Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with a budgetary outlay of ₹2,516 crore.
The objective is to increase efficiency of PACS, bring transparency and accountability in their operations This project proposes computerization of about 63,000 functional PACS over a period of 5 years with Government of India share of ₹1,528 crore. State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks were already automated by NABARD and brought on Common Banking Software.

Notes:
GST Day is celebrated on July 1 to mark completion of five years of Goods & Services Tax. It was introduced in 2017, with the idea of “One Nation- One Market- One Tax”.
GST is a multi-stage, indirect consumption-based tax system that subsumed a set of domestic indirect taxes such as service tax, value-added tax, purchase tax, excise duty among others.

Notes:
World Asteroid Day 2022 is marked and celebrated globally on June 30 every year, in order to raise public awareness about asteroid’s hazardous effect.
In December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that declared 30 June as International Asteroid Day. It observes the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia, Russian Federation on the same day in 1908.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Digital India Week 2022 in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The theme for Digital India Week is Catalyzing New India’s Techade.
The Prime Minister also launched ‘Digital India Bhashini’ to enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages. ‘Digital India GENESIS’ – a National Deep-tech Startup Platform, to support successful start-ups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities with a total outlay of 750 crore rupees was also launched. A global repository of key projects implemented under India Stack ‘Indiastack.global’ was launched.

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.

Notes:
Tata Group’s Air India (AI) has signed an agreement with Amadeus IT Group SA, a travel technology. This is a part of the carrier’s revitalisation plan and the agreement aims to deploy technology solutions to enhance customer experience and operational effectiveness.
Air India is implementing the Amadeus Altéa PSS suite, including components from revenue management, revenue accounting, retailing, and merchandising, website, mobile and frequent flyer programme management.

Notes:
Australia has committed USD5.8 million to the three-year India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership.
Union Minister for coal and mines Pralhad Joshi, who is on a visit to Australia, said that India and Australia will explore investment opportunities in lithium and cobalt mineral assets.

Notes:
The 2022 Global biodiversity conclave is organised in Bonn, Germany. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) announced that Assessment on the Sustainable Use of Wild Species will be released.
Sustainable use of wild species keeping in mind the well-being of communities that depend on them for livelihood will be the focus of the report to be released.

Notes:
‘Eoscansor cobrensis’, the 305-Million-Year-Old Fossil is the oldest known Tree-Climbing Reptile. It belonged to Varanopidae, an extinct family of reptiles that resembled monitor lizards.
The ancient reptile measured 24.5 cm and weighed 58.3 g. The reptile lived in New Mexico during the Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous period. The aspects indicate that it was a climber, and arboreal (living in trees).

Notes:
Google has expanded its Google News Initiative India Training Network to cover five new Indian languages. This Google initiative helps teach journalists and newsrooms learn digital skills needed to tackle misinformation online. It will now be available in Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Gujarati, and Malayalam.
The Google News Initiative India Training Network was launched four years ago in partnership with DataLeads. Google is set to launch a Fact-Check Academy in partnership with DataLeads.