31 July 21 Current Affairs

CURRENT AFFAIRS
31 JULY 2021
DR.A.PRABAHARAN
www.indopraba.blogspot.in

ONORC – ONE NATION, ONE RATION CARD TO ALL
• The Supreme Court (SC) directed all the
States & UTs to provide ration cards to all
migrant workers by 31 July 2021 under the
ONORC scheme
• ONORC was started in 2019 to provide
subsidized ration to all migrant workers
• This was done under the National Food
Security Act 2013
www.indopraba.blogspot.com

FIRST VOYAGE OF GREEN FREIGHT CORRIDOR-2
Green Freight Corridor-2 is a coastal
shipping service launched by the
Ministry of Shipping.
The first voyage of Green Freight
Corrdior-2 was launched from
Cochin port to Beypore and Azhikkal
ports located in north Kerala.

UNIFIED DISTRICT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR
EDUCATION PLUS REPORT (UDISE+)
• Unified District Information System
for Education Plus report (UDISE+)
for 2019-2020. UDISE+ report
highlighted some interesting facts,
both positive and negative about
Indian school education system.
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m

GOOGLE RELEASED ITS TRANSPARENCY REPORT
• Tech Giant, Google released its Transparency
report on June 30, 2021 in compliance with
the IT rules.
• Transparency report was published as India
tightens its stand against google for its new
IT rules.
• As per google, it received a total of 27,762
complaints in April 2021 while number of
removals ..

ESSENTIAL DEFENCE SERVICES ORDINANCE
•
Law Ministry has notified Essential
Defence Services Ordinance on June 30,
2021. This ordinance prohibits employees
engaged in essential defence services
from taking part in any agitation or
strike.

COVISHIELD WAS ALLOWED IN 8 EU COUNTRIES
• Eight European Union states included
Covishield in list of vaccines approved to
enter into the region.
• Covishield was allowed in 8 EU countries
after India warned of retaliation when none
of its vaccines were added to ‘Green Pass’.
• Eight countries include Germany, Austria,
Slovenia, Iceland, Greece, Spain, Ireland ..

NATIONAL DOCTORS’ DAY ON JULY 1
•
Indian Medical Association (IMA)
observed the National Doctors’ Day on
July 1 every year.
• This day is observed to honour birth and
death anniversary Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy
who was a great physician and second
chief minister of West Bengal.
• He was born on July 1, 1882

FASAL BIMA YOJANA
• Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Narendra Singh
Tomar, has launched the Crop Insurance Awareness
Campaign for Fasal Bima Yojana. It was launched during
Crop Insurance Week.
• Fasal Bima Yojana was launched with the aim of providing
security cover to each farmer.
• Minister also announced that, this scheme has achieved
milestone of 95 thousand crore of claims paid to farmers.
• In last four years, premium of 17 thousand crore rupees
was deposited by farmers, against which about 95
thousand crore rupees have been provided as claims.

6TH ANNIVERSARY OF DIGITAL INDIA ABHIYAN WAS OBSERVED ON JULY 1
• On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
interacted with beneficiaries of various schemes.
• Digital India campaign also helped country amid the
covid-19 pandemic. India sent rupees directly to bank
accounts of people to aid them.
• One of world’s largest digital contact tracing app
called Aarogya Setu helped a lot in preventing corona
infection.
• CoWin attracted interest from several countries.
Countries also showed interest in India’s COWIN app
for vaccination.

• Achievements of Digital India Abhiyan
• DigiLocker is an example of how effective Digital
India has been. On DigiLocker, all important
documents like school or college documents,
Voter ID card, PAN, can be stored easily and securely.
• Digital transactions have brought unprecedented
change farmers’ lives. Under PM Kisan Samman
about 10 crore farmer families have been deposited
directly into bank account of Rs 1 lakh 35 crores.
• Digital India also realized the spirit of One Nation,
One MSP
. In 2021, Rs 85,000 crore of record wheat
procurement directly reached to bank accounts of
farmers.

AWARDS
• Odia poet, Dr Rajendra Kishore Panda, has
been awarded Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar
2020.
• Dr Panda was finalized by a three-member
committee under the chairmanship of Prof.
Hampa Nagarajaiah.

• Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial
Management (AJNIFM) and Microsoft have inked
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for
building an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
emerging technologies Centre of Excellence at
AJNIFM.
• The MoU seeks to explore role of cloud, AI and
emerging technologies to transform and shape
future of public finance management across
India.
• Centre of Excellence will act as a central body for
research, AI scenario envisioning and tech led
innovation.

• Union Government has extended
superannuation age of IPO-
bound LIC Chairman to up to 62
years.
• Superannuation age was extended by
amending Life Insurance Corporation
of India (Staff) Regulations, 1960.
Changes made in rules will be called
as “Life Insurance Corporation of India
(Staff) Amendment Rules, 2021.

