19th July, 2023

1. Indian Army has launched Tri-Services ‘Nari Sashaktikaran Women Motorcycle’ from New Delhi to Dras to commemorate 24th Kargil Vijay Diwas.
2. NITI Aayog has released the Techno-Commercial Readiness and Market Maturity Matrix (TCRM Matrix) Framework to Drive Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India.
3. Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the proposals for procurement of 26 Rafale Marine aircraft (naval variant) from France.
4. The 2022 WHO/UNICEF estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) have been released recently.
5. Himachal Pradesh has launched the Aapda Rahat Kosh-2023 website, a digital platform aimed at aiding the disaster-affected people of the state.
6. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Absolute, a bioscience company.
7. World Humanitarian Drive (WHD) which promotes international education and trade, has been granted special consultative status by United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
8. International Energy Agency (IEA) in collaboration with Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) has launched the Oil 2023 medium-term market report, titled: IEA Oil 2023 – Supply and demand dynamics to 2028.
9. Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has launched the ‘CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal’
10. Reserve Bank of India is planning to scale up the number of central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions to 1 million per day by the end of 2023.
11. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has retained its GDP forecast for India for 2023-24 to 6.4%.
12. July 18- Nelson Mandela International Day
13. 16 July- World Snake Day
14. Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G Kishan Reddy has been conferred with ‘Global Incredible Inc Leadership Award’ from ‘The US India SME Council.
15. Pradeep of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has been selected for the International Eni Award.
16. Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam and flautist Shashank Subramanyam have been awarded the Chevalier award by the French government.
17. Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2023
18. Indian shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has made the Guinness World Record by striking the fastest smash in the ongoing Korea Open 2023.
19. Through The Broken Glass: An Autobiographyauthored by N. Seshan, the former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India has been released.

National News

1. Indian Army has launched Tri-Services ‘Nari Sashaktikaran Women Motorcycle’ from New Delhi to Dras to commemorate 24th Kargil Vijay Diwas.
   • The 25-member strong tri-services rally will cover a total distance of approximately 1000 kilometres, to reach Kargil War Memorial in Dras on 25 July 23.
   • For this Rally, the Indian Army has partnered with TVS Motor Company and the participants will be riding on TVS Ronin motorcycles.
     Source: PIB
2. NITI Aayog has released the Techno-Commercial Readiness and Market Maturity Matrix (TCRM Matrix) Framework to Drive Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India.
   • This is an assessment tool designed to revolutionize technology evaluation, foster innovation, and fuel entrepreneurship in India.
   • The framework presents an integrated assessment model that offers in-depth insights and actionable intelligence to stakeholders at every stage of the technology development cycle.
     Source: PIB

3. Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the proposals for procurement of 26 Rafale Marine aircraft (naval variant) from France.
   • The DAC has also granted the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procurement of 3 additional Scorpene submarines under Buy (Indian) category which will be constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL).
   • DAC is Indian defence ministry’s apex body for military procurement.
     Source: PIB
4. The 2022 WHO/UNICEF estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) have been released recently.

 Findings

• As per this estimate, the coverage rate for DPT3, the third dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccines, in India rose to an all-time of 93% in 2022.
• This has surpassed the previous pre-pandemic best of 91% recorded in 2019.
• It also marks a sharp increase from the 85% recorded in 2021.
• In the WHO South-East Asia region, the number of zero-dose children (those who haven’t received any dose of the DPT vaccine) have halved to 2.3 million in 2022 from 4.6 million in 2021.
  Source: IE

State News

1. Himachal Pradesh has launched the Aapda Rahat Kosh-2023 website, a digital platform aimed at aiding the disaster-affected people of the state.
   Source: HT

Memorandum of Understanding

1. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Absolute, a bioscience company.
   • The partnership aims to enhance the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).
   • How? 
   • By building technical capabilities of the scheme and digitalising service delivery of crop insurance and agricultural credit processes.
   • By promoting credit profiling of farmers, agri-entrepreneurs, and farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) to mobilise agriculture financing.
     Source: HinduBL

International News

1. World Humanitarian Drive (WHD) which promotes international education and trade, has been granted special consultative status by United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
   • Benefit of the status: Empowers WHD to actively interact with its subsidiary bodies, the Human Rights Council, other intergovernmental bodies, and the UN Secretariat.
   • Who can be granted status? NGOs which have special competence and are concerned specifically with only a few of the fields of activity covered by the ECOSOC.
   • ECOSOC has 54 member states which are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for overlapping 3-year terms.
   • World Humanitarian Drive (WHD) is an International NGO with operations in 12 countries, founded in the U.K. by British Indian global peace activist, Abdul Basit Syed.
     Source: FE

Reports and Indices

1. International Energy Agency (IEA) in collaboration with Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) has launched the Oil 2023 medium-term market report, titled: IEA Oil 2023 – Supply and demand dynamics to 2028.
   • India is the world’s 4th largest refiner, has the 4th largest LNG terminal capacity, 4th largest auto market and also 3rd largest bio fuels producer.

