Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
Veteran playback singer Bhupinder Singh, who is famous for his Bollywood songs, passed away recently at the age of 82 in Mumbai.
He is a renowned ghazal singer with a five-decade-long career. He began his career working in the All India Radio, Delhi, as a singer and musician.

Notes:
Sri Lanka’s interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe prohibited the use of the word ‘His Excellency’ to address the President and abolished the presidential flag.
He was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s acting president until a successor is elected to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after protests against his government for mishandling the economy.

Notes:
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) recently released the compilation of success stories of 75,000 farmers.
To commemorate the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the e-publication has been prepared by compiling success stories of 75,000 farmers out of all farmers whose incomes have increased. A State-wise brief publication on Doubling Farmers Income has also been prepared. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also distributed awards to scientists and farmers on the 94th foundation day of ICAR.

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:
Karnataka has been ranked first in the NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index (2021) for third third time in a row. The first edition was released in October 2019 and second in January 2021.
The India Innovation Index ranks states and union territories on the basis of innovation capabilities. Telangana, Haryana and Maharashtra stood second, third and fourth in the list of top states. Manipur topped the ‘North East and Hill States’ section and Chandigarh won the ‘Union Territory and City States’ category.

Notes:
The 13th Petersberg Climate Dialogue began recently in Berlin. The two-day ministerial meet is chaired by Germany and Egypt, the hosts of annual climate meet (COP-27).
The informal ministerial meet proposes to build consensus and provide political direction to resolve divergences in improving implementation of climate action, which is the core goal of COP-27.

Notes:
ISRO’s three-day Human Space Flight Expo is being held in Bengaluru. It includes model-plane-making workshops to interactive models of satellites, and a movie about the history of India’s space programme.
It is being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bengaluru. The expo commemorates Indian achievements in space and has been organised as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations marking 75 years of Independence.

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 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 Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 has been listed for consideration and passing. It is associated with the Ministry of External Affairs.
After it is enacted, the bill will bring the ‘UN Convention on the Law of the Sea’ (UNCLOS) into domestic law and enable Indian authorities to take action against piracy on the high seas. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2019, and the Standing Committee on External Affairs presented its report in February 2021.