co-operative Bank Limited Gandhi National Council of Rural Education in Goa. (MGNCRE).

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• This award is given to colleges that have Kerala govt announces over ₹5,000 cr package actively participated in keeping their campuses clean and sanitized, and making • The Kerala government has announced a progress towards a ‘Swachh Bharat’. financial package of over ₹5,650 crore to revive the state economy that is reeling due Logistics document exchange platform launched to the COVID- 19 pandemic. • It will assist small-scale traders and farmers • The government has launched a secured of the state. logistics document exchange platform for • The govt will be giving very subsidised loans the digital exchange of logistics-related and will bear the four percent of the interest papers. of loans for six months for the loans up • It has also launched a calculator for to ₹2 lakhs. greenhouse gas emissions for choosing the sustainable and right mode of transport for GSI working on 7 lithium exploration projects freight movements. • The initiative will improve logistics efficiency, • The Geological Survey of India has taken up reduce logistics costs and promote multi- seven lithium exploration projects in modality. Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, J&K, and Israel to offer booster shot to older citizens Rajasthan. • Also, the Atomic Minerals Directorate for • Israel’s PM has announced that the country Exploration and Research has undertaken would offer a coronavirus booster shot to lithium exploration in Karnataka and those people over 60 who have already Rajasthan. been vaccinated. • This comes in the backdrop of the union • The announcement makes Israel the first government announcing a PLI scheme to country to offer a third dose of a western make lithium-ion cells. vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale. • Anyone over 60 who was vaccinated more World’s first affordable drug for hepatitis C than five months ago will be eligible. • Malaysia has registered the world’s first IFC buys 4.99% stake in Federal Bank affordable – and effective – new drug for hepatitis C. • IFC and two investment funds managed by • The drug, ravidasvir, was approved for use IFC Asset Management Company have with an existing drug, sofosbuvir, in June picked a 4.99% stake in Federal Bank 2021, five years after the Malaysian Limited (FBL) for Rs 916 crore. government, partnered with the Drugs for • The two funds are IFC Financial Institutions Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). Growth Fund, LP and IFC Emerging Asia • The new drug is a direct-acting antiviral Fund, LP. (DAA) developed with Pharco. • It will help the bank expand its micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) and climate finance portfolios.

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