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 17 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 17 July 2021
India’s first “Grain ATM” has been set up in Haryana
Haryana Government has recently set up its first ATM machine for dispensing food grains at Farrukhnagar in Gurugram.
The purpose of this ATM is to make the distributions of grains at government-run ration shops easy and hassle-free.
Haryana Deputy CM further informed that each machine can dispense up to 70kg of grains within five to seven minutes, at a time.
The machine also has a biometric system with a touch-screen, where the beneficiaries have to enter their Aadhaar or ration card number to get their grains.
UAE become the first Gulf state to open an embassy in Israel
The United Arab Emirates became the first Gulf nation to open an embassy in Israel, nearly a year after both countries signed an agreement to normalise diplomatic ties.
The new mission is located in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange building. The ceremony was attended by new Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Israel and the UAE announced in August 2020 that they would normalise diplomatic relations, bringing over a decade of covert ties into the open.
Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco later also joined the US-brokered Abraham Accords, and other countries were also rumoured to be in talks.
93rd Foundation day of Indian Council of Agriculture Research
Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) celebrated its 93rd foundation day virtually on 16 July 2021.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India.
It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture. The Union Minister of Agriculture serves as its president.
It is the largest network of agricultural research and education institutes in the world.
Karnataka state government launched Electric Bike Taxi scheme 2021
Karnataka State Government recently launched the Electric Bike Taxi scheme-2021 in Bengaluru, in a bid to generate employment, bring down pollution and reduce dependence on private vehicles.
The unveiling of the policy comes after several attempts were made to resist the granting of licences to initiate two-wheeler taxi in the city.
The new policy will lead to self-employment, eco-friendly environment, fuel conservation and strengthening public transport.
Soon after the launch of bike-taxis by cab-aggregators like Ola and Uber in 2016, the transport department cracked down on them, seizing vehicles since there were no provisions in existing laws.
Ladakh signed MoU with Sikkim to turn Ladakh into an organic entity by 2025
Ladakh administration has signed an MoU with Sikkim State Organic Certification Agency (SOCCA) to turn the Union Territory into an organic entity.
A tripartite MoU has been signed between Ladakh and SSOCA regarding the implementation of Prampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana and Mission Organic Development Initiative (MODI) in the Ladakh region with the aim to convert Ladakh into organic entity by 2025.
Ladakh Agriculture Secretary Ravinder Kumar said that the aim is to make Ladakh a certified organic UT by 2025 which will be completed in three phases.
In the first phase, 85 villages have been identified with an aim to convert 5000 hectares of land into organic and in the 2nd phase, 82 villages will be covered with an area of 10,000 hectares and under the 3rd phase, the department has selected 79 villages which will cover the remaining areas.
Sikkim is the first state that is 100 per cent organic with all of its farmland certified organic. The use and sale of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are banned in Sikkim.
Bilateral trade between China-India rose by 62.7% in the first half of 2021
The Bilateral trade between China-India in the first half of 2021 rose by a record 62.7%, the highest increase among China’s major trade partners with total two-way trade surpassing the pre-pandemic levels.
Though Indian exports to China picked up with 69.6 per cent year on year increase, the trade deficit, a structural problem for India for long, climbed to 55.6 per cent.
According to data released by China’s Customs, India’s exports to China reached USD 14.724 billion, up 69.6 per cent year on year in the first six months and India’s imports from China amounted to USD 42.755 billion, up 60.4 per cent.
China’s overall trade in the first half of the year rose by 27.1 per cent year on year to 18.07 trillion yuan (about USD 2.79 trillion) in the first six months.
Nationwide campaign “Covid vaccine with safe forest, money and enterprise”
Arjun Munda, Tribal Affairs Minister has launched ‘Covid vaccine with safe forest, wealth & enterprise’ campaign to create awareness among tribal people about Covid vaccination drive.
The campaign aims to create awareness about Covid vaccination among tribals. It will also boost ‘Van, Dhan, Vikas’ centres.
It will aware tribals that Covid vaccine is free and is available in nearby hospitals. Vaccines not only protect people from being hospitalized but also death and it will also help in continuing the livelihood activities.
Rajnath Singh launched an application for Grievance Management powered by AI
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently launched a grievance management application powered by artificial intelligence and data science.
The application was created by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
The AI tool created as part of the effort is capable of deciphering the complaint’s substance based on its contents.
