Current Affairs - July 21, 2018 Current Affairs

Two women, Jayshree Ullal and Neerja Sethi, who belong to an Indian background, have secured a place on Forbes list of Americas 60 richest self- made women, ranking on the 18th and 21st spot, respectively. Ullal, the CEO of Arista Network was ranked on the 18th position and Sethi, the Vice President of a tech company called Syntel, secured 21st position on the 60 richest self- made women list.

Myanmar joined the India-initiated International Solar Alliance (ISA), thus, becoming the 68th signatory to the Framework Agreement of the ISA that aims for optimum utilisation of solar energy.

As per Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s Asian Development Outlook report India continues to be the fastest growing economy in Asia with projected GDP growth of 7.3 per cent. Growth would accelerate to 7.6 percent in 2019. Growth would be driven by increased public spending, higher capacity utilisation rate and uptick in private investment, reform in the banking sector and tax. China will decelerate to 6.6 per cent in 2018 and further to 6.4 per cent in 2019. Globally, South Asia would be the fastest growing sub-region despite trade tensions with US.

The Android Dev Summit is being organized at the Computer History Museum, Moutain View, California on 7 - 8 Nov 2018.

Odisha government appointed Senior bureaucrat Madhusudan Padhi as the principal secretary to Governor Dr Ganeshi Lal. He is currently posted as Transport Commissioner.

ISRO signed contracts with three vendors to outsource Spacecraft Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) activities. It is aimed at industry participation in satellite building activities. They will help ISRO assemble about 27 satellites over the next three years. The U R Rao Satellite Centre of ISRO has signed the agreements with Alpha Technologies Private Limited, Bengaluru, and its consortium partners; Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru, and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Hyderabad.

Facebook has confirmed it is working on a new satellite project, named Athena, that will provide broadband internet connections to rural and underserved areas. The company aims to launch satellite in early 2019. In 2016, Facebook's internet satellite for Africa was lost when SpaceX's rocket exploded.

National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has installed a remote sensing instrument- LiDAR for assessment of offshore wind resource at Gulf of Khambhat, off the Gujarat Coast. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has performed the following studies with foreign assistance during the past 3 years and current year.

The government on June 6 launched affordable biodegradable sanitary napkins, priced at Rs 2.50 per pad, to be sold under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) across the country. The Suvidha Oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins would be retailed through more than 3,600 Jan Aushadhi stores in 33 states and UTs across the country.

The 8th BRICS Health Minister's Meeting was held at Durban, South Africa. Indian deligation was led by Mr J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare. He stated that India is committed to eliminating TB by 2025. ndia's achievement in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 77%, from 556 per 1,00,000 live births in 1990 to 130 per 1,00,000 live births in 2016, was commended by the Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO).

Kenya has been chosen as the home-country for a Google-affiliated company to start its first-announced commercial deal that will deliver internet access to remote areas using high-altitude balloons. The high-altitude balloons have already been deployed in emergencies in Peru and Puerto Rice, where they helped regions devastated by floods and hurricanes.

A company called 'Made in Space' is working on a project to convert Asteroids into spacecrafts. The company's latest project is called RAMA (Reconstituting Asteroids into Mechanical Automata) which is being funded by NASA and aims to turn Asteroids into spacecraft.

Shubhankar Sharma became the youngest Indian golfer to make the cut in any Major after he capped a wonderful back nine to achieve the feat at the 147th Open Championships at Carnoustie, Scotland. Zach Johnson of the USA, the 2007 Masters and 2015 Open champion, rose to the top of the leaderboard.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) released the latest ODI rankings and India captain Virat Kohli has topped with a score of 911 points a career high for him. This is the highest since Australia's Dean Jones tally of 918 points in March 1991.

According to a recent UN report, India saw a major reduction in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. And Pakistan and the Philippinesn in Asia where HIV-Related cases are growing.

German auto major Volkswagen (VW) Group has planned to set up a design centre in Chakan near Pune. It is aimed to expand the production capacity of the company. VW would be investing ₹8,000 crore, in phases, in the design centre, development of new models and other activities. The group is targeting to achieve a 5% market share in India by 2025, from the current 1.8%, across brands. Currently, Volkswagen has 121 dealers across 104 cities in India and it is planning to increase the number of touch points.