Daily Current Affairs Quiz 5th July 2024

” Notes:the 24th sco heads of state meeting was held on july 4, 2024, in astana, kazakhstan. hosted by president tokayev, the summit admitted belarus as the 10th full member. indian prime minister narendra modi skipped the meeting, represented by external affairs minister dr. s jaishankar, who reiterated modi’s stance against terrorism. key leaders, including putin, xi jinping, and erdogan, attended, emphasizing the priority of combating terrorism and radicalization.”

” Notes:using ai, researchers discovered potential cancer drivers in ‘junk’ dna regions, which are noncoding sections of dna. while dna codes for proteins, not all sequences serve this function. some noncoding dna produces rna components, but others have unknown functions and are termed junk dna. in humans, 98% of dna is noncoding, compared to 2% in bacteria. evidence suggests junk dna might have functional roles through exaptation, gaining functions beyond natural selection.”

Notes india will host the 46th session of the unesco world heritage committee from 21-31 july 2024 at bharat mandapam in new delhi this significant cultural diplomacy event will attract more than 2500 delegates from 195 countries including state parties to the world heritage convention

” Notes:the national informatics center (nic) and the spices board of India have signed an MoU to develop ai tools for detecting and classifying large cardamom diseases in Sikkim. led by nic’s ai centre of excellence in kolkata, the project analyzes images of cardamom leaves to identify diseases early. this initiative, following three months of discussions, is a significant step in leveraging ai for agricultural advancements in sikkim.”

” Notes: Niti aayog launched the ‘sampoornata abhiyan’ on July 4, 2024, targeting 100% saturation of 12 key social sector indicators across 112 aspirational districts and 500 aspirational blocks. running until september 30, the campaign saw enthusiastic participation from officials, frontline workers, and citizens nationwide. events included health camps, cultural programs, and awareness yatras, emphasizing community involvement and commitment to the campaign’s goals from jammu and kashmir to the andaman and nicobar islands.”

” Challa sreenivasulu setty has been selected as the 27th chairman of state bank of india (sbi) by the financial services institution bureau (fsib), an arm of the central government of india.• setty will succeed current chairman dinesh kumar khara, whose extended term is set to end on august 28 2024.• currently, setty is serving as one of the managing directors (md) of the sbi.”

” South African revenue service (sars) commissioner edward kieswetter has been re-elected as the chairperson of world customs organisation (wco) for 2nd consecutive term (2024-2025).• he was elected by the wco council, the highest decision making body of wco, during its 143rd/144th sessions held in brussels, belgium from 27th june to 29th june, 2024.• the event witnessed the participation of directors general (dg) of 186 member nations of wco.”

” On 30th june 2024, union minister bhupender yadav, ministry of environment, forest and climate change (moef&cc) launched the ‘fauna of india checklist portal,’ the 1st comprehensive document on the faunal species reported from india.• the checklist was launched during the event organised to mark the celebration of the 109th foundation day of the zoological survey of india (zsi) in kolkata, west bengal.• with this, india becomes the 1st country to prepare a comprehensive checklist of its entire fauna, covering 1,04,561 species.• union minister bhupender yadav launched ‘animal discoveries–2023’ of zsi, comprising 641 new animal species discovered published by scientists and experts from india during 2023.• he also launched ‘plant discoveries-2023’ of the botanical survey of india (bsi), comprising 339 taxa discovered in 2023.click here to read more”

” Goods and service tax (gst) day is annually observed across india on 1 july to commemorate the implementation of the gst regime, a comprehensive indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services in india, which came into effect on 1 july 2017.• 1 july 2024 marks the observance of the 7th gst day, commemorating the 7th anniversary of the coming into force of gst.• the 2024 theme for the gst day is, “sashakt vyapar samagra vikas” (empowered trade overall growth).• gst was launched on july 1, 2017 in india. the government of india (goi) announced the decision to celebrate the 1st july of every year as ‘gst day’ on 30 june 2018.click here to read more”