•
Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY)
approved 14 applicants under Production
Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for IT
products. Highlights PLI Scheme for IT
Hardware provides an incentive of 4% to 2%
net incremental sales over base years of
Financial Year 2020

•
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
has given its approval to the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Education in order
provide technical assistance for satellite TV
classrooms across India in a bid to bridge
learning gap that arose due to COVID-
induced lockdown.

• Ministry of Health has approved the
recommendation of National Technical
Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI)
for Pregnant women to get vaccinated
against COVID-19.
• This decision empowers pregnant women to
make informed choice over taking Covid
vaccination.

• Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public
Enterprises has launched six Technology
Innovation Platforms on July 2, 2021.
• These platforms were launched by Union
minister of Heavy Industries and Public
Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar, in virtual
mode.
• These technology platforms will focus on
development of technologies for globally
competitive manufacturing across India. Who
developed these platforms?

• Minister of MSME, Nitin Gadkari,
announced on July 2, 2021 about
revised guidelines for MSMEs
which has included retail and
wholesale trade under Micro,
Small & Medium (MSME)
Enterprises

GLOBAL
• Chinese astronauts have successfully
performed China’s first tandem
spacewalk on July 4, 2021. They
worked for seven hours outside new
Tiangong station in orbit around the
Earth. Key Points Construction of
Tiangong is a major step in China’s
ambitious space programme.

• NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field
Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) has
got extension for two more years.
• NEOWISE will continue its hunt for
asteroids, comets and objects that could
pose hazard to Earth for additional two
years.

• United States military has left Afghanistan’s
Bagram airfield after nearly two decades.
• Bagram airfield was the site of several military
encounters and a epicenter of US ‘war on terror’
in Afghanistan in the backdrop of 9/11 terror
attacks. Bagram airfield has now been handed
over to Afghan National Security and Defense
Force.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN HAS SIGNED THREE SEPARATE BILLS
• President Joe Biden has signed three separate bills
on June 30, 2021 that dismantle part of Donald
Trump era.
• Block payday lenders from avoiding caps on
interest rates,
• Restrict climate-warming greenhouse gas
emissions from oil & gas drilling and
• End rules on how Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) settles claims.

• China has banned construction of tallest
skyscrapers following the safety concerns over
quality of some projects. China had constructed
maximum number of tallest buildings in 2019 but
now it has banned to ensure safety.
• China’s anti-monopoly regulator has fined
companies & Internet giants Alibaba & Tencent in
new move to tighten control over their fast-
developing industries.

• World’s tallest sandcastle was built in
Denmark. It has established new
Guinness World Record of 21.16
metres. Denmark’s new sandcastle is
3.5 meter taller than earlier record of
17.66-meter set by Germany in 2019.

• Union government is set to launch a new scheme called “NIPUN
Bharat Initiative” on July 5, 2021. It will be launched to improve
numeracy, foundational reading, and understanding for early-stage
students.
• NIPUN stands for “National Initiative for Proficiency in reading with
Understanding and Numeracy”.
• Ayurveda dataset on Clinical Trial Registry-India (CTRI) Portal will be
launched on July 5, 2021 by Ayush Minister Shri Kiren Rijiju. Highlights
Launch of CTRI Portal marks a significant step towards worldwide
visibility with respect to Ayurveda based clinical trials.

• Scientists have detected gravitational waves produced by
collision of neutron star and black hole for the first time.
• Gravitational waves ripples were detected in fabric of
space-time. This finding shows that there are neutron
star-black hole systems.
• This system will help in answering several questions
regarding cosmos ranging from star formation to
expansion rate

• American Space Agency, NASA, has received its first
sample of asteroid Ryugu that returned to Earth in
December 2020 by Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft
• Samples from asteroid Ryugu is one of the first samples
to leave Japan for preliminary investigation. Mike
Zolensky was one of the first scientists to examine these

• According to government scientists of
Philippines, second-most active volcano of
Philippines, Taal Volcano, can erupt anytime soon
amid “anomalously high” volcanic gas emissions
in Philippines.
• About 3,000 residents have left their homes from
high-risk villages around Taal Volcano in
Batangas province since the volcano erupted.

• Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, have
returned to its “four cuts strategy” in order to
stamp out resistance to its rule after it seized
power from elected government of Myanmar in
Military coup on February 1, 2021.
• As per an independent researcher, ‘four cuts’
strategy was first developed in the 1960s.

• Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has
gifted 2,600 kg of Haribhanga variety of mangoes
to Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
• Truck carrying 260 cartons of mangoes crossed
Bangladesh-India border through Benapole port
in Jessore. Mangoes are a “memento of friendship”
between both the countries.
• Haribhanga mangoes typically weigh 200 to 400
grams and are round in shape, extremely fleshy
and fibreless.

