Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
Eleven districts of West Bengal reported over 65 cases of black fever or ‘Kala-Azar’ disease recently, based on state-administered surveillance.
Kala-azar or Visceral Leishmaniasis is a protozoan parasitic disease, spread by sand-fly bites. The flies are infected with the parasite called ‘leishmania donovani’. The disease is endemic in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Notes:
‘Nelson Mandela Day’ is observed on July 18 every year. The United Nations (UN) had declared July 18 as Nelson Mandela Day to honour the leader in 2009.
Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first President from 1994 to 1999.  He was the first black head of state and the first elected President in a fully democratic election in South Africa.

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 It was set up eight months after the government repealed the three controversial farm Acts.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:
The Supreme Court has accepted the report of the Banthia Commission and directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission to hold elections as per the report.
It paves way for political reservation for candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes in the Local Bodies’ Elections in the state. The candidates will get 27 percent political reservation in local self-government elections in the state.

Notes:
The Government has prohibited import of human embryos in line with the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 and The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.
This was announced by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. Earlier, imports were prohibited except for research purposes based on the guidelines of the Department of Health Research. Surrogacy is a practice where a woman gives birth to a child for an intending couple with the intention to hand over the child after the birth to the couple.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has released a report titled ‘A proposal for Digital Banks in India: Licensing and Regulatory Regime’.
The report recommends a calibrated approach, comprising ‘Issue of a restricted digital bank licence’, ‘Enlistment in a regulatory sandbox framework enacted by the Reserve Bank of India’ and ‘Issue of a full-scale digital bank licence’.

Notes:
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched ‘Swanirbhar Naari’, an initiative of the Handloom and Textiles Department.
The scheme aims to empower the indigenous weavers of the State and to provide financial support to their families. Under the scheme, the government has decided to procure handloom items directly from the indigenous weavers without involving any middle men through Swanirbhar Naari web portal.

Notes:
China successfully launched its second module, called Wentian, to the Tiangong space station recently.
Wentian was launched aboard a Long March 5B rocket from Hainan, China docking at the Tiangong space station about 13 hours later. The module contains equipment that allows the Chinese astronauts, also known as taikonauts, to perform various scientific experiments.

Notes:
The Government has appointed a joint secretary to the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) Sanjay Kumar Jain, as the interim chief executive officer (CEO) of NLMC.
National Land Management Corporation (NLMC) was incorporated on June 3 as a wholly-owned Government of India company with an initial authorised share capital of Rs 5,000 crore and paid-up share capital of Rs 150 crore.

Notes:
The Flag Code of India, which was brought into effect on January 26, 2002, is a set of conventions concerning the use, display, and hoisting of the Indian national flag in the country.
In July 2022, the Centre amended the Flag Code of India, allowing the national flag to be flown both in the day and at night. Earlier the flag could be hoisted only between sunrise and sunset. As part of the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, citizens are encouraged to hoist the national flag on their houses between August 13 and 15.