Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2021

Notes:
Pakistan and Russia have signed an agreement for construction of a 1,100-km gas pipeline from Port Qasim in Karachi to Lahore. This project is commonly named as North-South Gas project and is also called the Pakstream Gas Pipeline Project.
A special purpose vehicle has been formed between Pakistan and Russia, with a shareholding of 74:26 per cent.

Notes:
The long and cumbersome nomenclature ‘Common High Court of UT of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh’ has been changed to ‘High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh’. The order was notified by the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry.
President Ram Nath Kovind has signed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2021, which spelled out the original name.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tourism has formulated a Draft National Strategy and Roadmap for Development of Rural Tourism in India – An initiative towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The Ministry has also invited feedback from all the State Governments/UT Administrations regarding the policy. The strategy focusses on new ideas like Digital technologies, Developing clusters among others. It has also identified Rural Circuit as one of the thematic circuits under Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank, headquartered in the Philippines, has released the Asian Development Outlook (ADO).
The report has downgraded India’s economic growth for the financial year 2021-22 to 10 per cent from its earlier projection of 11 per cent. This downgrade is on account of the severe impact of Indian economy due to wave 2 of COVID 19 pandemic. The projection for 2022-23 is upgraded from 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

Notes:
There are 135 Centrally Protected Monuments/Sites in Andhra Pradesh. Monuments at Nagarjunakonda, Budhhist Remains at Salihundam and Veerabhadra Temple have been identified as ‘Adarsh Smarak’ in Andhra Pradesh.
The Government provides additional facilities at Adarsh Smarak including Wi-Fi, Cafeteria, Brail signages, etc. Fort at Gandikota has been included in Government’s Adopt-a-Heritage scheme.

Notes:
Ariel Henry was recently appointed as the new Prime Minister of Haiti, amid political turmoil caused by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon and former cabinet minister was chosen as Prime Minister by the President, days before he was assassinated at his home. Ariel Henry will lead the nation until a new President is chosen in an election scheduled in September.

Notes:
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) was established in the year 2016, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
Recently, IBBI has made amendments to the “Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons Regulations”, under which, resolution professional should submit his / her opinion on avoidance transactions made by a corporate debtor (undervalued transactions, extortionate credit transactions, fraudulent trading, wrongful trading etc).

Notes:
A Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021, without any changes.
The Bill amends the term ‘major airport’ to include group of airports. It also increased the threshold of annual passenger traffic in a major airport to 35 lakh. Previously, an airport with annual traffic more than 15 lakh were called as major airports. AERA will regulate tariff and other charges for aeronautical services for major airports and also a group of airports.

Notes:
Essential Defence Services Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha recently. The Bill empowers the government to declare services mentioned in it as essential defence services.
The Essential Defence Services Bill is aimed at preventing the staff of the government-owned ordnance factories from going on a strike. Around 70,000 people are working at 41 ordnance factories located around the country.

Notes:
UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific, which is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand has recently released a Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. Under this evaluation 143 countries have been scored on 5 key indicators.
India has scored 90.32 per cent for the year 2021 as against its score of 78.49 per cent in 2019. In terms of transparency, India scored 100 per cent in 2021.