• Evolving India-Bangladesh Relation
• India-Bangladesh relations have entered new era of cooperation
and is moving beyond historical and cultural ties. It has
strengthened in areas of trade, connectivity, energy, and defence.
• Military Relation: Bangladesh has uprooted anti-India insurgency
elements from its borders. It has made India-Bangladesh border
one of the most peaceful region in Indian subcontinent. Peaceful
border has allowed India to make redeployment of military
resources to other contentious borders. Bangladesh has also
handed over several wanted criminals of India.
• Land Boundary Agreement: Both countries have resolved border
issues peacefully by ratifying historic Land Boundary Agreement in
2015.

• Trade Relations: Bangladesh has become biggest trading
partner of India in South Asia. In Financial Year 2018-19,
exports have reached to $9.21 billion while imports to
$1.04 billion. India has also offered duty free access to
several products from Bangladesh.
• Developmental credits: Cooperation among both the
countries has deepened. India has extended three lines of
credit to Bangladesh. About $8 billion were given for
construction of roads, railways, bridges, and ports.
• Connectivity: Connectivity between both the countries
has improved. A direct bus service now runs between
Kolkata and Agartala via Bangladesh for a distance of
km as compared to 1,650 km if it ran through Chicken’s
Neck to be entirely in India.

ECONOMY
•
As per Bloomberg data, India accounted for 2.60% of world
market capitalisation in June 2021. Highlights India raised its
share in world market capitalisation as compared with long-
term average of 2.45%.
• In May 2020, India’s share had dropped to 2.05% when first
wave of coronavirus had affected the global equity markets.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI), while reviewing market
conditions and market borrowing program of government,
has decided that benchmark securities of 2-year tenor, 3-year
tenor, 5-year tenor, 10-year tenor & 14-year tenor and
Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs) will be issued using uniform price
auction method.

• India and majority members of OECD
and G20 Inclusive Framework on Base
Erosion & Profit Shifting adopted a
high-level statement that outlines a
consensus solution in a bid to address
tax challenges that are arising from
digitalisation of economy.

• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
(CCEA) has approved a Rs 3.03 trillion
power distribution company (DISCOM)
reform scheme on June 30, 2021.
• Under the scheme, Centre’s share will
be about Rs 97,631 crore.
• DISCOM reform scheme is a reforms-
based result-linked power distribution
sector scheme. It will be applicable till
2025-2026.

PRIVATIZATION OF UIIC
• NITI Aayog has
recommended privatization
of state-owned insurer
United India Insurance
coverage (UIIC).

CURRENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS - RBI
• As per data released by Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), India has
reported a current account
surplus of 0.9 per cent of GDP in
the Financial Year 2021 (FY21)
amid the covid-19 pandemic. In
2020, it has reported current
account deficit of 0.9 per cent in
FY20.

•
Digital payments platform PhonePe has
tied hands with Flipkart to launch a
contactless ‘Scan and Pay’ feature for
Flipkart’s pay-on-delivery orders. Key Points
Dynamic QR code solution of PhonePe will
enable customers, to pay digitally through
UPI Apps during the delivery of product,
who earlier opted for cash on delivery

• Central government has decided to bring
Department of Public Enterprises (DPE)
under finance ministry.
• DPE was earlier under Ministry of Heavy
Industries and Public Enterprises.
• It has been brought under finance minister
in a bid to ease coordination regarding
future disinvestment plans. Finance ministry
now comprises of six departments, after
inclusion of DPE.

• Digital payments and financial services
platform, Paytm, have launched
“Postpaid Mini” service for users on
July 5, 2021.
• Postpaid mini service was launched in
partnership with Aditya Birla Finance
Ltd. It is an extension of Paytm’s “Buy
Now, Pay Later service”.

• Payments solution provider Razorpay has
partnered with Mastercard to launch
‘MandateHQ’.
• MandateHQ is a payment interface that will
help card-issuing banks to enable recurring
payments for customers. Razorpay aims to
integrate MandateHQ with more than 50
banks in 12 months.

• First shipment of Geographical Indication (GI)
certified Bhalia variety of wheat was exported
to Kenya and Sri Lanka from Gujarat, giving a
boost to wheat exports. About Bhalia Variety
of Wheat GI certified wheat has high protein
content and has sweet taste. It is grown
mostly across Bhal region of Gujarat.

• Geographical Indications (GI) certified
Madurai jasmine and other traditional
flowers like lily, button rose,
chamanthi, and marigold were
exported to United States and United
Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 8, 2021
from Tamil Nadu.

• Union Finance Ministry has released fourth
monthly instalment of revenue deficit
grant of ₹ 9,871 crore to 17 states.
• With this release, Centre has released a
total of ₹ 39,484 crore to all eligible states
as revenue deficit grant in financial year
2021-2022.

