Current Affairs - July 19, 2017 Current Affairs

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appointed Bharat Arun as the Indian Cricket team's bowling coach. BCCI's acting Secretary Amitabh Chaudhary announced that the cricket body has also decided to retain Sanjay Bangar as an assistant coach and R Sridhar as fielding coach till the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Navratna Schedule 'A' Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the financial year 2017-18 with the Ministry. The revenue from operations is targeted at Rs. 9000 crores.

The US and Australia have jointly test-fired a hypersonic missile capable of moving at a speed eight times faster than sound as part of a $54-million research project. The test was part of a project called the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation Program (HIFiRE) involving the US and Australian militaries, Queensland University, Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group.

According to the International Migration Outlook 2017 report on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries Indians are among top asylum-seekers in other countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Slovak Republic, United Kingdom and the United States of America. India and China were the largest source countries of asylum-seekers (11% and 9%), followed by Fiji (8%), Iraq (7%) and Pakistan (6%).

Canadian scientists identified a new bird-like species of dinosaur that lived nearly 71 million years ago. It has been named as the Albertavenatorcurriei, which means Currie's, Alberta Hunter. The species was found in Alberta, has been named in honour of famous Canadian palaeontologist Philip J. Currie.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley released a coffee table book on Ganga Avahan, a 2,800 km exploratory open-water swim expedition on the Ganga river. The book - "Ganga Avahan: The Epic Tale of a Historic Swim", is on the first-ever human effort to swim down the entire stretch of the river. It is also the longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activity for the Swachh Bharat Mission, Clean Ganga project and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative.

India and Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a village in Anuradhapura District (in Sri Lanka) at a cost of 30 crores Sri Lankan rupees. The village in the name of a famous Buddhist monk Sobitha Thero envisages construction of 153 new houses, a multi-purpose community building, internal water supply system and renovation of monk's quarters & library.

The Delhi government announced a 'merit cum means' scholarship for students from low and middle-income groups studying in state universities. The scheme has three categories based on the students' family income and will provide fee waivers up to 100%. However, students will need a minimum of 60% in the class they passed to qualify for the scheme.ss

India's largest commercial bank State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a dedicated portal 'SBI Realty' that will help home buyers to choose flats from its 3,000 approved projects across the country,which are spread across 13 states and Union Territories covering 30 cities. At present, there are 9.5 lakh home units available on the website. Customers can compare current and past trends of prices for the properties in various localities in the city.

The Bank of England today unveiled a new polymer £10 note featuring 19th century novelist Jane Austen, in a move to replace paper £5, £10 and £20 with secure plastic notes. This note's introduction marks the 200th anniversary of Austen's death. This makes Austen the only woman other than Queen Elizabeth to be featured on a polymer British banknote.

Britain's first woman Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill has been elected to an influential cross-party panel in the UK Parliament that examines the workings of the Home Office. She won the Edgbaston seat for the Labour party in the June 8 snap general election, was elected to the Home Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament.

Actor Kamal Haasan has been appointed as the Ambassador of the new Kabaddi team Tamil Thalaivas for the fifth season of Pro Kabaddi League co-owned by India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.

The Maharashtra government has approved a revised policy of the 'Majhi Kanya Bhagyashree' scheme, according to which families who have a yearly income of up to Rs 7.5 lakh will be benefited. The 'Majhi Kanya Bhagyashree' scheme catered to girls from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and those whose annual income was up to Rs 1 lakh.

T R Zeliang appointed as Chief Minister of Nagaland by Governor PB Acharya. Zeliang's appointment came after Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu and nine ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) legislators failed to appear for the floor test.

The U.S. Navy recently tested the world's first-ever active laser weapons system, which is now deployed and ready for war. The system has special materials that release photons and at the speed of light, it silently hits an object, burning it to a temperature of thousands of degrees. USS Ponce is first ship in the world to be deployed with such advanced weapons system.