Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has Union Finance Minister as chairperson, the Union Minister of State (Finance) from the Centre. Each state can nominate a minister in-charge as a member.
The two-day meeting of the 47th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was recently held in Chandigarh. The Council agreed to levy 18 per cent tax on cheques, lose or in book form. Hotel accommodations below Rs 1,000 will be taxed at 12 per cent among other changes.

Notes:
Four Indian cities namely Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai appeared in the list of top 20 sustainable cities, as per the Asia Pacific Sustainability Index 2021.
Knight Frank’s APAC Sustainably Led Cities Index rated 36 cities based on urbanisation pressure, climate risk, carbon emissions and government initiatives. Singapore, Sydney, Wellington, Perth, and Melbourne were the top five green-rated cities. Bengaluru at 14th rank in the region, was the only Indian city to achieve the ‘Gold’ standard category.

Notes:
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1978 with its headquarters at Nairobi, Kenya.
It has recently released a report World Cities Report 2022, to coincide with the Eleventh Session of the World Urban Forum held at Poland. The report says urban areas are responsible for 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Notes:
The World Bank approved two complementary loans of USD 500 million each to support India’s health sector.
Through this financing of USD 1 billion, the Bank will support India’s flagship Pradhan Mantri-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM). One of the loans will prioritize seven states including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman released the ‘Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP), 2020’. Andhra Pradesh has topped the Business Reform Action Plan 2020 Rankings in the Ease of Doing Business.
It is followed by Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The BRAP 2020 includes 301 reform points covering 15 business regulatory areas such as Access to Information, Single Window System, Labour, Environment, Land Administration etc.

Notes:
The Mercer’s 2022 cost of living city ranking was recently released with the list of the most expensive cities for international employees.
Mumbai is the most expensive city in India for foreign employees, at rank 127 globally. It is followed by New Delhi at rank 155. Pune and Kolkata are the least expensive Indian cities in the ranking at 201 and 203 respectively.

Notes:
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry has released ‘Start-ups Ranking 2021’.
The ranking focuses on seven reform areas. Gujarat, Karnataka and Meghalaya were categorised as best performers while Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Ladakh have an emerging start-up ecosystem. Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir were ranked as the top performers section.

Notes:
Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on the honey bees. The Varroa mite reproduces only in a honey bee colony.
After the detection of the Varroa destructor mite, Australia is taking measures to protect its honey bees. The mite has caused severe collapses of honey bee colonies in the US and other part of the world.

Notes:
Domestic rating agency Crisil lowered its real GDP growth forecast for India to 7.3 per cent in FY23 from 7.8 per cent estimated earlier.
It cited the reasons for downward revision to be higher oil prices, slowing of export demand and high inflation. This forecast is in line with the RBI’s estimate of 7.2 real GDP growth for this fiscal year.

Notes:
Peter Brook, one of the greatest theatre directors of the 20th century, passed away recently at the age of 97.
He is also regarded as one of the world’s most innovative theatre directors. He was known for staging Peter Weiss’s “Marat/Sade” and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”. He is known for bringing nine-hour adaptation of the Sanskrit epic “The Mahabharata” from France to New York in 1987.