•
Boxer M.C. Mary Kom and men’s hockey
skipper Manpreet Singh have been named
flag bearers at Tokyo Olympics from India.
• Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be flag bearer at
closing ceremony on August 8, 2021.
• International Olympic Committee (IOC)
• IOC is a non-governmental sports
organisation headquartered in Lausanne,
Switzerland.

ABHIMANYU MISHRA HAS BECOME THE YOUNGEST EVER GRANDMASTER
• Abhimanyu Mishra has become the youngest ever
Grandmaster on June 30, 2021.
• He achieved this title at just 12 years, four months and
25 days.
• He leaved behind the record of Russian Grand Master
Sergey Karjakin. Sergey had completed his GM title in
2002 at the age of 12 years and seven months.

WAKO INDIA KICKBOXING FEDERATION
• Sports Ministry has decided to recognise WAKO India Kickboxing
Federation as a National Sports Federation (NSF) to promote and
develop sport in India
• WAKO India Kickboxing Federation is affiliated to World Association of
Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) which is a world body for
kickboxing.
• Maana Patel has become the first female and only the third swimmer
from India to qualify Tokyo Olympics 2021 ticket.
• She is a 21-year-old backstroke swimmer from Ahmedabad who have
won gold medals in 50 metre backstroke and 200

• NewsOnAir Radio Live-stream Global Rankings was released recently ranking
countries where All India Radio (AIR) live-streams on NewsOnAir app are most
popular.
• In the ranking, Fiji has jumped from 5th position to 2nd.
• Saudi Arabia has again made place in top 10.
• Kuwait and Germany are new entrants.
• France and New Zealand did not make it to top 10.
• United States still maintains its ranking at 1.
• All India Radio’s Telugu and Tamil live-stream services are popular in United
States.
• AIR Punjabi service is popular in United Kingdom.
• In global rankings of top AIR streams (excluding India), AIR News 24*7 has
moved one position up from 7 to 6. On the other hand, AIR Tamil has slipped
from spot 6 to 10.

• Leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pushkar Singh
Dhami, took oath as eleventh chief minister of
Uttarakhand.
• He sworn in as Chief Minister a day after he was elected
as leader of BJP’s legislature party in state.
• He was administered oath of office by governor Baby
Rani Maurya at Raj Bhavan in Dehradun.

• Two species of spiders have been
found in Jharbari range of western
Assam’s Chirang Reserve Forest.
Both the species have been
sharing same space.

• Kerala government has proposed to have its own
over-the-top (OTT) platform. Government has
planned to launch it by November 1.
• Launch of OTT platform is a sudden attack and a
cultural intervention into online content
streaming space.
• It is not something prompted by market or
revenues.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his
thoughts at CoWIN Global Conclave.
• India will be offering CoWIN platform as digital
public good to other countries run their
COVID-19 vaccination drives.
• Around 50 countries like Mexico, Canada,
Nigeria, Uganda and Panama have benefitted

• Authorities in Srinagar district have banned
storage, sale, possession, use and transport of
drones and similar kinds of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs_ within the territorial
jurisdiction of district. What orders were
issued?
• Order asks the authorities to secure aerial
space near vital installations and highly
populated areas.

• Officials of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
are conducting raids across several districts in
Uttar Pradesh in connection with alleged scam
in Gomti River Front Development Project.
• Raids were conducted at 40 locations across 13
districts including Ghaziabad, Lucknow and
Agra. There are alleged irregularities in Rs 1,600
crore Gomti riverfront development project.

• As per Jal Shakti Minister, Gajendra
Singh Shekhawat, India is working on
its rights to stop excess water flowing
to Pakistan under Indus Waters Treaty
of 1960 to irrigate its own lands.
• India and Pakistan had signed the
Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine
years of negotiations.

• Experts from Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University (TNAU) and
Forest College and Research
Institute (FC&RI) has undertaken a
project to identify native grasses &
trees in order to improve elephant
habitats and standardise mass
multiplication techniques.

• Japanese astronomers have
developed an artificial intelligence (AI)
technique which will help in removing
noise in astronomical data because of
random variations in galaxy shapes.
• Technique was developed after
extensive training and testing on large
mock data that was created by
supercomputer simulations.

• Department for Promotion of Industry and
Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched a
project on Open Network for Digital
Commerce (ONDC).
• Project on Open Network for Digital
Commerce was launched with the aim of
promoting open networks developed on
open-sourced methodology.

•
Department of Telecom (DoT)
proposed to fine Rs 10,000 for
fraud messages in order to
tighten noose on pesky callers.
•

• Recently, Department of Justice
commemorated the milestone of crossing
nine lakh beneficiaries under its Tele-Law
programme
• This programme connects disadvantaged
and needy who are seeking legal advice
from Panel Lawyers with the help of an e-
interface platform available in Common
Service Centres.

31 July 21 Current Affairs

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31 July 21 Current Affairs