Current Affairs Quiz - July 2022

Notes:
The government has approved the issuance of 21st phase of sale of electoral bonds through authorised SBI branches from July 1.
State Bank of India (SBI) is the only authorised institution to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches. The Electoral bonds are interest-free bearer instruments, which can be encashed by the party through a Bank account within 15 days.

Notes:
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue in June rose to ₹144,616 crore, the second-highest since the inception of GST five years ago.
The new high collection is on the back of rapid economic recovery and stricter compliance, as per the Union Finance Ministry said. In April, the collection was the highest ever at ₹1,67,540 crore. This is the fifth time the monthly GST collection crossed the ₹1.40 lakh crore mark and fourth month at a stretch since March 2022.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Digital India Week 2022 in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The theme for Digital India Week is Catalyzing New India’s Techade.
The Prime Minister also launched ‘Digital India Bhashini’ to enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages. ‘Digital India GENESIS’ – a National Deep-tech Startup Platform, to support successful start-ups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities with a total outlay of 750 crore rupees was also launched. A global repository of key projects implemented under India Stack ‘Indiastack.global’ was launched.

Notes:
The Central Government has levied windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers. Domestic producers sell crude oil to domestic refineries at international parity prices, thus making windfall gains.
The Government also hiked the import duty on gold and imposed export duties on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). These are the initiatives to reduce pressure on the rupee, reduce the current account deficit (CAD), and increase the domestic supply of petroleum products. Special additional excise duties of Rs 6 and Rs 13 per litre on export of petrol and diesel were announced.

Notes:
The 58-year-old Yair Lapid recently took over as Israel’s 14th prime minister after the country’s parliament dissolved.
The journalist-turned politician, has taken over as Israel’s caretaker prime minister as the country preparing to go for polls for the fifth time in four years in November. He built a coalition that ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12 consecutive years in power.

Notes:
The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is set to function from July this year. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research located in Geneva.
The Large Hadron Collider is a giant, complex machine built to study particles, the smallest known building blocks of all things.  Three years after it was shut down for maintenance and upgrades, the collider was switched back recently.

Notes:
The Union Home Ministry has amended certain rules related to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
As per the new rules, Indians can receive up to ₹10 lakh in a year from relatives staying abroad without informing the authorities. The limit was ₹1 lakh earlier. If the amount exceeds, the individuals will have 90 days to inform the government, instead of 30 days earlier.

Notes:
The Youth World champions Alfiya Pathan and Gitika won gold medals in the Elorda Cup in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan.
India’s other two female boxers Kalaivani Srinivasan and Jamuna Boro finished with silver medals. It was also the debut senior international event for both the young players, Alfiya and Gitika.

Notes:
Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani assumed additional charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs. She took over from Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who resigned from the Union Council of Ministers.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is currently in charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry assumed the additional charge of the Steel Ministry.

Notes:
Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled the ‘Statue of Peace’ of Swamy Ramanujacharya at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
Ramanujacharya is regarded as a Vedic philosopher and social reformer, who travelled across India, advocating equality and social justice. Ramanujacharya is known for revived the Bhakti movement and his preachings inspired other Bhakti schools of thought.