HDFC Bank, on  Jul 13 , announced the launch of United Payment Interface (UPI) Quick Response (QR) code that is interoperable with Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or e-rupee, making it one of the first banks in the country to complete the integration process.

This move allows its customers to transact with money in their CBDC wallet across UPI QR code and is a big boost to Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) drive to increase the usage of e-rupee. Other banks are also expected to announce similar initiative as the central bank has been pushing banks to implement the interoperability between CBDC and UPI.

Earlier this week, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said that interoperability will boost CBDC transactions in the country.

The central bank is planning to increase the digital rupee transactions to 10 lakh per day by the end of the year from 5,000-10,000 per day now. The number of banks in the pilot has gone up to 13 from eight banks initially, and at present, there are 13 lakh users of the CBDC, including 3 lakh merchants. There were only 1 lakh users till April-end this year, which has now been increased to 13 lakh.

HDFC Bank has on-boarded over 1 lakh customers and over 1.7 lakh merchants on the CBDC pilot programme. 

Female trans person athletes who transitioned after male puberty will be prohibited from women's events in all categories of cycling, the sport's governing body said.

The International Cycling Union (UCI)'s president David Lappartient said the federation "has a duty to guarantee, above all, equal opportunities for all competitors in cycling competitions".

The new rules, which come into force on July 17, follow similar rulings by other Olympic sports such as athletics.

But the current state of scientific knowledge does not guarantee such equality of opportunity between trans person female athletes and cisgender female participants, he added.

The UCI said it was open to changing these rulings in the future as scientific knowledge evolves.

To this end, UCI will begin discussions with other members of the international sporting movement on the co-financing of a research programme aimed at studying changes in the physical performance of highly-trained athletes undergoing transitional hormone treatment.

Last year top British women's cyclists threatened to boycott events after 22-year-old Emily Bridges, who was dropped by the British academy programme as a male rider, attempted to join the women's omnium team.

India's shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor stamped his authority in the continental circuit by defending his Asian Athletics Championships title before limping out of the competition after his gold-winning second round throw.

The Asian record holder Toor threw the iron ball to a distance of 20.23m in his second throw but limped out after the effort, holding his groin.

Saberi Mehdi (19.98m) of Iran and Ivan Ivanov (19.87m) of Kazakhstan took the silver and bronze respectively.

The 28-year-old Toor became only the third shot putter to defend the Asian Championships title.

Qatari Bilal Saad Mubarak had achieved the feat twice by winning consecutive titles in 1995 and 1998, and again in 2002 and 2003.

Mohd Gharib Al Zinkawi of Kuwait had won the title thrice in a row -- 1979, 1981 and 1983.

Ask anyone who has followed the Indian women's cricket team for a while, and they will tell you exactly where they were on July 20, 2017 — the day India reached the World Cup final for the first time since 2005. It was a momentous occasion for the team as they made it to the final of the global event after 12 years. What followed in the final was one of the early instances of their batting order collapse. From 191/4, India slipped to 219 all out, falling short by nine runs.

Six years after that momentous occasion, India has made it to the knockouts of every single T20 World Cup, falling short every time courtesy some batting collapse. In the recently concluded T20I series against Bangladesh, similar issues have surfaced again. In the first T20I of the tour, India chased down a modest total of 114, largely due to a contribution from Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. The second T20I saw Mandhana and Kaur depart early and the floodgates opened for the relatively inexperienced Bangladesh bowlers as India lost the next seven wickets for 62 runs. The similar scenes followed in the final T20I on  Jul 13  as they lost five wickets for 11 runs. Except this time, the hosts held their nerve to hand India a four-wicket defeat. India might have sealed the series 2-1, but there are issues they need to address in their middle-order, read after Harmanpreet Kaur, especially on slow surfaces like the one they played this week. That the next T20 World Cup is happening in Bangladesh is all the more reason to act swiftly.

Brief scores: India 102/9 in 20 ovs (Harmanpreet 40, Jemimah 28; Rabeya 3/16) lost to Bangladesh 103/6 in 18.2 ovs (Shamima 42).

The second day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok was quite fruitful for India. They won three gold, and two bronze. What seems more heartening is that India have made their mark in events where athletes are young and new.

