The government has appointed telecom secretary K Rajaraman as the new Chairman of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) for a period of three years with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post, or till attaining the age of 65 years, or until further orders, whichever is the earliest.

K Rajaraman will be taking over from Injeti Srinivas, who assumed the responsibility of the chairperson of IFSCA on 9 July 2020. K Rajaraman is an Indian Administrative Services Officer of the 1989 batch, from the Tamil Nadu cadre. Rajaraman has held many important positions in the Union Government which include additional secretary in the Department of economic affairs, and joint secretary in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, and the Government of India.

Parth Salunkhe became the first male archer to win a gold in the recurve category at the Youth World Championships as India finished with their highest-ever tally of 11 medals.

The 19-year-old from Satara in Maharashtra provided the perfect icing on the cake by defeating a Korean in the Under-21 men's recurve individual final.

Salunkhe, who topped the rankings round, prevailed over seventh-seed Song Injun 7-3 (26-26, 25-28, 28-26, 29-26, 28-26) in a hard-fought five-setter.

India also clinched a bronze medal in the Under-21 women's recurve individual section when Bhaja Kaur defeated Su Hsin-Yu of Chinese Taipei 7-1 (28-25, 27-27, 29-25, 30-26).

India finished with six gold, one silver and four bronze medals, which was highest in the standings in terms of total number of medals.

But in terms of rankings, they finished second behind Korea who took the pole position with six gold and four silver medals.

In women's recurve section, Deepika Kumari had become cadet and youth world champions in 2009 and 2011, a feat that was emulated by her Jharkhand state mate Komalika Bari in 2019 and 2021.

Overall, Salunkhe is the sixth Indian archer to become world champion in the youth showpiece.

On a day when Brad Pitt joined the Formula One grid to shoot his new movie, defending champion Max Verstappen was reduced to a cameo role in his own win with F1 fans gripped by the fight for second place.

Apart from losing the lead to Lando Norris at the start - and then taking it back - Verstappen's cruise on Jul 10 to yet another win - his sixth in a row - lacked the Hollywood-style drama of Norris' battle with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton for second.

That fits a pattern this season of dominant wins for the Red Bull driver and increasingly hard-fought battles behind him as Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and now McLaren jostle to be the second-fastest team.

Verstappen extended his overall lead to 99 points over teammate Sergio Perez.

Red Bull has won all 10 races this year, 11 in a row including the final race of 2022, matching the record of McLaren with 11 consecutive wins in 1988.

England beat Australia by three wickets in a nail-biting third Test at Headingley on  Jul 9 to keep the five-match Ashes series alive.

Harry Brook and Chris Woakes shared a crucial partnership of 59 that took England to the brink of victory before Brook fell for 75 to Mitchell Starc (5-78).

The recalled duo of Woakes (32 not out) and Mark Wood (16 not out) then saw England home with more than a day to spare to cut Australia's series lead to 2-1.

Q1) Name the diamond mining giant  which has signed a 10-year sales pact and a 25-year new lease agreement with Botswana that will have natural rough supply coming through the pipeline for the next 30 years ?

1. Ekati
2. Debswana
3. Catoca Mine
4. De Beers
5. None of These

Q2) Who among the following has became the first male archer to win a gold in the recurve category at the Youth World Championships as India finished with their highest-ever tally of 11 medals ?

1. Tarundeep Rai                                                                                                                    
2. Limba Ram
3. Majhi Sawaiyan
4. Parth Salunkhe
5. None of These

Q3) Name the telecom secretary who has been appointed  as the new Chairman of the International Financial Services Centres authority  (IFSCA)  for a period of three years with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post, or till attaining the age of 65 years ?

1. K Rajaraman
2. Ram Subhag Singh
3. Pradipta Kumar Bisoi
4. Aruna Sundar Rajan
5. None of These

Q4) Which  among the following  has become the first IIT in the country to launch an international campus at Zanzibar-Tanzania ?

1. IIT Delhi
2. IIT  Kanpur
3. IIT Madras
4. IIT  Bombay                   
5. None of These

Q5) Name the Congress leader and former deputy chief minister who has been arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income during the period between 2016 to 2022 ? 

1. Bharat Bhushan Ashu   
2. Sadhu Singh Dharamsot
3. O P Soni
4. Charanjit Singh Channi
5. None of These 

ANSWERS

1-----------4   De Beers

2----------------4   Parth Salunkhe

3----------------1   K Rajaraman                                                         

4----------------3 IIT Madras

5-----------------3    O P Soni

·       The menace of stray cattle, which was a main poll plank in 2022 assembly elections, still persists to haunt the farmers in Uttar Pradesh. After making not so successful attempts to address the issue and Lok Sabha elections round the corner, now the Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating to resort to solar-powered fencing around farms to ward off the stray animals. Similarly, with an intent to curb the rising incidents of man-animal conflicts in buffer zones around tiger reserves, the UP forest department is planning to install solar powered fence along the outer boundary of the buffer zone.

The proposed move to fence the agricultural fields is believed to be cost-effective and will have electric fencing passing enough current to keep the stray cattle away from fields with no harm to them . The farmers would be provided with the equipment at subsidised rates.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  laid foundation stones for several infrastructure development projects worth around Rs 6,100 crore  in Hyderabad  during his Telangana visit.

He laid the foundation-stone for construction of the railways manufacturing unit, four-lane Karimnagar-Warangal National Highway 563 and four-lane Greenfield Highway from Mancherial to Warangal, at a programme held in Arts and Science College Grounds in Hanamkonda.

Addressing the public meeting, he said that the country has been witnessing a 'golden period' in this phase of the 21st Century and that every second needed to be fully utilised, without being left behind in grabbing any opportunity.

Disclosing that 2,500 km long roads are being laid under the 'Bharat Mala Pariyojana,' he said that among the 12 national highways being constructed under the project, some of them will pass through Telangana as well.

Among those are Hyderabad-Indore, Hyderabad-Panaji and Surat Chennai economic corridors, and Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam inter-corridor.

Bihar police have approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) seeking a ban on more than 100 gambling/gaming and loan lending apps that are allegedly engaged in money laundering and pose a threat to the financial security of the country.

Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the government to restrict access to any online content to protect the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the nation, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states and public order.