Daily Current Affairs 6th July, 2021

Daily Current Affairs 6 July 2021 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

‘Darbar Move’, 149-yr-old tradition of Capital Shifting in J&K, comes to an end
‘Darbar move’, the 149-year-old biannual tradition of shifting capitals between Srinagar and Jammu, has come to an end, with the administration serving notice to employees to vacate their quarters in the twin capital cities within three weeks.

• Around 8,000-9,000 employees working in Civil Secretariats have to move along with hundreds of official files physically in trucks on the treacherous Jammu-Srinagar highway twice every year.
• While Srinagar served as the summer capital, Jammu was the winter capital.

LG Manoj Sinha rolls out LGSDF for engineering, management & other graduates of J&K
In  the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha rolled out the Lieutenant Governor’s Sustainable Development Fellowship (LGSDF) for the engineering, management and other graduates of J&K. 

• The initiative is aimed to transform the overall delivery structure of the government programmes and make it more efficient, transparent and quite robust in nature.
• The programme, which shall be funded by the J&K Administration and implemented in collaboration with IIT, Jammu.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan addresses 17th World Congress for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union health minister addressed at the inaugural session of the 17th World Congress for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy. 

• The event organised by Indian Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology was inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
• The theme of the World congress “Eliminating Cervical Cancer: Call for Action” is aligned to the WHO call for Elimination of Cervical Cancer by 2030.

Health Ministry launches informational video series ‘COVID GuruKool’ on social media platforms
Health Ministry has launched COVID GuruKool, an informational video series on its social media platforms. It is aimed at disseminating authentic information on COVID-19 pandemic and it’s vaccination program.

• Leading public health experts, policy makers, doctors, scientists and health professionals will participate in the series and will help in sensitisation of people towards Covid appropriate behaviour and bust the myths around the vaccines.

Tourism Ministry signs MoU with Yatra.Com to strengthen Hospitality, Tourism Industry
The Ministry of Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU with Yatra.Com to strengthen the Hospitality and Tourism Industry.

• The primary objective of this MoU is to provide extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for the Hospitality Industry- SAATHI on the OTA platform.

52nd IFFI to be held from 20th to 28th November in Goa
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar released the regulations and poster for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

• The festival will be held in Goa from 20th -28th November 2021.
• The Festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India in collaboration with the State Government of Goa and the Indian Film Industry.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launches NIPUN Bharat
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank virtually launched the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy – NIPUN Bharat.

• This initiative is aimed to develop learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy in the children.
• This initiative will prove to be a strong pillar of the New Education Policy and it will help the children in developing learning and numerical skills during the primary schooling.

Parliamentary Standing Committee begins study of various educational institutions in Leh
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, children, Youth Affairs and Sports led by Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe began its study of various educational institutions in Leh.

• In its first stop at Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, the Committee the members interacted with staff and teachers and held discussion on ‘promotion of research, innovation & documentation in the Institute’

CBDT extends date for manual filing of tax forms for foreign remittance
The Central Board of Direct Taxes, CBDT has granted further relaxation in electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA and 15CB and extended the date of filing from 30th June to 15th July, 2021. 

• The taxpayers can now submit these forms in manual format to the authorized dealers till 15th of this month. The CBDT in a statement said that authorized dealers are advised to accept such forms for the purpose of foreign remittances.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Sirisha Bandla becomes 2nd Indian woman to fly into space 
Sirisha Bandla has made headlines as the second Indian-origin woman to head to space as part of Virgin Space Ship Unity on July 11.

• Andhra Pradesh-born Bandla will be one of the six space travellers aboard ‘VSS Unity’ of Virgin Galactic, scheduled to take off from New Mexico alongside the company’s founder Richard Branson.
• The Telugu woman from Andhra’s Guntur district who was brought up in Houston will become the second India-born woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla. Rakesh Sharma and Sunita Williams were the other Indians who went into space prior to Bandla

Indian Army Chief inaugurates War Memorial for Indian Soldiers in Italy
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General MM Naravane embarks on a four-day visit to the United Kingdom and Italy starting, July 5.The visit will also see the army chief inaugurating an Indian Army Memorial in the Cassino town of Italy.

• The COAS will also inaugurate the Indian Army Memorial in the famous town of Cassino and will be briefed at the Italian Army’s Counter IED Centre of Excellence at Cecchingola, Rome.
• The memorial was built to pay homage to over 5,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting German and Japanese forces during the World War II. Between 1943 and 1945, nearly 50,000 Indian soldiers were deployed to fight for Italy’s liberation.

BANKING & FINANCE

Indian Overseas Bank beats PNB, BoB; becomes India’s 2nd Biggest Govt Bank
With a market-capitalization of over Rs 50,000 crore, The Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) became the second most-valued listed public sector bank in India.

• As per data available on BSE, IOB  with an mcap of Rs 51,887 crore, has pushed PNB (Rs 46,411 crore) and BOB (Rs 44,112 crore) to third and fourth position.

PhonePe partners Flipkart to digitise cash-on-delivery payments
PhonePe has partnered with Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart to digitise cash-on-delivery services of the e-commerce firm, the digital payments platform said.

