*The National Doctors’ Day is celebrated every year on July 1 in India to honour the legendary physician and the 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.
*The 25th edition of Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2016 has started in Pacific Ocean at Hawaii, United States from June 30, 2016 and will continue till August 4, 2016. In it, 27 countries viz. India, the Philippines, Australia, France, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Tonga, the United Kingdom, etc, are participating. The RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, which provides a platform for multilateral operational interactions aimed at increased interoperability and development of common understanding of procedures for maritime security operations
*India has been ranked 35th out of 160 countries in the World Bank’s 2016 Logistics Performance Index (LPI). The list is topped by Germany, followed by Luxembourg and Sweden.
*Rodrigo Duterte, Maverick anti-crime candidate, has been sworn-in as the 16th President of the Philippines.
*The book “The mind of the terrorist: the Psychology of terrorism from the IRA to al-Qaeda” has been authored by Dr. Jerrold M. Post.
*The book “Rustom and the Last Storyteller of Almora” has been authored by Gaurav Parab. The book is a scintillating debut about a man ready to embrace death to redeem his life.
*The book “When Breath Becomes Air” has been authored by Paul Kalanithi. The book is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
*The book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” has been authored by Atul Gawande.
*The World Bank Board has approved the $ 201.50 million for Technical Education Quality Improvement Project (TEQIP III) in India. The purpose of the project is to increase quality and equity in participating engineering education institutes and to improve the efficiency of the engineering education system in focus states.The maturity period for the project is 25 years with an additional 5 years grace period.
*The State Bank of India (SBI) has signed agreements with the World Bank for a $625 million credit facility to support grid connected rooftop solar programme in India.
*Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere (86), the famous Marathi writer, has recently passed away in Pune, Maharashtra. He was known for his exhaustive research in folk literature and bhakti tradition of Maharashtra. His works include Vividh, Gangajali, Dakshinecha Lokdev Khandoba, History of Nath Sampraday, Sri Venkateshwara, etc.
*The Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has recently launched NIVARAN portal, an online system for redressal of service related grievance of serving and former railway employees.
*The Union Sports Ministry granted recognition to Paralympic Committee of India that helps to the several para-athletes who have qualified for Rio Paralympics.
*Sameer Mon, the famous sprinter from Manipur, has recently won gold in 100 metre dash in 10.60 seconds at the 56th National Inter-state Senior Athletics Championships in Hyderabad. With this, he became the fastest male athlete in India.
* Mohammed Shahid was a member of the Indian Hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
*Major General Per Gustaf Lodin of Sweden is the newly appointed Chief Military Observer and Head of Mission for the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). He succeeded Major General Delali Johnson Sakyi of Ghana.
*The Kerala Government has banned the manufacture, sale, marketing and advertising of e-cigarettes (or electronic cigarette) in the state, as its use could lead to cancer and heart diseases. With this, Kerala has become the 4th state in India to ban e-cigarette after Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka. E-cigarettes are handy devices that emit doses of vaporized nicotine. Nicotine is lethal, addictive and extremely harmful.
*International Solar Alliance Cell and World Bank Signed Declaration for Promoting Solar Energy. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is being invited to attend the meeting to sign declaration to boost solar energy globally.
*In order to revive the India’s jet engine project France has decided to invest 1 Billion Euros on July 4th. This project aims at installing KAVERI – Indigenous gas turbines powering TEJAS FIGHTERS by 2020.
*India’s first integrated Defense Communication Network (DCN) has been launched by Union Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi. The network will facilitate Indian Army, Indian Air force, Indian Navy and the Special Forces Command to share situational awareness for a faster decision-making process. The DCN is a strategic, exclusive, secure and state-of-the-art communication network and has a pan-India reach from Ladakh to the North East to island territories. The network provides converged voice, data and video services to the three services based on the secured system with adequate redundancy. It is built by HCL under a nearly Rs. 600 crore project and is capable of working on terrestrial as well as satellite mode of communication and has also been fixed onboard different military vehicles.
*The Rapid Rural Police Response System (RRPRS) has been launched by Punjab police to ensure prompt and effective police response in villages to counter any crime or law and order situation in just 20 minutes. Under this response system, any resident from rural area would only have to make a call on police helpline “100” for any kind of assistance from the police force. The new system would be available for 24×7 hours to respond to all kinds of emergencies or ‘call-for-help’ from the citizens of the State.
*India’s first Commercial Court and Commercial Disputes Resolution Centre has been opened at Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. The complex has ultra-modern facilities like Video-conferencing, E-Court, E-Library, E-Filing and E-Summons. These facilities will help the investors in their commercial dealings.
