GK & Current Affairs Quiz: July 17, 2018

Notes:
Under the existing legal regime, a candidate is allowed to contest from up to a maximum of two constituencies in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly polls. The PIL filed seeks to limit this to one seat because it leads to wastage of public money in getting the election conducted once again for the constituency which is left vacant by the winning candidate.

Notes:
On 16 July, India’s supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Odisha under extreme conditions. Brahmos is India’s only supersonic cruise missile and it can cruise at speeds of up to Mach 3.0, or three times the speed of sound.

Notes:
On July 16, 2018 IIT-Madras unveils “world’s first” remotely operable LEAP (Local Electrode Atom Probe (LEAP) microscope.

Notes:
Ayushman Mitra Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) will be a medical professional assisting patients seeking treatment. Their main work will be to assist patients coming to the hospital, and coordinate between patients and hospitals. The AB-NHPS aims at providing a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and benefiting more than 10 crore poor families.

Notes:
The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded in 1952 and its main work is in areas covering the international conventions and standards related to customs, trade, IPR protection etc.

Notes:
UK has topped an annual global ranking of nations’ soft power. The 2018 ‘Soft Power 30’ index is published by UK-based strategic communications consultancy firm Portland and the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy. This index has listed 30 countries in which France gets second place, Germany third and United States fourth. India does not feature in this list.

Notes:
The planned National Youth Empowerment Scheme will provide military training to 10 lakh young men and women every year to instil nationalism, discipline and self-esteem.

Notes:
On July 12, the government sharply increased the monetary threshold for filing appeals in tax disputes in various courts and decided to withdraw many pending appeals to cut down litigation and improve ease of doing business. The new monetary threshold for filing appeals in tribunals handling income tax as well as customs, excise and service tax disputes has been doubled from Rs.10 lakh to Rs.20 lakh. In the case of high courts, the monetary threshold is now Rs.50 lakh instead of Rs.20 lakh earlier. In the Supreme Court, the threshold has been increased from Rs25 lakh to Rs 1 crore. This will bring down tax litigation by 37%.

Notes:
The 2018 Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit is to commence from August 30, 2018 in Nepal. This is the fourth summit of BIMSTEC since its formation in 1997. Nepal is hosting it for the first time. It will see the heads of states from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand along with Nepal.

Notes:
The 1504 kilometers of Western DFC cover Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and UP. The Eastern DFC cover UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Punjab and Haryana.