The Union Cabinet  took a raft of decisions to incentivise states to promote sustainable agriculture, including organic farming and alternative fertilisers while extending the urea subsidy scheme for three years. 

Called PM PRANAM (PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother-Earth), the schemes include promoting natural and organic farming, alternative fertilisers, nano fertilisers and bio fertilisers to restore soil fertility. The proposals approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs have a total outlay of Rs 3.7 lakh crore, most of which is for urea subsidy. 

Ahead of the Assembly polls, the Chhattisgarh health minister T S Singh Deo, who is seen as the rival of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, got elevated to Deputy Chief Minister.

The Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal  issued a statement on the approval for the appointment of Singh Deo as the deputy CM in the Chhattisgarh government. CM Baghel has congratulated Singh Deo and extended his good wishes. 

Maharashtra cabinet has  decided to rename the 21-kilometre sea link Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) – Sewri to Nhava Sheva after late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee while another sea link — Bandra to Versova — has been named after VD Savarkar.

According to the Maharashtra cabinet note, 95 per cent work of MTHL has been completed. It will be opened to the public by December 2023. Sudhir Mungantiwar, Maharashtra culture minister informed that both these sea links MTHL and Bandra to Versova have been named Atal Sethu and Swatantravir Savarkar Sethu respectively.

Besides, in the cabinet, it was also decided to allocate Rs 210 crore for Hindurudhaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray’s Apala Davakhna – health clinic. The government has decided to open these health clinics in 700 locations against the 155 across the state. Presently, these clinics are operated in Mumbai and suburbs, but they will now be opened in other parts of the state.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has decided to include chapters on Hindutva’s controversial icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the school curriculum of Madhya Pradesh.

Q.1) The World Economic Forum on Energy Transition Index has ranked India at

1. 65                
2. 67
3. 69
4. 71
5. None of These

Q.2) Name the country which has welcomed the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile following an aborted rebellion, as NATO warned it was ready to defend against "Moscow or Minsk" ?

1. Lithuania
2. Latvia
3. Estonia
4. Belarus                  
5. None of These

Q.3) Name the country has bought two Norwegian-made NASAMS air defence launchers for Ukraine and will deliver them within three months

1. Poland
2. Germany
3. Lithuania
4. Romania
5. None of These

Q.4) Name the senior IPS officer who has been appointed as Special Director in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ?

1. Sharad Agarwal
2. Manoj Sashidhar
3. Anurag
4. Ajay Bhatnagar
5. None of These                     

Q.5) Name the BJP IT Cell chief against  whom  An FIR has been registered in Bengaluru's High Grounds Police station for his remark on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ?

1. Amit Malviya
2. Tejasvi Surya
3. Anurag Thakur
4. Jitin Prasada
5. None of These                     

Answers

1------------------------2   67

2------------------------4   Belarus

3------------------------3   Lithuania

4------------------------4    Ajay Bhatnagar

Q.1) Name the Wall Street Journal reporter  who has asked Prime Minister Modi about the rights of minorities in India and what steps his government was willing to take to improve them and also uphold free speech.

1. Fareed Rafiq Zakaria
2. Sabrina Siddiqui
3. Asra Nomani
4. Siddharth Varadarajan
5. None of These

Q.2) Name the  first U.N. independent investigator  who wil  visit the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay  and who has said  that  the 30 men held there are subject “to ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law.”

1. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
2. Bob Woodward
3. Carl Bernstein
4. Christiane Amanpour
5. None of These

Q.3) Name the Indian-origin satellite industry expert who has been appointed as the Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna by the  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ?

1. Anand Lal Shimpi
2. Gopal Raju
3. Aarti Holla-Maini
4. Swati Mia Saini
5. None of These                      

Q.4) Name the IT services company which has said that it has bagged a $454 million deal from Danske Bank to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation initiatives?

1. Infosys
2. Tata Consultancy Services
3. Wipro
4. HCL Tech
5. None of These

Q.5) Name the first woman who will lead Turkey's central bank ?

1. Gul Esin
2. Semiha Es
3. Guler Sabanci
4. Hafize Gaye Erkan                      
5. None of These                                           

Answers

1------------2   Sabrina Siddiqui

2------------1   Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

3-------------3  Aarti Holla-Maini

4-------------1  Infosys

Q.1) Name the country with which India is negotiating to resolve sugar subsidy row at WTO?

1. Cuba
2. Brazil
3. Fiji
4. Vietnam
5. None of These

Q.2) Name the rating agency which on Jun 26 has retained India's GDP growth forecast at 6 per cent saying it will be the fastest-growing economy among Asia Pacific nations?

1. Moody's
2. Standard & Poor's
3. Fitch.
4. CRISIL
5. None of These

Q.3) Name the India-based community on whose help Cairo's Al-Hakim mosque was renovated and which was visited by the Indian PM Modi recently?

1. Memon
2. Khojas
3. Moplah
4. Dawoodi Bohra
5. None of These

Q.4) Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is President of

1. Saudi Arab
2. UAE
3. Sudan
4. Egypt
5. None of These

Q.5) The Centre has created the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) with a total allocation of Rs 10,000 crore from the corpus of priority sector lending shortfall and the  fund will be managed by the

1. Reserve Bank of India
2. National Housing Bank
3. NABARD
4. State Bank of India
5. None of These

Answers

1-----------------2  Brazil

2-----------------2   Standard & Poor's

3-----------------4  Dawoodi Bohra

4----------------4   Egypt

In its attempts to strengthen its relationship with African countries, India has conducted maritime exercises with the Kenyan Navy. The exercise coincided with the official visit of Vice Admiral Sanjay Mahindru, Indian Navy’s Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (DCNS).

Indigenous INS Sunayna visited Mombasa, Kenya from June 20-23 towards boosting bilateral ties with maritime neighbours on the theme of Ocean Ring of Yoga, the Navy said.

The Commanding Officer called upon Brigadier Y S Abdi, Deputy Commander of Kenya Navy, and highlighted the significance of yoga towards bringing the world together. On the occasion of International Day of Yoga on June 21, a joint yoga session was conducted onboard with the participation of Indian Navy personnel and Kenyan defence forces.

The official visit of DCNS was from June 21-23 during which he oversaw the Harbour Phase activities of the ongoing Maritime Partnership Exercise (MPX) between the two countries’ navies. He called on Aden Bare Duale, cabinet secretary, Ministry of Defence, Kenya. The two discussed “avenues of strengthening bilateral defence relations.”

Vice Admiral Mahindru also called on General Francis O Ogolla, chief of defence forces. Key aspects of enhancing coordinated operations in the maritime domain and bolstering interoperability between the Indian Navy and the Kenya Navy were discussed.