   Findings of the report

   • In FY 2022-23 the overall consumption of petroleum products was 223 MMT, with a growth of about 12% over the previous year.
   • The growth of global oil demand is set to slow down, almost coming to a halt by 2028.
   • The annual demand growth is expected to decline from 2.4 mb/d in 2023 to just 0.4 mb/d in 2028.
   • Alternate clean fuels like biofuels are expected to provide 10% of new liquid fuel supply growth to 2028.
   • Biofuels production expands nearly 600 kb/d from 2022 to 2028, with Brazil, Indonesia and India combined accounting for 70% of this increase.
   • Global upstream investments in oil and gas exploration, extraction and production are on course to reach their highest levels since 2015, growing 11% year-on-year to USD 528 billion in 2023.
     Source: PIB

Banking and Economy

1. Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has launched the ‘CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal’
   • The portal aims to facilitate over 10 crore depositors of Sahara Group in claiming their money back within a timeframe of 45 days.
   • The depositors of four cooperative societies of Sahara Group are eligible to use the portal to claim their refunds
   • Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd
   •  Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd
   • Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd
   • Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd
   • Refund Process
   • The first payment of up to Rs 10,000 will be made to 1 crore investors who had deposited Rs 10,000 or more.
   • In the first phase, the allocated corpus is of Rs 5,000 crore.
   • Once this fund is exhausted, the government will approach the Supreme Court to seek additional funds for processing the refunds of other depositors with larger amounts.
   • Earlier, in its order on March 29, 2023, the Supreme Court had directed that Rs 5,000 crore be transferred out of the “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account” to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS).
   • The process of disbursement is being supervised and monitored by Justice R Subhash Reddy, former judge of the Supreme Court.
     Source: IE
2. Reserve Bank of India is planning to scale up the number of central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions to 1 million per day by the end of 2023.
   • Currently, around 5,000-10,000 transactions are being done per day using retail CBDC.
   • RBI is also planning to begin interoperability of CBDC with unified payments interface (UPI).
   • At present there are 1.3 million customers and 0.3 million merchants using retail digital Rupee. There are 13 banks offering retail CBDC.
   • The biggest advantage of CDBC is it can provide cross-border transactions and ensure anonymity, which is the defining feature of the currency.
     Source: IE

GDP Forecasts

1. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has retained its GDP forecast for India for 2023-24 to 6.4%.
   • Forecast for 2024-25: 6.7%.
   • Previously, Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee has projected GDP growth of 2023-24 at 6.5%
   • The real GDP growth for 2022-23 fiscal ended March 2023 was recorded at 7.2%.
   • Recently, Fitch Ratings has raised its forecast for India’s economic growth to 6.3% for current fiscal year 2023-24 from 6% it had predicted previously.
   • World Bank had also projected India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.3% in FY24.
   • ADB has projected a decline in inflation, approaching pre-pandemic levels as fuel and food prices have declined.
   • It has forecasted 3.6% inflation for Asia’s developing economies and 3.4% in 2024.
   • Forecasts for other regions-

Source: BT

Important Days

1. July 18- Nelson Mandela International Day
   • Declared by- United Nations in November 2009.
   • It was first celebrated on July 18, 2010.

2. 16 July- World Snake Day
   • Purpose- To protect snakes by raising awareness about snakes of India, and importance of snakes in the ecosystem.
   • National Zoological Park, Delhi celebrated the day this year.
     Source: NewsonAir

Awards

1. Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G Kishan Reddy has been conferred with ‘Global Incredible Inc Leadership Award’ from ‘The US India SME Council.
   • The council promotes trade, commerce, and people-to-people exchange programmes between the United States and India.
   • He has been conferred the award in recognition of his endeavours towards promoting tourism and the rich culture of India.
     Source: The Hindu
2. Pradeep of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has been selected for the International Eni Award.
   • The award has been instituted by the Italian energy company Eni and comprises a gold medal, a citation and cash.
   •  He has been awarded in recognition of his work on sustainable and affordable nanoscale material for removing toxic contaminants from water.
     Source: The Hindu
3. Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam and flautist Shashank Subramanyam have been awarded the Chevalier award by the French government.
   • The award honours personalities for their creativity in cultural spheres.
   • Ms. Sairam and Mr. Subramanyam were conferred the title of Chevalier De L’orde des Arts Et Des Lettres.
   • Earlier, Ms. Sairam has also received the Padma Shri and Sangita Kalanidhi from The Music Academy.
   • Mr. Subramanyam has also been awarded Tamil Nadu government’s Kalaimamani for his prowess in instrumental music.
     Source: The Hindu

Sports

1. Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2023
   • Indian senior weightlifting contingent has won 20 medals in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2023.
   • India’s medals tally comprised 9 golds, 9 silvers and 2 bronze.
   • The weightlifting competition was held at Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida.
   • The Gold medal winners in different category are-
   • N Ajith – Men’s 73kg
   • Ajay Singh – Men’s 81kg
   • Shubham Todkar – Men’s 61kg
   • Popy Hazarika – Women’s 59kg
   • Komal Kohar – Women’s 45kg
   • Gyaneshwari Yadav – Women’s 49kg
   • Mukund Aher- Men’s 55kg
   • S Nirupama Devi – Women’s 64kg
   • Vanshita Verma – Women’s 81kg
     Source: Olympics.com
2. Indian shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has made the Guinness World Record by striking the fastest smash in the ongoing Korea Open 2023.
   • Satwiksairaj broke a decade-long record which was set in May 2013 by Malaysian Tan Boon Heong, who had produced a speed of 493 km/h with his smash.
   • Satwiksairaj broke the record by surpassing his speed by 72 kmph and registered a record-breaking speed of 565 kmph.
     Source: IE

Miscellaneous

1. Through The Broken Glass: An Autobiographyauthored by N. Seshan, the former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India has been released.
   Source: FE

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