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 8 July 2021, 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.
Daily Current Affairs 8 July 2021
Paytm launched ‘Postpaid Mini’ to provide small-ticket instant loans
Paytm launched the Postpaid Mini, small ticket loans that will give users flexibility to access loans ranging from Rs 250 – Rs 1,000, in partnership with Aditya Birla Finance Ltd.
The product is an extension of its Buy Now, Pay Later service, driving affordability amongst those new to credit.
These small ticket instant loans will give flexibility to users and also help manage their household expenses to maintain liquidity during the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
With this service, Paytm Postpaid is offering a period of up to 30 days for repayment of loans at 0 per cent interest. There are no annual fees or activation charges, only a minimal convenience fee.
Madhav Govindu authored the book ‘The Fourth Lion: Essays for Gopalkrishna Gandhi’
Venu Madhav Govindu and Srinath Raghavan authored the book titled ‘The Fourth Lion: Essays for Gopalkrishna Gandhi’ which consists of twenty-six essays contributed by individuals drawn from various walks of life and from across the globe.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi has been an administrator, diplomat, author, and public intellectual of distinction for over four decades.
His writings have spanned diverse genres, showcasing both his deep scholarship as well as a profound engagement with issues of politics, history, literature, and culture.
First case of Bone Death disease has been reported in Maharashtra
After the outbreak of mucormycosis or black fungus two months back, the first case of Bone Death (Avascular necrosis) disease has been reported in Maharashtra.
The common factor between mucormycosis and avascular necrosis is the use of steroids, the only drug proven to help Covid-19 patients.
The disease can affect anyone irrespective of Covid-19. It can be caused because of temporary or permanent loss of blood supply to the bone, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
As a result of the cut in blood supply cut, the bone tissue dies and the bone collapses. If avascular necrosis occurs near a joint, the joint surface may collapse. This condition may happen in any bone.
Ramgarh Vishdhari has got Centre nod to become 4th tiger reserve of Rajasthan
Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary received all clearances to become the Rajasthan’s fourth and country’s 52nd tiger reserve.
The tigers were believed to have disappeared from the sanctuary in 1999. After CM Ashok Gehlot announced to upgrade the forest into a reserve, the process was expedited.
The total area of 1,017 sq. km that has been identified as the reserve area comprising two forest blocks of Bhilwara, territorial forest block of Bundi and Indargarh, which falls under buffer zone of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR).
In 1982, a part of the forest was declared as Ramgarh Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary under Section 5 of the Rajasthan Wild Animals and Birds Protection Act, 1951.
The core area of the Ramgarh Vishdhari has eight villages. The sanctuary has leopards, sambhars, chitals, wildboars, etc.
Former head of Sivagiri Mutt, Swami Prakashananda passed away
Former head of Sivagiri Mutt and one of the oldest spiritual leaders of the state, Swami Prakashananda died of age-related ailments at the age of 99.
Swami Prakashananda was the founder and Acharya of Chinmaya Mission of Trinidad and Tobago.
Swami Prakashananda was born in California, Trinidad and Tobago. While studying for a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from York University in Toronto, he met Swami Chinmayananda during Chinmaya Mission’s jnana yajna.
Upon completion of his studies he was named Brahmachari Prem Chaitanya in 1994 and was assigned to give discourses at various Mission centers in India and Nepal.
Prem returned to Trinidad in 1997 and started Chinmaya Mission. Swami Tejomayananda initiated Premji into Sanyasa as Swami Prakashananda on Mahashivaratri in 2005.
India – EU Cooperation in Agriculture
Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare of India Narendra Singh Tomar and Member of the European Commission, Agriculture Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski met virtually on 7th July, 2021 to Cooperation in Agriculture.
The strong momentum of the India-EU relations especially since the last India-EU Summit in July, 2020 was acknowledged. Both dignitaries expressed their condolences for the loss of lives due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Both dignitaries discussed EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and the recent India market reforms; EU Farm to Fork Strategy and UN Food System Summit and bilateral cooperation; G20 Agriculture Minister process and fixation of the Maximum Residue Limit of Tricyclazole in Indian Basmati Rice by the EU.
The Member of the European Commission, Agriculture explained in detail the recent reforms undertaken by the EU in the Common Agriculture Policy as well as the EU Farm to Fork Strategy to make agriculture green as well as sustainable.
Vman Aviation Services signed Gift City’s first aircraft purchase agreement
Indian aircraft leasing company Vman Aviation Services, which is based out of International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat’s Gift City, became the first company from the business district to sign an aircraft purchase agreement after placing an order for an Airbus H125 helicopter.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co. Ltd is being developed as the country’s first international financial services centre (IFSC).
An IFSC caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy. Such centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders.
London, New York and Singapore can be counted as global financial centres. Many emerging IFSCs around the world, such as Shanghai and Dubai, are aspiring to play a global role in the years to come.
An expert panel headed by former World Bank economist Percy Mistry submitted a report on making Mumbai an international financial centre in 2007. However, the global financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 made countries including India cautious about rapidly opening up their financial sectors.
Exports of GI certified Bhalia wheat from Gujarat
The first shipment of Geographical Indication (GI) certified Bhalia variety of wheat was exported to Kenya and Sri Lanka from Gujarat.
The GI certified wheat has high protein content and is sweet in taste. The crop is grown mostly across Bhal region of Gujarat which includes Ahmadabad, Anand, Kheda, Bhavanagar, Surendranagar, Bharuch districts.