* India hosted the 2016 meet of BRICS anti-narcotics heads on July 8, 2016 to discuss issues related to narco-terrorism and money laundering among the BRICS member-nations.
*The 2nd edition of BRICS Youth Summit 2016 was organized at Guwahati, Assam from 1st to 3rd July, 2016. The 2016 theme is “Youth as bridge for Intra-BRICS Exchanges”. The 1st BRICS Youth Summit held in Kazan, Russia in 2015.
*The first meeting of the BRICS Working Group on “Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency” will be held in Visakhapatnam,
*The 3rd edition of BRICS Urban Forum meeting 2016 will be host by Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh from September 14 to 16, 2016.
*The world’s first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) ‘Super Fight League’ will be hosted by India from August 26 to October 1, 2016.
*The first international film, arts and animal welfare festival “Animal-Human-Nature Continuum” has started at Liberty in Mumbai,India from July 1 and will continue till August 28, 2016. The focus of the unique festival is to highlight the relationship among animals, humans and nature. In it, over 150 films from more than 40 countries will be screened up.
*Lewis Hamilton, a British Formula One racing driver from England, has won the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix title of Formula One. It is his third title of the 2016 season after Monaco Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix.
*Sai Praneeth from India has won the 2016 Men’s Singles Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton tournament by defeating South Korean Lee Hyun-il in final.
*Elie Wiesel (87), the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist, has recently passed away in Manhattan, United States.
*Indian Students Scientist team named Screwdrivers comprising 13 students, including four girls, has won the team spirit award in NASA’s prestigious global competition to build and design remotely
operated vehicles from scratch.
*The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently launched a social media banking platform for Facebook and Twitter users “SBI Mingle”, which will allow its customers to access various banking services via these social platforms.
*The State Bank of India (SBI) has recently tied up with e-commerce giant Flipkart to offer new pre-approved Equated Monthly Installment(EMI) facility for SBI account holders.
*Neerja Bhanot, the senior flight purser on a Pan Am flight, has been conferred with the 2016 Bharat Gaurav Award in London, United Kingdom (UK) for her distinguished services to the nation and outstanding individual achievements.
*Lidudumalingani, the South African writer, filmmaker and photographer, has won the 17th edition of prestigious Caine Prize 2016 for his short story “Memories We Lost”.
*The United Nations (UN)’ International Co-operative Day (IDC) is observed every year on the first Saturday of July to recognize and reaffirms the role of cooperatives in economic, social and cultural development and in the achievement of social policy objectives. This year it is observed on July 2, 2016 with the theme “Co-operatives: The power to act for a sustainable future”.
*Bengaluru para swimmer Niranjan Mukundan has won 8 medals at the 2016 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) U-23 World Games in Prague, Czech Republic. He has bagged gold medals in 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke, silver in 100m fly and 50m freestyle, and bronze in 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke events.
*Gurpreet Singh Sandhu has become the first Indian footballer to play in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europa League.
*The top seed doubles Indian pair Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy have won the 2016 Men’s doubles Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton tournament by defeating Adrian Liu and Toby Ng in the final at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Canada. Both Attri and Reddy are the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016.
*The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently launched ‘MySpeed’ mobile app, which allow users to measure their internet speed on their smart phone and send results to a TRAI analytics portal.
*The recently released 2016 “State of the World’s Children” report is the annual flagship report of United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF - HQ in New York).
*Sudarshan Sen has been appointed as the new Executive Director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in place of N S Vishwanathan, who has been elevated as Deputy Governor at the central bank.
*Prakash Javadekar is the newly appointed Union Minister of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). He succeeded Smriti Irani. Previously, Javadekar was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
*The 5-time Olympian Shiva Keshavan has been appointed as the first President of the Olympians Association of India (OAI).
*The Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT, Maharashtra) has become the first port in India to implement the logistics data bank tagging of containers. It is first of its kind facility, which will help importers/exporters to track their goods in transit through logistics data bank service. The facility would be operated by a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID), which will be attached to each container and will be tracked through RIFD readers installed at different locations.
* The Government of India (GoI) will provide interest subvention of 5 % for all farmers for short term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh for FY 17 (2016-17)
*The world’s largest Charkha has been set up by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister Kalraj Mishra at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi.The 4-tones Charkha made from high-quality Burma teak wood is estimated to last for over 50 years. It is 9 feet wide, 17 feet tall and 30 feet long.
*Rajasthan has become the first Indian state to introduce minimum wages for part time.
*The Haryana Police has recently launched a 24-hour helpline to report incidents of the smuggling or slaughter of cows in the state, where cattle slaughter and beef sale are already banned.
*Shimla hosted the 4th edition of Woodpecker Environment and Wildlife Film Festival 2016.