Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2019

Notes:
Lt Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane appointed next Vice Chief of Indian Army. He will succeed Lt Gen Devraj Anbu who is slated to retire on August 31. Lt Gen Naravane will be in contention for the Army chief’s post as he will be the senior-most commander when incumbent Gen Bipin Rawat retires on December 31. In his 37 years of service, Lt Gen Naravane has served in numerous command and staff appointments in peace, field and highly active counter insurgency environments. He has also commanded a Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and an Infantry Brigade on the eastern front.

Notes:
Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and London Mayor, has officially took over the charge as new British Prime Minister after Theresa May handed in her resignation to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He promised to leave the European Union (EU) on 31st October 2019 under a “new deal, a better deal” with the 28-member economic bloc. Mr Johnson is expected to use the opportunity to increase the number of women in full cabinet positions and boost the representation of ethnic minorities.

Notes:
In India, the National Broadcasting day (NBD) is celebrated every year on 23rd of July because on this day, in 1927, the radio broadcasting was started. The first ever radio broadcast in the country went on the air from the Bombay Station under a private company – the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC). It was started by the British Viceroy of India Lord Irwin. Since 1927, radio has been an important part in people’s life in India. On 8th of June 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio (AIR). The AIR has been serving to inform, educate and entertain the masses since it’s inception, truly living up to its motto – Bahujan Hitaya Bahujan Sukhaya. The AIR is one of the largest public broadcasting organizations in the world. It has 414 stations in 23 languages and broadcasts in 179 dialects.

Notes:
Six companies — Tata Power, ReNew Power, Hindustan Zinc, Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., YES Bank Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra — emerged winners in the CSR Journal Excellence Awards. In the 3rd edition of awards, there were six categories — education and skill training, women empowerment and child welfare, agriculture and rural development, sports, health and sanitation and environment. The awards are instituted by The CSR Journal, a digital and print news publication. The theme of the event was ‘India First’.

Notes:
Badri Narain Sharma, a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer of 1985 batch, has been re-appointed as chairman of the National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) for next two years. The NAA ensures that consumers get benefit of reduced prices under the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The NAA has been constituted under Section 171 of the Central GST Act of 2017 to ensure that the reduction in rate of tax or the benefit of input tax credit is passed on to the recipient by way of commensurate reduction in prices. The NAA has the power to cancel registration of any entity or business if it fails to pass on to consumers the benefit of lower taxes under the GST regime, but it would probably be the last step against any violator.

Notes:
In the area of solar rooftop installations, Gujarat has stood first in the country with total 261.97 megawatts (MW) of installed rooftop solar capacity as on July 23, 2019. Gujarat is followed by Maharashtra (198.52 MW) and Tamil Nadu (151.62 MW), respectively. As per the Central government data, the total rooftop solar installations in India are 1700.54 MW. The Government of India (GoI) has set a target of installation of 40,000 MW of Rooftop Solar (RTS) projects by the year 2022 in the country including installation of RTS on rooftop of houses.

Notes:
In a bid to promote electric mobility, the GST Council has decided to reduce GST Rate on Electrical Vehicles from 12% to 5% and on charger or charging stations for Electric vehicles from 18% to 5%. The new rates will come into effect from the 1st of August 2019. The Council also approved an exemption from GST on the hiring of Electric Buses by local authorities. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held the meeting through video conferencing. This is the first GST Council meeting after the presentation of 2019 Union Budget in Parliament on 5th of July.

Notes:
The third edition of Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG-2020) is scheduled to be held in Guwahati, Assam from 18th January 2020. The Games will see participation of more than 10,000 athletes and officials. It will be conducted in partnership with Indian Olympic Association (IOA), School Games Federation of India & Assam as host State. The first edition was held in New Delhi, while Pune hosted the 2nd one in 2019.

Notes:
Six-time world champion & Olympic bronze medallist, MC Mary Kom claimed gold in the 51kg category at the 23rd President’s Cup by defeating Australia’s April Franks by 5-0. She asserted her supremacy in a lop-sided 51kg bout final in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. The 36-year-old Indian had also won a gold medal at the India Open boxing tournament in May 2019. She is looking to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the World Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The 2019 World Boxing Championships for women will be held from September 7 to 21.

Notes:
Rajiv Kumar, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed the new Finance Secretary. He succeeded Subhash Chandra Garg, who is currently the power secretary. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the designation of Kumar as the new Finance Secretary. The finance secretary is the administrative head of the Ministry of Finance and is the principal adviser to the Finance Minister on all matters of policy and administration within the Finance Ministry. He is the senior-most bureaucrat among the five Secretaries of the five Departments of the Ministry of Finance, viz. Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Financial services and Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).