Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has won the Paracin Open ‘A’ chess tournament 2022 in Serbia.
The 16-year-old remained unbeaten and scored 8 points from nine rounds. He will be part of a strong India ‘B’ team in the 44th Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
The Central Government has constituted a high-powered panel under the chairmanship of former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal.
The panel seeks to the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism more effective and transparent. It was set up eight months after the government repealed the three controversial farm Acts. The panel includes NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand, and representatives from IFFCO, ICAR, along with representatives from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha.

Notes:
Bhupender Yadav attends BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting 2022, which was held under the presidency of China.
Discussions were held on Promoting Green Jobs for Sustainable Development; Developing Skills for Resilient Recovery; and Protecting Workers’ Right in New Forms of Employment. The countries also adopted ‘BRICS Labour & Employment Ministerial Declaration’.

Notes:
The government slashed the newly-introduced windfall tax on petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, and crude oil, after a global oil price ease.
The move, which is effective from July 20, will give relief to top fuel exporters like Reliance Industries, and oil explorers like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). A windfall tax is levied on companies deemed to have made unreasonably high profits, normally due to unusually favourable market factors.

Notes:
Draupadi Murmu, the NDA’s presidential candidate, emerged victorious in the presidential election with 64.03 percent votes.
She bagged a total of 6,76,803 votes over her rival Yashwant Sinha who got 3,80,177 votes. Draupadi Murmu also scripted history to become the first tribal leader to be elected as the President of India.

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:
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi recently resigned after a collapse in support among his coalition backers,
President Sergio Mattarella called for an election for a new parliament in September. Mario Draghi was a former president of the European Central Bank. The country has been fighting inflation surge and an economic slowdown.

Notes:
In the 2022 edition of Henley Passport Index, Indian passport is ranked at 87 as it provides easy access to 57 countries.
Japan is at the first place of the index with hassle-free entry to 193 countries. Singapore and South Korea have the next powerful passports in the world with access to 192 countries. Indian passports had access to just 23 destinations in 2020.

Notes:
A partnership of 18 economies, including India, the US and the European Union (EU), unveiled a four-point roadmap for building long-term resilient supply chains.
A virtual supply chain ministerial meeting was hosted by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, as a follow-up to the supply chain summit convened by US President Joe Biden last October. The measures are aimed at reducing the dependence of the 17 partners on Chinese supply chains.

Notes:
‘PM SVANidhi’ scheme was launched on 1 June 2020, to provide financial support to Street vendors. As of july, Rs. 3,661 crores had been provided as micro-credits to more than 30 lakh street vendors.
The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri addressed the meeting of National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), which was held on the theme of ‘From Encroachers to Self-Employed’.