Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

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:
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has clarified that large packages of food items like pulses, cereals, rice, and wheat weighing more than 25 kilograms or 25 litres of commodity will not attract the 5% goods and services tax (GST).
For levying 5% GST on items like pulses, cereals, rice and flour, they have to be pre-packaged without the presence of the buyer, and are required to bear the declarations under the provisions of the Legal Metrology Act of 2009.

Notes:
As per a recent survey of the Reserve Bank of India, the US surpassed the UAE as the top source country of India’s remittances, accounting for 23% of total remittances.
India is by far the world’s largest recipient of remittances, as it received $87 billion in 2021 with a growth of 4.6%. The share of remittances from the Gulf Cooperation Council region in India’s inward remittances is estimated to have declined.

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:
The World Bank has approved a loan of USD one billion to provide support to India’s flagship PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).
The loan includes two complementary loans of USD 500 million each namely for ‘Transforming India’s Public Health Systems for Pandemic Preparedness Program (PHSPP)’ and ‘India’s Enhanced Health Service Delivery Program (EHSDP)’.

Notes:
Nasscom Foundation has set up a call centre to help women farmers scale up their business called the “DigiVaani Call Center”.
It has been set up in collaboration with non-profit Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP). The project is run on a pilot basis to initially reach out to 20,000 rural women entrepreneurs across six states- Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan. The project has been funded by Google.

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

Notes:
The World Health Organisation has declared the global monkeypox outbreak a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ (PHEIC).
This classification is one step below that of a ‘pandemic.’ WHO says the expanding monkeypox outbreak in over 70 countries is now qualified as a global emergency.

Notes:
Political veteran Dinesh Gunawardena, an ally of Rajapaksa family was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka a day after Ranil Wickremesinghe was elevated to the President’s post.
The 73-year-old leader has previously held multiple Cabinet posts. Wickremesinghe replaced former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after an unprecedented economic and political crisis.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government recently instituted of district climate change missions (DCCM) across 38 districts in the state.
The DCCMs will be administered by District Collectors as ‘Mission Directors’ while District forest officers (DFOs) will function as ‘climate officers’. The collectors will prepare district-level climate change mitigation and adaptation plans and provide inputs for low-carbon, climate-resilient development plans.