Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
NATO member Turkey has agreed to support Sweden and Finland’s membership of the alliance. It had initially opposed the bids of the Nordic countries to join.
A trilateral deal was reached at a meeting between Turkey’s President, Finland’s President and the Swedish Prime Minister in the Spanish capital, Madrid. Foreign Ministers from the three countries signed a joint security pact that addressed Turkey’s concerns.

Notes:
Novak Djokovic recently became the first player in history to win 80 matches in all four Grand Slams.
He achieved this feat when he defeated Korean player Kwon Soon-woo for his 80th win in Wimbledon. Djokovic was playing for the first time after losing to Rafael Nadal last month in the French Open quarterfinals.

Notes:
The UK government announced 75 fully-funded scholarships for Indian students to study in the UK, beginning September 2022, in honour of India’s 75th anniversary of Independence.
The scholarships are being offered in association with top Indian companies. There are about 18 scholarships for women in STEM fields offered by the British Council in India. The UK government has sponsored the Chevening international honours programme since 1983, in which India is the largest participant.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated Bosch India’s first smart campus in the city of Bengaluru built at a cost of Rs 800 crore.
This campus will be used in developing futuristic products and solutions for India and for the world. The inauguration of the Spark.NXT Campus of Bosch India coincided with the 75^th anniversary of Indian independence.

Notes:
IRDAI and National Health Authority (NHA) are set to develop a National Health Claims Exchange as a digital platform to settle health claims.
Based on a presentation from NHA, Chairman of IRDAI Debasish Panda, has proposed to create a working group with representation from the industry. It will decide how to make the largest segment of general insurance in India attract more people to buy health insurance.

Notes:
Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) announced that the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) will be included in the Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT) scheme.
The new facility will provide direct government benefits to all apprentices. Earlier, companies would pay apprentices the full amount and then seek reimbursement from the government. In 2016, the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) was launched to promote apprenticeship training in the country and to provide financial support to establishments pursuing apprenticeships.

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:
Railway Protection Force launched a month long pan India drive against smuggling of narcotics through rail, under code name Operation “NARCOS”.
In the month of June 2022, RPF has recovered various narcotics products worth Rs 7.40 Crores, and arrested 165 persons who were carrying Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS). RPF has been empowered to conduct search, seizure and arrest under NDPS Act since April 2019.

Notes:
The Central Government has levied windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers. Domestic producers sell crude oil to domestic refineries at international parity prices, thus making windfall gains.
The Government also hiked the import duty on gold and imposed export duties on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). These are the initiatives to reduce pressure on the rupee, reduce the current account deficit (CAD), and increase the domestic supply of petroleum products. Special additional excise duties of Rs 6 and Rs 13 per litre on export of petrol and diesel were announced.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank has launched the next round of its order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS) of manufacturing companies.
The results of the survey provide valuable inputs for monetary policy formulation. The 58th round of the OBICUS is for April – June 2022 period. The information collected in the survey includes data on new orders received during the reference quarter, backlog of orders, pending and total inventories among others.