Test : July 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 8" - Current Affairs MCQ

On July 25, 2019, The appointment committee of cabinet (ACC), Government of India has re-appointed Badri Narain Sharma (1985-batch IAS officer from Rajasthan) as chairman of the National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA). He will continue as the NAA chairman for two years. Currently, NAA has three members including J C Chauhan (Chairman, Tax tribunal, Himachal Pradesh) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers R Bhagyadevi and Amand Shah.NAA: It was constituted under Section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017.

21-year-old Vidisha Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh became the first Indian, crowned Miss Deaf World 2019 which was held in Mbombela, South Africa. She is a former International tennis player who represented India in the Deaflympics.

On July 29, 2019, Fagu Chauhan, a six-time member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, was sworn in as the 29th Governor of Bihar replacing Lal Ji Tandon who has taken charge as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Oath taking ceremony was administered by Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Amreshwar Pratap Shahi at the Raj Bhavan in Patna in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and other leaders. On July 29,2019, Anandiben Patel took oath as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh(UP). Govind Mathur, the Chief Justice of the UP High Court administered her the oath of Office and Secrecy at Raj Bhawan in Lucknow, UP. Outgoing Governor Ram Naik also attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Hon’ble Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh visited Mozambique from july 28-30 2019.This is the first official visit of Rajnath Singh as a Defence Minister to the African country as well as it is the first time ever a defence minister of India has visited Mozambique. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh signed Two Memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mozambique.

According to the latest “Women Entrepreneur Cities Index 2019”, sponsored by Dell and conducted by London-based global information provider, IHS Markit, Singapore tops in Asian city ranked at 21st position. Indian cities Bengaluru(Karnataka) and Delhi were ranked 43rd (7th in Asia) and 50th (10th in Asia) respectively in the latest “Women Entrepreneur Cities Index 2019”, sponsored by Dell and conducted by London-based global information provider. San Francisco Bay Area has topped the list with 63.7 points followed by New York(62.9 points) and London(3rd ) in the latest “Women Entrepreneur Cities Index 2019”, sponsored by Dell and conducted by London-based global information provider.

On the demand of the local Hindu community, Pakistan opened Shawala Teja Singh Temple in eastern city Sialkot for worship for the first time since partition. According to the book ‘History of Sialkot’ by the late Rashid Niaz, the temple is 1,000-years-old.The Evacuee Trust Property Board looks after the holy places of minorities in Pakistan.According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan.

On July 29,2019, The Registrar of Geographical Indications(GI), Chennai has awarded a GI certificate registering the sweetmeat as ”Odisha Rasagola” to the state of Odisha which will be valid till Feb 22, 2028. In 2017, West Bengal had secured the GI tag for ”Banglar Rosogolla” after a tug of war with Odisha since 2015 over the origin of the sweet

On July 29, 2019, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lalji Tandon was sworn in as the 28th Governor of Madhya Pradesh. He was administered oath by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha at a function in Raj Bhawan, Bhopal in the presence of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, state ministers and bureaucrats. On July 30, 2019, Jagdeep Dhankhar, a former Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan and a noted Supreme Court lawyer, was sworn in as the 28th governor of West Bengal at the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, state ministers, including urban development minister Firhad Hakim and finance minister Amit Mitra, and other dignitaries. He was administered oath by the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court TBN Radhakrishnan. He succeeded Keshari Nath Tripathy. On July 29, 2019, A seven-time Member of Parliament (MP) from Chhattisgarh’s Raipur and former Union minister, Ramesh Bais, aged 71, was sworn in as the 18th Governor of Tripura in the presence of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and senior officials of the administration. He was administered oath by the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Justice Sanjay Karol at a function in Old Raj Bhawan, Agartala. He succeeds Kaptan Singh Solanki.

Approval was given to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court (SC) from 30, at present, to 33, excluding the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Present Status: The Supreme Court is working with its full sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI. Act: The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 was last amended in 2009 to increase the judges’ strength from 25 to 30 (excluding the CJI). It originally provided for a maximum of 10 judges (excluding the CJI). This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1960, to 17 in 1977, to 25 in 1986 and to 30 in 2009. Background: The decision of the cabinet came days after CJI Ranjan Gogoi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the number of judges in SC. 59,331 cases are pending and due to scarcity of judges, the required number of constitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law were not being formed.

On July 31, 2019, Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given nod to the setting up of ISRO(Indian Space Research Organisation) Technical Liaison Unit (ITLU) at Moscow in Russia. Benefits: With this MoU, ISRO will be able to collaborate with Space agencies/industries in Russia and neighboring countries. ISRO’s Gaganyaan program requires the development of some of the key technologies and establishment of specialized facilities, which are essential to support life in space. Russia, being one of the space-faring nations, it is envisaged to collaborate with Russia extensively in various fields of relevance.

On July 30, 2019, Parliament passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2019. It was passed with 99 votes in favour and 84 opposed against it. The bill criminalizes instant triple talaq among Muslims and attracts a jail term of three years for the husband.Definition: It defines talaq as talaq-e-biddat or any other similar form of talaq pronounced by a Muslim man resulting in instant and irrevocable divorce. Talaq-e-biddat refers to the practice under Muslim personal laws where pronouncement of the word ‘talaq’ thrice in one sitting by a Muslim man to his wife results in an instant and irrevocable divorce.

In the QS Best Student Cities Ranking 2019 compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a global education consultancy, London, the capital of United Kingdom (UK), was named as the world’s best city for students for the second consecutive year. Tokyo and Melbourne were ranked second and third positions respectively. Bangalore was ranked 81st and Mumbai stood at 85th position, Delhi was ranked 113th and Chennai stood at 115 out of a total of 120 cities ranked in the QS Best Student Cities Ranking 2019 compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a global education consultancy.

On July 29,2019, Indian public limited housing finance company PNB(Punjab National Bank) Housing Finance Ltd has raised $100 million (around Rs 690 crore) from International Finance Corporation (IFC, member of the World Bank Group) for the purpose of lending to buyers in housing projects. This is the 1st ECB( external commercial borrowings) outlay was made under the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) automatic route for the current financial year (FY2019-20).The central bank has allowed it to borrow ECB up to $750 million annually from oversees through the route.

Indian multinational corporation based in Bengaluru, Infosys has opened its new state-of-the-art Cyber Defence Center in Bucharest, Romania. The centre is an expansion of services delivered by Infosys Digital Innovation Centre, which opened in Bucharest earlier. The Centre will offer an end-to-end, real-time, 24 * 7 cybersecurity monitoring and protection services to support European and global businesses on their digital transformation drive.Services: The services provided by the center’s certified and highly skilled cybersecurity professionals include security monitoring, management and remediation, threat hunting, security analytics, incident discovery and response.

Former RBI Deputy Governor Subir Vithal Gokarn passed away due to a brief illness at the age of 60. He was appointed as Executive Director on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 by Narendra Modi government. He hailed from Mumbai, Maharashtra.RBI deputy Governor SubirGokarn .He served as RBI deputy Governor from 2009 to 2012.He was the youngest RBI Governor at the time.