20 July 2023 Current Affairs – The Day’s Top News | GKSERIES

Current Affairs is the most important area in all competitive exams. But the difficulty level is very high. That’s why; many aspirants get confused, how to select Current Affairs for Preparation of Competitive Examination? In this Post, Daily Current Affairs 20 July 2023, we have tried to cover each and every point and also included all important facts from National/ International news that are useful for upcoming competitive examinations such as UPSC, SSC, Railway, State Govt. etc.

So, here is the Top News of the Day for 20 July 2023 to help you prepare the Latest Current Affairs part. After reading this section, you can successfully attempt Current Affairs Quiz.

Current Affairs for Competitive Exam – 20 July 2023

Satwik ‘smashes’ Guinness world record with fastest badminton hit

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy set a new Guinness world record for the fastest hit by a male player in badminton during the ongoing Korea Open 2023. His smash reached an astonishing speed of 565 km/h, surpassing the decade-long record set in May 2013 by Malaysian player Tan Boon Heong, who had previously recorded a speed of 493 km/h with his smash.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Satwik’s Record-Breaking Smash

Satwik’s tremendous smash eclipsed a Formula 1 car’s peak speed of 372.6 km/h. Satwik’s smash, which took place at the Yonex factory gymnasium in Soka, Saitama, Japan at the Korea Open 2023, has been officially verified by Guinness World Records. In the female category, Malaysia’s Tan Pearly set the Guinness world record for the fastest female badminton hits with a remarkable speed of 438 km/h (about 272 mph).

Indian Men’s Doubles Duo Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty in Korea Open 2023

Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty of India advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Korea Open 2023 after defeating Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren 21-16, 21-14 on the first day. Despite falling behind in the second game, they displayed resilience and managed to win the match convincingly in straight games. Out of all the Indian participants, Satwik and Chirag were the only ones to secure entry into the pre-quarterfinals. The Korea Open 2023 is scheduled to take place from July 18, 2023, to July 23, 2023.

Meta and Microsoft Introduce the Next Generation of Llama

Meta and Microsoft have announced the growth of their artificial intelligence relationship by presenting “Llama 2,” a new large language model (LLM). This cutting-edge language model is now available for both research and commercial use, making it a potential competitor to ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Bard (Google). The offering of Llama 2 for free enhances its accessibility and usability in various domains.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Llama 2: Features

• Llama 2 comes in three different sizes: 7B, 13B, and 70B.
• This new large language model (LLM) outperforms other open-source LLMs in different external benchmarks, excelling in reasoning, coding proficiency, and knowledge assessments.
• Pre-trained on publicly available online data sources, the Llama-2-chat, which is a fine-tuned model, makes use of publicly available instruction datasets and benefits from over 1 million human annotations.

Llama 2: Multi-platform Accessibility and Seamless Integration

Llama 2 can be found in the Azure AI model catalog, empowering developers using Microsoft Azure to incorporate it into their projects and take advantage of cloud-native tools for content filtering and safety features.
Additionally, Llama 2 is optimized for local execution on Windows, offering developers a smooth workflow while delivering generative AI experiences to users across various platforms. Furthermore, Llama 2 is available through Amazon Web Services (AWS), Hugging Face, and other companies, allowing it to reach a wider audience.

Key takeaways for competitive examinations

First program to apply natural language processing : ELIZA

Gruha Lakshmi scheme in Karnataka

Context:

Registration for Gruha Lakshmi, an effective scheme developed by the Karnataka Government to provide financial support to women heads of households, begins on July 19, 2023.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

About the Gruha Lakshmi Scheme:

In less than two months after assuming power, the government of Karnataka has made its promise of launching Gruha Lakshmi Scheme. The registration period for the Gruha Lakshmi Scheme begins on July 19th.

The Gruha Lakshmi Scheme is an effective scheme that was introduced to provide financial support of Rs.2000 per month to female household heads.

 The beneficiaries will get the amount under the scheme from August 15-20 and the registration will continue for a year. The government has set aside Rs.18,000 crore for the scheme, which will benefit around 1,11,00,000 women. The scheme will benefit 12.8 million families in the state.