As a consequence, it is capable of automatically identifying repeated complaints or spam.
It may categorise complaints into multiple categories based on their meaning, even when the key phrases often used for such searches are not included in the complaint.
It provides geographical analysis of complaints within a category, as well as an assessment of whether or not the complaint was appropriately addressed by the responsible agency.
Delhi government to provide real-time information about buses to passengers
The Delhi government joined hands with tech giant Google to provide real-time information about buses to commuters as well as make public transport more user-friendly in the national capital.
Now, passengers will be able to plan their bus journeys to the minute, according to Gahlot.
Once the project starts, Delhi buses’ static and dynamic location data will be available in real-time for commuters.
A passenger will get details about all bus stops and routes, all arrival and departure times of buses in real-time and even by bus numbers.
Also, there will be updates in case of delays. With this, the waiting time and crowding at bus stops will reduce and the accountability of public buses will increase.
ITRA signed MoU with Government of Gujarat on the field of Ayurveda
An MoU was signed between Jamnagar based Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA) under Ministry of Ayush and the Government of Gujarat.
Through this MoU all the institutions functioning in the Ayurveda campus in Jamnagar have been brought under the umbrella of ITRA, the only institution under the Ministry of Ayush that has been accorded the status of Institute of National Importance (INI).
This will pave the way of the strengthening of the education system in all branches of Ayurveda.
Skill India Mission has completed Six years
Skill India campaign which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th July 2015 to train the people in different skills, has completed six years recently.
Electronics Sector Skills Council of India (ESSCI) has been launched with a primary mandate of enhancing and to build a capacity in skill development.
One of the salient features of the ESSCI is designing of the training programmes, based on industry demands of different segments and to ensure that all successful trainees are certified through accredited assessment agencies.
The focus of the Mission and its Various initiatives are:
- National Skill Development Mission
- National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
- Skill Loan scheme
- Rural India Skill
World Day for International Justice 2021
World Day for International Justice is observed on 17 July each year to promote international criminal justice and as a way of supporting the work of the ICC.
The aim of this day is to unite everyone who wants to support justice as well as promote victims rights.
It is to help prevent serious crimes and those that put the peace, security and well-being of the world at risk.
ICC stands for the International Criminal Court. It came about when 120 states adopted a statute in Rome.
It was known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. All the countries that agreed to adopt the statute were accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC, with regards the prosecution of very serious crimes.
NCW signs MoU with BPR&D for Nation-Wide
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has signed an MoU with Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) for gender sensitization of police personnel across the country.
The MoU between the two organisations was signed in the presence of Members and officials of the Commission.
The objective of the programme is to ensure gender sensitization of police personnel with respect to legislation and policies concerning women and bringing attitudinal and behavioural changes in police officers while dealing with crimes against women.
The Commission has been regularly organising gender sensitization programs for police officers to achieve the objective of building trust of women complainants in police.
It is with this objective that NCW has decided to launch a programme across the country to sensitize officials on gender related issues and empower them to perform their duties effectively, without prejudice and bias especially in cases of gender-based crimes.
Government launched School Innovation Ambassador Training Program
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda jointly launched the ‘School Innovation Ambassador Training Program’ for 50,000 school teachers
The innovative and one-of-its-kind training program for school teachers, it aims at training 50,000 School Teachers on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, IPR, Design Thinking, Product development, Idea generation, among others.
The program has been designed by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education and AICTE for school Teachers based on its “Innovation Ambassador Training Program for Higher Educational Institution’s faculty members”. The training will be delivered in online mode only.
Automated Train Toilet Sewerage Disposal System
Dr. R.V. Krishnaiah from Chebrolu Engineering College developed an automated technology for collection of toilet waste which is easy to maintain and seven times cheaper alternative to the bio-toilets which can be used to maintain the toilet system of the Indian Railways.
Existing Bio toilets use anaerobic bacteria for converting human waste to gas, but that bacteria can’t decompose plastic and cloth materials dumped into toilets by passengers.
This is an automated system for collection of toilet waste from running trains and segregation of different materials and processing into usable things.
The technology developed with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies programme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), aligned with the ‘Make in India’ initiative has been granted five National patents and is in the testing phase.
This technology has been developed targeting the Indian Railways specifically with the aim of cost reduction and to obviate the necessity of time-consuming anaerobic bacteria generation.
