NATIONAL NEWS

Centre of Excellence in AI Launched in India

• The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology has inaugurated a Cantre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The centre was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

• The IAF Centre of Excellence for AI under the aegis of UDAAN was inaugurated at Air Force Station Rajokri, New Delhi.

• It will handle all aspects of analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks and deep learning algorithms.
• New technologies have the potential to transform societies and facilitate transparency and efficient governance.
• The CoE in AI has been established to improve the quality of services and their delivery to Indian citizens.

Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will deliver the first Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture (AJML) at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi

• He will also address the crowd at various points during the event.

• The opening keynote address of the first AJML will be delivered by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister, Government of Singapore, on the theme “Growth through Inclusivity, Inclusivity through Growth.”
• Arvind Panagariya and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann will take part in a panel discussion following the presentation (Professor, Columbia University).
• The inaugural Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture was given in recognition of the former union minister’s tremendous services to the nation.

Declaration Of Intent to Combat Human Trafficking

• Women and Child welfare representatives from 6 Indian states Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana signed an Inter-State Declaration of Intent to work in collaboration to combat trafficking in persons.

• The first-of-its-kind agreement focuses on joint efforts on intelligence gathering and sharing legal and witness protection and rehabilitation and care for survivors.

• The declaration will be called the ‘Hyderabad Declaration’.
• The two-day Southern Regional Consultation to Combat Human Trafficking was hosted by the Telangana Government in collaboration with the nonprofits Prajwala and Shakti Vahini concluded with the signing of this declaration.
• The US Consulates General in Hyderabad and Kolkata supported the conference.

BANKING

City Union Bank Partnered with Shriram General Insurance

• The City Union Bank and Shriram General Insurance signed corporate agency agreement
• The Bank will distribute the Shriram General Insurance products through the bank's network of 727 branches across the country.
• Under this agreement, Shriram General Insurance will offer personal lines of insurance products such as motor, personal accident, home and travel, along with commercial products such as property, marine and engineering insurance.
• The partnership enables them to provide best-in-class products to CUB customers.

Bank Deposit Growth Moderates to 10%

• As per the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the share of current account and savings account (CASA) deposits in total deposits has been increasing over the years and stood at 44.8% in March 2022 as compared with 41.7% three years ago.

• These low-cost deposits accounted for 60.9% and 55.6% of incremental deposits during 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.

• Bank deposit growth moderated to 10% in March 2022 as compared with 11.9% a year ago.
• Current, savings and term deposits increased by 10.9%, 13.3%, and 7.9% respectively during 2021-22.

RBI Clears Payment Aggregator License

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave payment aggregator (PA) and payment gateway (PG) licenses in principle to Razorpay, Pine Labs and American payments player Stripe.

• The companies have become the first players to receive such a license.

• Payment aggregators are entities that enable e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for completion of their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own.
• According to RBI guidelines, payment aggregators need to have a net worth of Rs 15 crore as of March 2021 and a net worth of Rs 25 crore by on or before FY23.

SPORTS

Wimbledon Men’s Singles Title

• Novak Djokovic won his fourth straight Wimbledon men’s singles title and his 21st grand slam title overall.

• The Serbian star beat Australian Nick Kyrgios in the final on Centre Court, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 in London.

• Djokovic has won the Wimbledon crown for the fourth straight year.

Austrian Grand Prix

• Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc won the Austrian F1 Grand Prix.

• Red Bull racer Max Verstappen came second while Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished the race third respectively.
• This was Leclerc’s third win of the year.
• Leclerc had earlier won the Bahrain GP and the Australian GP in 2022 respectively.

Indian Olympic Association Partners with JSW Inspire

• JSW Inspire has partnered with the Indian Olympic Association.

• JSW Inspire, an active-wear brand owned by The JSW Group will be the sports performance and lifestyle partner of the Indian Olympic Association through the next cycle of Commonwealth, Asian and Olympic Games.

• Under this partnership, Team India contingents will wear the company’s apparel at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the 2022 Asian Games scheduled to be held in Hangzhou in 2023 and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
• The group had previously sponsored the Indian contingent ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The First Bowler to Bowl 500 Dot Balls in the T20s

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar has become the first bowler in T20 to bowl 500 dot balls.

• He achieved the feat in a match against England.

• He surpassed Tim Southee of New Zealand (368) and Samuel Badree of the West Indies (383).
• Bhuvneshwar gave India a perfect start defending 171.

2022 World Games-Archery Games

• Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Abhishek Verma have made history by winning the bronze medal at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, USA.

• They won the medal in the compound mixed team event after defeating Mexico’s Miguel Becerra and Andrea Becerra 157-156.

• This was the first-ever World Games archery medal for India and an overall 50th international medal for Verma.

RANKS, INDICES & REPORTS

Unemployment Rate Rises in June 2022

• The country's unemployment rate has raised up at 7.80 per cent in June with the loss of 13 million jobs mainly in the agriculture sector.

• The data was released by economic think-tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

• The massive fall in number of jobs last month was triggered by higher unemployment rate in rural areas, which went up to 8.03 per cent from 6.62 per cent in May. In urban areas, it was slightly better at 7.30 per cent compared to 7.12 per cent recorded in May, according to the CMIE data.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

AATC’s Youngest Analog Astronaut

• Nineteen-year-old Jahnavi Dangeti has become the youngest to complete the Analog Astronaut programme from the Analog Astronaut Training Centre (AATC) at Krakow in South Poland.

• Ms.Jahnavi has completed the two-week training programme in June 2022 at the AATC.
• AATC is a private agency set up by the European Space professionals to carry out spaceflight scientific studies.
• She was one among the 6 persons selected from across the globe for the programme.

MD of NHSRCL

• Shri Rajendra Prasad assumed the charge of Managing Director, National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited in addition to his duties as Director of Project, NHSRCL.

• Shri Prasad is working as Director of Project with NHSRCL since November 2017 and is overall in charge of civil engineering works of the Mumbai Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project, popularly known as the Bullet Train Project.

• NHSRCL was incorporated in 2016 to manage the High-Speed Rail Corridor in India.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Population Day

• World Population Day is celebrated every year on 11 July.

• World Population Day aims to increase people's awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights.

• The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989.
• It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on 11 July 1987, the approximate date on which the world's population reached five billion people.
• Theme for the year 2022 is ‘A world of 8 billion: towards a resilient future for all - harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices for all’.