Ministry Responsible:

Gruha Lakshmi Scheme has been launched by the Karnataka Government under the Ministry of Women and Child Development for the benefit of the women head of the households.

Eligibility Criteria:

According to the Minister of Women and Child Development, Laxmi Hebbalkar, all women whose names are there as the head of the family on BPL and APL cards are eligible the avail the benefits under the scheme.

The women or their husband should not fall under the category of income tax. Women must not be a government employee. Only one woman of the family will be the beneficiary under the scheme.

Documents required for Gruha Lakshmi Scheme:

• Above Poverty Line Card (APL)/Below Poverty Line (BPL)/Antyodaya Card.
• Bank linked Aadhar Card
• Bank details of the beneficiary.
• Aadhar linked phone number.

Registration process under Gruha Lakshmi Scheme

Beneficiaries can get them registered either offline or online.

Offline Registration:

For the offline registration, beneficiary needs to approach to the assigned centres with all the required documents and there is no registration fee.

Online Registration:

For online registration, one must follow the following steps:

• Visit the official portal of ‘Seva Sindhu Guarantee Scheme’.
• Choose and click on the ‘Gruha Lakshmi Scheme’ option.
• Click on the ‘Click here to apply’.
• Fill up all the required details and upload the documents.
• Click on the ‘Submit’ and note the application form number for further reference.

Asia Cup 2023 Schedule Announced: Date, Venue, IND vs PAK on September 2

Asia Cup 2023 Schedule

The Asia Cup 2023 will be held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka from August 30 to September 17, 2023. The competition will consist of 50-over ODI matches played at international quality grounds. The 2023 Edition will feature two groups, with two teams from each group qualifying for the Super Four stage. The top two teams from the Super Four stage will then face off in the final.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Latest Update of Asia Cup 2023

• The wait is over. Asia Cup Schedule will be finally out today (Wednesday) at 7:45 PM IST. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will unveil the schedule. The BCCI vs PCB tussle has pushed the schedule to be released this late. The event kicks off on August 31 in Lahore, with two games also taking place in Multan. The Asia Cup 2023 will thereafter be held in Sri Lanka, where nine games will be contested, including one against India and Pakistan.
• After much delay, the full schedule of the 2023 Asia Cup is set to be announced this week. The development follows a meeting between the representatives of the Asian Cricket Council, which is headed by BCCI secretary Jay Shah, and the Pakistan Cricket Board.
• The Asia Cup schedule has been pushed back due to discussions between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) officials in Dubai on Sunday and Monday. The discussions centered around the possibility of hosting more matches in Pakistan and negotiating a higher share of revenue from the Sri Lanka leg of the Asia Cup 2023. Despite accepting the hybrid model, the new PCB administration is now asking for a revenue share comparable to what the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) received from the UAE for hosting the T20 Asia Cup last year.
• According to Arun Dhumal, Chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the highly anticipated Asia Cup matches between India and Pakistan would be held in Sri Lanka because the team lead by Rohit Sharma has decided not to travel to Pakistan.
• Dhumal, who is currently in Durban for the ICC Chief Executives Meet, confirmed that BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and PCB representative Zaka Ashraf met ahead of the ICC Board meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, to finalize the schedule. The other three matches will be Afghanistan vs Bangladesh, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan. Pakistan’s only home match will be against Nepal, a relatively weaker team.

Schedule for the Asia Cup 2023

Please note that the “TBC” in the final match indicates that the teams for the final are yet to be determined.

The following are the venues for the Asia Cup 2023

Pakistan and Sri Lanka will host the Asia Cup cricket tournament in 2023. Keep watching this space for updates on the venue.

Asia Cup 2023 Groups

Board of Control for Cricket in India Secretary Jay Sah confirmed that India and Pakistan are in the same group for ODI Asia Cup 2023.

