Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has conducted the quarterly Residential Asset Price Monitoring Survey (RAPMS) on housing loans disbursed by select banks / Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) across 13 cities. The report indicated that housing affordability has worsened over the past 4 years as the House Price to Income (HPTI) ratio increased from 56.1 in March 2015 to 61.5 in March 2019. The HPTI ratio reflects affordability. Mumbai (with a HPTI of 74.4) remains the least affordable city in India. While Bhubaneswar (54.3) remains the most affordable city for home buying with a price-to-income ratio of 54.3 in the March quarter compared to 47.2 in March 2015. The concept of price-to-income ratio is used by lenders to measure affordability of residential property, essentially as a measure of purchasing power for home buyers.

Notes:
Anshula Kant, Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI), has been appointed as MD and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the World Bank (WB). She will be responsible for financial and risk management of the organisation. Her work will include oversight of financial reporting, risk management, and working closely with the World Bank CEO on the mobilization of the International Development Association (IDA) and other financial resources. IDA is the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries.

Notes:
In Tennis, Serbian Novak Djokovic won his fifth Wimbledon title after defeating Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 4-6, 13-12 in a match that lasted for more than 4 hours. The match had to be decided in the fifth set, as both Federer and Djokovic won two sets each in the longest ever final to be played so far. This is Djokovic’s 16th Grand Slam and 5th Wimbledon title. He is now level with Bjorn Borg as a five-time Wimbledon winner.

Notes:
The captain of the New Zealand, Kane Williamson has been adjudged player of the tournament at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup for his excellent returns with the bat and inspiring leadership. On 14th July 2019, England lifted their first-ever ICC World Cup cricket trophy after defeating New Zealand in a nerve-wracking final that was decided via a dramatic Super Over in London. Opting to bat, New Zealand put up a modest 241 for eight. In reply, England ended at the same score leading to the one-over eliminator at the Lord’s. In the Super Over, England batted first and the duo of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler made 15, and New Zealand also ended at the same score but for the loss of one wicket, paving the way for an English victory on boundary count. England’s Ben Stokes is named player of the match for a heroic knock of 84 not out off 92 balls.

Notes:
Kalraj Mishra, the former Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), has been appointed the new Governor of Himachal Pradesh. He replaced Acharya Devvrat, who has been transferred and appointed as the Governor of Gujarat. Mr. Mishra (78) had resigned from the Narendra Modi-led government as Minister for MSME in 2017 after he crossed the age of 75, the BJP’s unofficial age limit for holding an elected post.

Notes:
Under climate resilience program, the World Bank has recently approved $250 million aid to Kerala for its Resilient Kerala Programme (RKP) to brace against natural disasters. Hence, Kerala has become the first Indian state to get this fund to enhance the state’s resilience against the impacts of natural disasters and climate change. The Resilient Kerala Program (RKP) will focus on strengthening the state’s institutional and financial capacity to protect the assets and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable groups through an inclusive and participatory approach. The new program is part of the Government of India(GoI)’s support to Kerala’s ‘Rebuild Kerala Development Programme’ aimed at building a green and resilient Kerala.

Notes:
The World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) is observed every year on 15th of July to generate awareness and discussion about skill development for the youths to have a better livelihood. The 2019 theme is “Learning to learn for life and work”. This year, the world’s leading short video platform ‘TikTok’ and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) have collaborated to support Skill Development in India and to celebrate World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) 2019. The partnership aims to leverage TikTok’s 200 million user community to build awareness around NSDC’s mission to educate India’s youth. The aim of NSDC is to promote skill development by catalysing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions.

Notes:
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been elected as the first female president of European Commission (EC) following a secret ballot among MEPs. She secured the backing of more than half of the Members in the European Parliament (MEPs) for the biggest job in Brussels. She will succeed Jean-Claude Juncker on 1st November 2019. The Commission drafts EU laws, enforces EU rules and has the power to impose fines on member states if necessary.

Notes:
The Incredible India campaign – Find the Incredible You – has won the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award 2019 in the “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category. The campaign was released globally by the Union Ministry of Tourism during 2018-19. The campaign focuses on digital and social media and the promotion of Niche Tourism products of the country. The campaign strategy was to shift the focus from the external experience of tourist destinations to the internal experience of travellers themselves. This series of transformative experiences was brought alive through unique storytelling in the format of autobiographies of travellers, with the tagline “Find the Incredible You.PATA Gold Awards are given to tourism industry organizations and individuals making an outstanding contribution towards the successful promotion of the travel industry throughout the Asia Pacific Region. The winners of the awards set industry standards for excellence and innovation and serve as examples for others to follow.

Notes:
SIDBI has introduced web-based application system for contribution from Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS). The applications for contribution from various Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) will now be accepted online and the status of the same shall be accessible to applicants, thereby increasing the transparency in the system. The provision of submission of online application will be on the home page of SIDBI. To begin with the application process, the AIF should create an account, fill in the details and submit the application form online along with the required supporting documents. SIDBI is the implementing agency for FFS with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore on behalf of the Government of India (GoI).