• PhonePe’s dynamic QR code solution will enable customers who earlier opted for “cash on delivery” to pay digitally through any UPI app at the time of delivery.
• This will help reduce personal contact while ensuring safety and drive contactless payments for customers who are traditionally more comfortable with cash on delivery.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India achieves highest ever Merchandise export of 95 Billion dollar in first quarter of current financial year
India has recorded the highest ever merchandise export in the first quarter of April to June this year despite the severity of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

• Also, the country has also received the highest ever Foreign Direct Investment of 81.72 billion US dollars in the last financial year. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal informed this during a press conference in New Delhi.
• The Commerce Minister said, the highest ever Merchandise export of 95 Billion dollar was achieved in the first quarter of this financial year which surpassed the earlier peak of export of 90 Billion dollars in quarter four of 2020-21, which was.

SPORTS

Norway’s Karsten Warholm breaks 29-year-old men’s 400 metres hurdles world record
Norway’s Karsten Warholm broke Kevin Young’s 29-year-old 400m hurdles world record when he completed the race in 46.70 seconds in front of his home fans at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.

• Warholm beat 1992 Olympic champion Young’s mark of 46.78secs, which was set four years before the Norwegian was born and was the longest-standing record in men’s track.

ICC bans former performance analyst with Sri Lanka Cricket Sanath Jayasundara for 7 years
International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned a former performance analyst with Sri Lanka Cricket Sanath Jayasundara from cricket for seven years after it’s Anti-Corruption Tribunal found him guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

• The ban is backdated to May 11, 2019, when he was provisionally suspended.

Verstappen wins 2021 Formula One Austrian Grand Prix 
Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position, clinching a third straight victory and extending his lead over title rival Lewis Hamilton to 32 points after nine races.

• It was Verstappen’s fifth win of the season compared to three for Hamilton, who dropped down from second place to fourth late on after going too wide on a turn and rolling over a kerb, damaging one of his tires.

Mithali Raj surpasses Edwards to become highest run-getter in women’s cricket across formats
Indian women’s cricket team skipper Mithali Raj became the top run-getter in international cricket across all formats, surpassing former England batter Charlotte Edwards. 

• The 38-year-old Mithali struck a boundary over England pace bowler Natalie Sciver’s head when on 11 to go past the 10,273 runs scored by Charlotte. The boundary helped Mithali get to 10,277 runs. 
• She is the only woman cricketer to have scored over 6,000 runs and averages over 50 in ODI cricket. Charlotte is the next best in the list of ODI run-getters with 5,992 runs.

APPOINTMENTS

Satish Agnihotri takes over as MD NHSRCL
Satish Agnihotri, retired IRSE officer of 1982 batch has taken charge as Managing Director, National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd.

• He has worked as Chairman & Managing Director, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a schedule ‘A’ CPSE under the Ministry of Railways for close to 9 years.

KN Bhattacharjee appointed as new Lokayukta of Tripura
The Tripura government appointed veteran lawyer KN Bhattacharjee as the new Lokayukta of the state to deal with the complaints of corruption against public servants and administrative functionaries under the Tripura Lokayukta Act, 2008.

• Bhattacharjee will be the third Lokayukta of the state and the first-ever lawyer to be appointed to the post.

President Kovind appoints new Governors for 8 states
In a major reshuffle, President Ram Nath Kovind appointed eight new governors giving them charge of administration of new states. While many were transferred, others were new appointments.

• P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, Governor of Mizoram, was transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa.
• Satyadev Narayan Arya, Governor of Haryana is transferred and appointed as Governor of Tripura;
• Ramesh Bais, Governor of Tripura is transferred and appointed as Governor of Jharkhand;
• Bandaru Dattatraya, Governor of Himachal Pradesh is transferred and appointed as Governor of Haryana.
• Thaawarchand Gehlot, who currently serves as Cabinet Minister, has been appointed as Governor of Karnataka.
• Hari Babu Kambhampati has been appointed as Governor of Mizoram, Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel as Governor of Madhya Pradesh and former Speaker of Goa Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as Governor of Himachal Pradesh. 

AWARDS

Invest India wins most innovative Investment Promotion Agency 2021 award
The Invest India, has been awarded with the world’s most innovative ‘Investment Promotion Agency (IPA)’ 2021 award by OCO Global.

• The newly launched OCO Innovation Index examines how effectively IPAs are adapting to the challenges of Pandemic recovery, sustainability and digitisation.
• OCO Global is a leading authority on foreign investment and offers a range of economic development services, products, and unique company assessment tools.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

AYUSH Minister Kiren Rijiju launches Ayurveda dataset on Clinical Trials Registry- India CTRI Portal
AYUSH Minister Kiren Rijiju launched Ayurveda dataset on The Clinical Trials Registry- India CTRI Portal. This is a significant step towards worldwide visibility for Ayurveda-based clinical trials.

• The Ayurveda Dataset of CTRI has been jointly developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under the Ministry of Ayush.
• Mr Rijiju also launched four more portals-AMAR, SAHI, e-MEDHA and RMIS during the event.

BOOKS & AUTHORS

‘India To The Rescue’ book by Sushant Singh & Shruthi Rao
The book titled ‘India To The Rescue’ co-written by Sushant Singh & Shruthi Rao has been released recently . 

• The book was published by Juggernaut Books, hails the operation as one of the country’s quickest, boldest and most successful missions.
• The book based on journalist Sushant Singh’s Operation Cactus: Mission Impossible in the Maldives, which uses reports and testimonies to reconstruct India’s largely forgotten intervention to avert a coup in the island country in November 1988.

IMPORTANT DAYS

USA celebrates 245th Independence day
The United States of America is celebrating its 245th Independence day on July 4.

• The celebration of Fourth of July honours the signing of the American Declaration of Independence by the founding fathers of the US on 4 July, 1776.
• It declared that the 13 American colonies were no longer part of the British Empire.

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