Group 1:

Group 2:

Nepal’s Historic Debut Spot in Asia Cup 2023

Nepal is set to make its debut in the Asia Cup 2023 after securing a spot in the tournament by winning the ACC Men’s Premier Cup. Nepal won the championship match against UAE by seven wickets, with to Gulshan Kumar Jha’s controlled innings of 67 runs from 84 deliveries. This victory ensured Nepal’s qualification for the Asia Cup, marking their first-ever participation in the prestigious tournament.

Asia Cup 2023 Team Squad (Official)

Pakistan Team Squad for Asia Cup 2023

PCB will publish the Pakistan team Squad for Asia Cup 2023 in the Last week of June 2023.

Expected Team (Squad): Babar Azam (c), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-haq, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah.

Asia Cup 2023 Details

Past winners, Runner up and Hosting Nation of Asia Cup from 1984 to 2023

PhonePe launches India’s first Health Insurance platform

PhonePe Insurance Broking Services announced the launch of health insurance plans that will for the first time in India offer monthly subscriptions.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Aim: To reduce the burden by breaking down the premium payments into manageable monthly installments

These insurance plans come with coverage up to one crore rupees, allow users to choose any hospital room. Only platform in the country where customers can pay for Insurance in easy installments through UPI on the PhonePe app.

Indian Shuttler sets Guinness world record for fastest badminton shot

Indian shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy managed to feature in the Guinness World Record by striking the fastest smash in the ongoing Korea Open 2023.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

He broke the record of Malaysian Tan Boon Heong by surpassing his speed by 72 kmph and registered a record-breaking speed of 565 kmph.

He and his partner, Chirag Shetty, are the only men’s doubles pair from India to win the BWF World Tour 1000 & be ranked inside the top 10 of the BWF World Ranking.

National Mango Day 2023: Date, Significance and History

Gulshan Kumar Jha’s calm innings of 67 runs from 84 deliveries helped Nepal win the championship match against UAE by seven wickets. It can be relished in various ways, for example in ice creams, mousse, smoothies, and much more.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Significance of International Mango Festival 

Beyond its mouthwatering taste, the mango holds cultural significance for India that goes back centuries. In Indian mythology and literature, the mango is often associated with love and prosperity. It plays an important role in Indian festivals and rituals, symbolising abundance and good fortune. With such rich cultural connections, it’s no wonder that the International Mango Festival has become a joyous celebration of this beloved fruit.

History of International Mango Festival

The roots of the International Mango Festival can be traced back to 1987 when the National Horticulture Board of India had a bright idea—to celebrate mango. Since then, it has become an annual tradition, eagerly awaited by mango lovers across the nation. Bustling mango markets, vibrant mango exhibitions, and an abundance of fruity delights await visitors during this mango-filled extravaganza.

The history of mangos goes back a long time. This fruit, which was first cultivated roughly 5,000 years ago, is associated with Indian folklore. It is reported that Lord Buddha was granted a mango orchard so that he might rest under the shady tree. The fruit is called “mango” in English and Spanish-speaking nations and the name was derived from the Malayan word “manna,” which the Portuguese changed to “manga” when they arrived in Kerala in 1490s for the spice trade.

From its origin country, the mango seeds traveled with humans from Asia to the Middle East, East Africa and South America starting from 300-400 AD and then later to other parts of the world.

Mangoes were first grown in India over 5,000 years ago In India, Mango is a symbol of love and is also considered a gesture of friendship. The mango leaves, as well as bark, skin, pit and flesh, have been used as folk remedies for centuries. Mangoes have a relation with cashews and pistachios. They all belong to the Anacardiaceae family.

SJVN bags 1st Prize in Swachhta Pakhwada Awards 2023 by MoP

The Ministry of Power has awarded SJVN Limited the First Prize in the Swachhta Pakhwada Awards 2023. NL Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of SJVN, was presented with the award by Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Power, at a ceremony in New Delhi. The evaluation of public sector undertakings (PSUs) for these awards is based on various criteria, including the initiatives taken to raise awareness about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan among the public. SJVN has secured the top position, with the second and third prizes being awarded to Power Grid and PFC, respectively. Notably, SJVN also achieved the first prize in the previous year’s Swachhta Pakhwada Awards.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

