Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
SpaceX’s 25th cargo flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA was launched recently. It is also called as CRS-25 (Commercial resupply services).
The robotic Dragon launched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, which delivered Dragon to low Earth orbit.

Notes:
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed recently commended India’s efforts to localise the monitoring of progress in implementing the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
NITI Aayog, India’s think tank has launched the ‘SDG India Index dashboard’. It has localised SDGs with indicators and targets while monitoring frameworks at all levels of government.

Notes:
The city of Varanasi will be declared the first Cultural and Tourism Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Varanasi will become the Capital of SCO for 2022-23 under a new rotating initiative by the eight-member organisation, which aims to promote people-to-people contacts and tourism among the member states.

Notes:
The National Health Authority (NHA) has commenced its first hackathon under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Hackathon Series at the Smart City Operations Centre, Pune in a hybrid format.
The hackathon is being organised under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in association with Pune Municipal Corporation and Pune Smart City Development Corporation. The hackathon is focussed at mobilising the health start-ups in India to develop innovative solutions.

Notes:
Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has gone live on the account aggregator ecosystem as financial information user (FIU) as well as financial information provider (FIP).
Union Bank of India, Canara Bank and Indian Bank have also connected to the account aggregator system. Other banks including SBI, BOB and UCO Bank are in the testing phase and some others are in the development phase.

Notes:
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has created its first mountain-warfare training centre in northeast India in Dombang, Sikkim.
It is ITBP’s second training centre in the country, to skill its troops in high-altitude combat and survival tactics as part of their mandate to guard the Line of Actual Control with China. The first such school-Mountaineering and skiing institute (M&SI) is at Joshimath, in the Himalayan ranges of Uttarakhand.

Notes:
The Delhi government celebrated ‘Happiness Utsav’ marking the fourth anniversary of its Happiness Curriculum for schools.
During the Happiness Utsav, various activities will be organised for the next 15 days. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had introduced the Happiness Curriculum in 2018.

Notes:
Sri Lankan MPs have elected the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s new President.
He defeated his main rival for the job, Dullus Alahapperuma in a parliamentary vote. Sri Lanka’s ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country last week, after thousands of protesters stormed his presidential residences calling for his resignation. They had also called for the resignation of Wickremesinghe.

Notes:
The United States added Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Macau to a human trafficking blacklist in its annual report.
The list already included Malaysia, alleging weak efforts to stop forced sex work or assist migrant labourers. The US also added Belarus to the blacklist and placed Bulgaria on a watchlist on concerns it is not taking trafficking seriously.

Notes:
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through its autonomous Institute National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has developed Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) technology for conversion of sea water to potable water.
Three desalination plants using the technology have been developed and demonstrated at Kavaratti, Agati and Minicoy Islands of Lakshadweep