Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
Former Supreme Court judge Vineet Saran has taken over as the BCCI’s ethics officer and ombudsman, filling the dual posts which were lying vacant for a year.
Vineet Saran has succeeded Justice (Retd) D K Jain, whose term ended in June last year. He is a former Chief Justice of Odisha High Court, and also served as a judge in Karnataka and Allahabad High Court.

Notes:
As per a recent government data, Tamil Nadu tops the list of states so far as utilisation of funds under Smart City Mission.
Tamil Nadu has spent over Rs 3932 crore out of the Rs 4333 crore released by the Centre, Uttar Pradesh is at second position with utilisation of Rs 2699 cr out of the release of Rs 3142 crore. Ther Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was launched on 25 June, 2015.

Notes:
World Chess Day is observed on 20 July every year. It is also known as International Chess Day. On the same day in 1924, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in Paris.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proposed the idea of celebrating the day in 1966.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank cut its economic growth forecast for India to 7.2% for 2022-23 from 7.5% estimated in April.
The reasons cited are higher-than-expected inflation and monetary tightening. It also lowered the GDP growth estimate for 2023-24 to 7.8% from the 8% estimated earlier. ADB raised the inflation forecast for India to 6.7% for FY23 from the 5.8 % estimated earlier.

Notes:
Varuna, India’s first drone that can carry human pay-load has a range of 25 km. The passenger drone can carry 130 kg payload and has 25-33 minutes of flight time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently watched the demonstration of India’s first passenger drone, Varuna. ‘Varuna’ drone has been designed and developed by a startup ‘Sagar Defence Engineering’.

Notes:
According to NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index 2021, India’s gross expenditure on research and development (R&D) is one of the lowest in the world, with just USD 43 per capita.
It said that India needs to boost this expenditure and at least be on a par with its BRICS or ASEAN counterparts like Russia (USD 285) and Brazil (USD 173). In India, the government spends more than 55% on R&D and private sector is to be encouraged to take up research.

Notes:
The Bihar state government signed MoUs with seven big companies, including Maruti and Flipkart, to provide placement opportunities to the students in ITIs and engineering colleges.
The MoU was signed on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day on July 15. Nine skill-awareness vans were also flagged off by the Bihar Skill Development Mission to motivate the youths of the state for skill development.

Notes:
Russia and Ukraine have signed a landmark deal with the United Nations and Turkey on resuming grain shipments.
This agreement aimed to ease a global food crisis and help avert famine by providing more wheat, sunflower oil, fertiliser and other products into world markets. The UN World Food Programme says some 47 million people are now in a stage of acute hunger. The deal included a ‘de facto ceasefire’ for the ships and facilities covered.

Notes:
The Income Tax department observes July 24 every year as Income Tax Day or ‘Aaykar Diwas’, to commemorate the introduction of income tax in the country.
On the same day in 1860, Sir James Wilson introduced income tax for the first time in India, to compensate for the losses suffered by the British regime during the 1857 war of independence.  ‘Aaykar Diwas’ was celebrated for the first time in 2010, to mark 150 years of income tax in India.

Notes:
Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh released the ‘India’s Bioeconomy Report 2022’ recently. India’s Bio-economy has reached over USD 80 billion in 2021 with 14.1% growth over 2020. It is likely to touch 150 billion dollars by 2025 and over 300 billion dollars by 2030.
Dr Jitendra Singh also launched Special ‘Biotech Ignition Grant call for North East Region’ (BIG-NER) with a financial support of Rs 50 Lakhs each to 25 start-ups and entrepreneurs from North East Region to develop biotech solutions.