This year action plan of SJVN Limited

• This year’s action plan included planting trees, holding awareness camps, organising cleanliness drives, promoting the use of eco-friendly materials through special campaigns, installing solid waste disposal machines and dustbins in public areas, conducting menstrual hygiene awareness sessions, and installing sanitary pad incinerators in Government educational institutions for girls. Additionally, there were efforts to distribute sanitation and personal hygiene materials in local communities.
• In a unique collaboration, SJVN joined hands with the Municipal Corporation Shimla and Red Cross Society to introduce an innovative Empty Milk Pouch Collection Scheme across all Municipal Wards of Shimla, as well as in the Municipal Wards surrounding SJVN Projects in Himachal Pradesh and the Panchayats associated with the projects. To further raise public awareness, the initiative also included organizing awareness camps to promote waste segregation, vermi-composting, and the reuse of waste water for agricultural purposes.

Prof. Thalappil Pradeep of IIT Madras won the international EniAward

Prof. T. Pradeep from the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has won the prestigious Eni Award 2023.

Previous awardees include Nobel laureates, Sir Harold W. Kroto, Alan Heeger and Theodor Wolfgang HA¤nsch as well as Prof. C.N.R. Rao, a Bharat Ratna Awardee. The strict award guidelines and a selection committee including Nobel laureates make Eni award a coveted honour.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

Reason: To discover the advanced sustainable and affordable nano-scale materials for the removal of toxic contaminants from water. The discovered technologies are both sustainable and cost-effective and have been implemented as drinking water solutions benefitting 1.3 million people in India every day,” the citation stated.

Eni Award is considered among the top global honors for scientific research in energy and environment. It is given in three categories-Energy Transition, Energy Frontiers and Advanced Environmental Solutions.

Eni Awards are given in three categories; Energy Transition, Energy Frontiers and Advanced Environmental Solutions. Yu Huang, University of California (Los Angeles, USA) and Jeffrey R. Long, University of California (Berkeley, USA) were given the award for the first category. Matthew Rosseinsky, University of Liverpool (UK) won the award for the second category. Prof. Pradeep has been awarded for Advanced Environmental Solutions.

Cement Manufacturers Association elects Neeraj Akhoury as its president

Neeraj Akhoury has been elected as the new President of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) the apex body of India’s large cement manufacturers.

While Parth Jindal has been appointed as Vice President of CMA. Both were unanimously elected at the Extraordinary General Meeting of CMA. ICI will reiterate its commitment to being India’s partner in nation-building for creating business value chains, supporting infrastructure growth and a sustainability agenda.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

“As a future direction, the Indian Cement Industry would like to reiterate its commitment to being India’s partner in nation-building for creating business value chains, supporting infrastructure growth and a sustainability agenda, with an emphasis on decarbonisation, aligned to India’s priorities and working in close collaboration with policy planners, ministries and stakeholders,” said Akhoury.

Singapore’s passport becomes the most powerful in the world

According to the Henley Passport Index 2023, published by Henley & Partners, Singapore becomes the world’s most powerful passport with visa-free access to 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

While India ranked 80th with visa-free entry to 57 nations.  Germany, Italy, and Spain shared second place with 190 visa-free destinations. 

Japan has slipped to third place as the number of destinations its passport can access without a visa fell to 189.

The book titled, ‘Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India’, authored by John Guy

The book titled, ‘Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India’, authored by John Guy, would be released soon.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

This book is published by Mapin in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York. It is a pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works 

It will feature over 125 objects, including a series of spectacular sculptural masterpieces from southern India on public display 

Ashok Leyland bags orders worth Rs 800 crore from Indian Army

Ashok Leyland (A subsidiary of the Hinduja Group) has bagged orders worth Rs 800 crore from the Indian Army.

Reason: To deliver specialized vehicles to the defense sector.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 2023

These vehicles includes the Field Artillery Tractor (FAT 4×4) and the Gun Towing Vehicle (GTV 6×6). The FAT 4×4 and GTV 6×6 are specialized vehicles employed by the Artillery for towing light and medium guns, respectively.