National doctors day is observed annually across india on 1 july to honour the contributions of doctors and healthcare professionals to society and to recognise and appreciate the role of doctors in keeping the nation healthy the day also commemorates the birth and death anniversary of bharat ratna dr bidhan chandra roy

” I.on june 25, 2024, the ministry of housing and urban affairs (mohua) celebrated the 9th anniversary of three key initiatives: the atal mission for rejuvenation and urban transformation (amrut), the smart cities mission, and pradhan mantri awas yojana – urban (pmay-u).ii.launched on june 25, 2015, by prime minister narendra modi, these programs have significantly enhanced urban infrastructure and improved the quality of life for millions in india.iii.amrut 2.0, an extension of the original amrut mission, focuses on enhancing urban infrastructure, particularly in water supply, sewerage, and water body rejuvenation.iv.pmay-u aims to provide all-weather pucca houses with basic amenities to urban india’s eligible beneficiaries.v.the smart cities mission has transformed 100 cities through over 8,000 projects totaling approximately rs 1.6 lakh crore.”

” The ministry of statistics and programme implementation (mospi) released a report titled ‘payroll reporting in india: an employment perspective january to april, 2024‘ which highlights a decline in gross new subscribers/members addition to the employees’ provident fund organisation (epfo) for the fiscal year 2023-24 (fy24) by over 4% to 10.9 million as compared to fy 2022-23 (fy23).• epfo recorded 10,993,119 gross additions of new members fy24 as compared to 11,498,453 in fy23.• the employees’ state insurance corporation (esic) also saw a slight dip in new member additions to 16,760,672 in 2023-24 from 16,773,023 in 2022-23.• the national pension scheme (nps) saw an increase in new subscribers, rising to 9,37,020 in 2023-24 from 8,24,735 in 2022-23.”

” On june 30, 2024, the prime minister (pm) of india narendra modi released three books on the life and journey of former vice president muppavarapu venkaiah naidu through video conferencing from delhi on the eve of naidu’s 75th birthday (july 1, 2024).i.biography of the former vice president titled ‘venkaiah naidu – life in service’, which was authored by shri s nagesh kumar, former resident editor of the hindu, hyderabad edition.ii.’celebrating bharat – the mission and message of shri m venkaiah naidu as 13th vice–president of india’, a photo chronicle compiled by dr i.v. subba rao, former secretary to the vice-president of india.iii.pictorial biography in telugu titled ‘mahaneta – life and journey of shri m. venkaiah naidu’, which was authored by shri sanjay kishore.iv.in 2024, venkaiah naidu received the padma vibhushan, the second highest civilian award from the president of india droupadi murmu.”

” State bank of india (sbi), india’s largest public sector bank (psb), has launched “msme-sahaj”, web-based digital business loans solutions for micro, small and medium enterprises (msmes) invoice financing.• objective: to offer “on tap” short-term credit to meet the capital needs of msme units who are part of goods and services tax (gst) regime.• using msme sahaj, the sbi customers can avail finance or loan against their gst-registered sales invoices of up to rs 1 lakh.”

” On july 1, 2024, the reserve bank of india (rbi) has joined project nexus, a multilateral international initiative aimed at facilitating instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking domestic fast payments systems (fpss) through a unified platform.• project nexus is conceptualized by the innovation hub of the basel, switzerland-based bank for international settlements (bis) to streamline and standardize the connection between domestic instant payment systems (ips) worldwide.• it is the first bis project in payments moving towards live implementation.• it aims to connect the fpss of malaysia, philippines, singapore, thailand, and india as the founding members, and first mover countries of the platform.• an agreement for the same was signed by the bis and the central banks of the founding countries viz. bank negara malaysia (bnm), bank of thailand (bot), bangko sentral ng pilipinas (bsp), monetary authority of singapore (mas), and the rbi on june 30, 2024, in basel, switzerland.• the platform is expected to go live by 2026, with the potential for future expansion.”