Young sprinter Jyothi Yarraji had a startling run during the 100m hurdles on a wet . Despite a slip in the seventh hurdle, she managed to maintain her balance and touch the tape in 13.09s. Though the mark was below her national record of 12.82s, she was happy to finish on top of the podium. However, she felt she could have done better in the final where she finished ahead of Japan’s Terada Asuka (13.13s) and her teammate Aoki Masumi (13.26s).

On the other hand, high jump exponent Tejaswin Shankar won bronze with 7527 points in the decathlon. Triple jump star Abdulla Aboobacker and middle-distance runner Ajay Kumar Saroj won the other two gold medals. While quartermiler Aishwarya Mishra won bronze with a timing of 53.07s.

Q1. Name the senior Indian off-spinner  who has achieved a rare distinction of getting the wickets of both father and son in his illustrious Test career when he dismissed Tagenarine Chanderpaul on the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies ?

1. Ravichandran Ashwin
2. Yuzvendra Chahal
3. Kuldeep Yadav
4. Ravindra Jadeja
5. None of These

Q2. Name the Bengaluru-based startup   which is at the centre of a controversy after it fired 90 per cent of its customer support team and replaced them with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ?

1. Risemetric
2. Rankz.io
3. Dukaan
4. Cred
5. None of These

Q3. Name the the promoter of cash-strapped SpiceJet who  has decided to infuse Rs 500 Crore into the airline by way of subscribing fresh equity shares and/or convertible instruments ?

1. Sanjay Ghodawat
2. Ajay Singh
3. N. Chandrasekaran
4. Campbell Wilson
5. None of These

Q4. India was among the 28 countries that voted in favour of a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on religious hatred in the backdrop of the burning of the Quran in

1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. None of These

Q5. Name the place where the meeting of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers was held recently ?

1. Bandar Seri Begawan
2. Bangkok
3. Jakarta
4. Kuala Lumpur
5. None of These

Answers

1-------------------1   Ravichandran Ashwin

2-----------------------3  Dukaan

3-----------------------2  Ajay Singh

4------------------------4     Sweden

5-------------------------3   Jakarta

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on  Jul 13  accorded a red-carpet welcome as he arrived in Paris on a two-day visit during which he will hold wide-ranging talks with President Emmanuel Macron and join him for the French National Day celebrations as the Guest of Honour.

In a special gesture, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne received Modi at the airport.

He was given a guard of honour at the airport and the national anthem of both countries was played.

Ahead of his departure, Modi expressed confidence that his visit will provide a new impetus to the bilateral strategic partnership.

Expansion of bilateral defence ties is expected to be a key focus of Prime Minister Modi's talks with Macron.

Modi said his visit to France was particularly special as he will join President Macron for the French National Day, or Bastille Day celebrations in Paris as the Guest of Honour.

A 269-member Indian tri-services contingent will participate in the parade.

Three Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will also join the flypast on the occasion along with French jets.

Noting that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the India-France strategic partnership, Modi said that rooted in deep trust and commitment, the two countries cooperate closely across various domains, including defence, space, civil nuclear, blue economy, trade, investment, education, culture and people-to-people ties.

Modi had the opportunity to meet President Macron several times since his last official visit to France in 2022, most recently in Hiroshima, Japan in May 2023 during the G-7 Summit.

Modi will also meet the vibrant Indian community, leading CEOs from both countries as well as prominent French personalities.

From Paris, Modi will travel to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for an official visit on July 15.

The Defence Acquisition Council on  Jul 13  approved the acquisition of maritime combat jets.

The proposal includes the construction of three new submarines jointly with French Original Equipment Manufacturers.

The move  is aimed at strengthening the country's maritime air combat capability. The construction of the additional Scorpene submarine will add to Indian the Navy’s underwater combat capability.

The deal to buy 26 Rafale M jets and three additional Scorpene submarines from France are expected to be announced during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to France during July 14-16.

The deals are estimated to be valued at around Rs 90,000 crore. The 26 Rafale-Marine combat jets will include 22 single-seater and four double-seater trainer versions.

As per procedure, it is the DAC that grants the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) which sets the procedure for acquisition. The Defence Acquisition Council is the highest decision-making body on issues related to policy and capital procurement and is chaired by the Defence Minister.