The unique characteristic of the wheat variety is that grown in the rainfed condition without irrigation and cultivated in around two lakh hectares of agricultural land in Gujarat.
The Bhalia variety of wheat received GI certification in July, 2011. The registered proprietor of GI certification is Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat.
This initiative is expected to give boost wheat exports from India. In 2020-21, the wheat exports from India witnessed a significant growth of 808 % to Rs 4034 crore from Rs 444 crore reported in the previous fiscal. In US dollar terms, the wheat exports rose by 778% to $ 549 million in 2020-21.
Piyush Goyal addresses the Special Plenary in the Indo-Pacific region
Minister of Commerce & Industry, Railways, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal invited the business community in the Indo-Pacific region to actively take part in efforts for bolstering development, trade and growth in the region.
The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of Earth’s seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia.
It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, nor the Tropical Eastern Pacific, along the Pacific coast of the Americas, which is also a distinct marine realm.
The term is especially useful in marine biology, ichthyology, and similar fields, since many marine habitats are continuously connected from Madagascar to Japan and Oceania, and a number of species occur over that range, but are not found in the Atlantic Ocean.
Lieutenant General Ajai Singh visited the Amphibian Brigade
Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) Lieutenant General Ajai Singh visited the Amphibian Brigade at Birchgunj Military Station.
He reviewed operations at the Jungle Survival School and inspected various training activities, including driving an ALS through the landing ship ramp simulator at the Wave Generation Training Facility.
Commander-in-Chief, Andaman and Nicobar Command is the head of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the first and only Tri-service theater command of the Indian Armed Forces, based at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India.
World’s first solo motorcycle expedition in Northern Himalayan passes culminates
The world’s first solo motorcycle expedition undertaken by Miss Kanchan Ugusandi, covering 18 treacherous passes in Northern Himalayan ranges culminated at Seema Sadak Bhawan in New Delhi.
The solo motorcycle expedition also played a pivotal role in promoting road and COVID safety awareness in border areas.
The DGBR added that this unique motor cycle expedition demonstrates the strong resolve of Indian women, who are breaking stereotypes and taking the challenges which were hitherto not undertaken. It will also signify women empowerment, he said.
The month-long expedition witnessed many firsts by a solo woman rider. Miss Ugusandi has become the first solo woman biker to scale the Umlingla Pass, the first woman to cover the 18 passes and also the first woman to traverse a distance of 3,187 kilometre from New Delhi-Manali-Leh -Umlingla-Delhi in one go.
Webinar on “Women in Renewable Energy and Sustainability”
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in collaboration with the International Solar Alliance (ISA), organized a webinar on “Women in Renewable Energy and Sustainability”.
The webinar featured two panel discussions. The theme for the first panel was “Women Leadership in Renewables: Envisioning a New World”.
The webinar was joined by audiences from around the world. This was an opportunity to open a consequential dialogue towards bringing more and more women to the forefront and in leading positions in the Renewable Energy sector as well as making entrepreneurial opportunities available to them.
The webinar was also a part of India’s global advocacy efforts in the role of a Global Theme Champion for the UN High Level Dialogue on Energy which is set to take place in September 2021.
India-Singapore meeting on “Personnel Management and Public Administration”
India and Singapore recently held a bilateral meeting through virtual mode under the aegis of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered on the subject of “Personnel Management and Public Administration”.
The bilateral meeting was led by Shri Sanjay Singh, Secretary, DARPG from Indian side and Mr. Loh Khum Yean, Permanent Secretary, PSD, Singapore from Singapore side.
Both sides shared experiences on Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic, Transforming Leaderships and Ethics, Capacity Building and Training of Leaders and Public Officers, Citizen Centric Governance and identified Citizen-centric service delivery and E-governance as potential areas for future collaboration.
DBT-NIBMG created world’s first database of genomic variants of oral cancer
DBT-National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani an Autonomous Institute has created a database of genomic variations in oral cancer; the first of its kind in the world.
dbGENVOC is a browsable online database of GENomic Variants of Oral Cancer and is a free resource.
First release of dbGENVOC contains
- ~24 million somatic and germline variants derived from whole exome sequences of 100 Indian oral cancer patients and whole genome sequences of 5 oral cancer patients from India
- somatic variation data from 220 patient samples drawn from the USA and analyzed by TCGA-HNSCC project
- manually curated variation data of 118 patients from recently published peer-reviewed publications.
dbGENVOC is not just a catalogue of genomic variants, it has a built-in powerful search engine.
It also allows a reasonable extent of statistical and bioinformatic analysis to be carried out online, including identifying variants in associated altered pathways in oral cancer.
New solar thermal components testing facility established at Hyderabad
International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) established a new solar thermal components testing facility at Hyderabad to give further fillip to India’s growing solar sector.
The facility will validate solar thermal components such as solar receiver tubes, heat transfer fluids, concentrating mirrors, and AR coated glass tubes, etc. of the CST system in field conditions.
It will validate the indigenous components by parallelly comparing the performance (heat gain and heat loss properties) of the standard components with varying the operating parameters and different DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance) conditions.
The parabolic-trough test rig facility has features for simultaneous testing of standard and indigenous solar receiver tubes.
It has a thermic fluid-based closed-loop system which can operate between 50 to 350°C temperature range.
