including the Champions League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected appeals by the national soccer federation and four clubs on july 15.

CAS upheld decisions by UEFA and FIFA which excluded Russian national teams and clubs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia was already excluded from men's World Cup qualifying and the women's European Championship and its clubs now won't feature in competitions like the Champions League in 2022-23.

CAS is also due to hear other cases involving Russian athletes and teams in numerous other sports. Many governing bodies have justified excluding Russia on similar safety grounds to those cited by UEFA.

Q1.  Name the  person who has been named NDA's Vice Presidential candidate ?

Satya Pal Malik

Phagu Chauhan

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Arif Mohammad Khan

None of These

Q2. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi  has inaugurated the 296-km-long Bundelkhand Expressway, which passes through seven districts of

Uttar Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Chhattisgarh

UP   & MP

None of These

Q3.   Which of the two north eastern states have signed a pact to solve border dispute ?

Assam and Meghalaya

Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura

Meghalaya and Nagaland

Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

None of These

Q4. Name the central bank with which Reserve Bank of India has entered into an agreement to expand cooperation in payment systems, digital financial innovation, and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT).

Bank of England

Bank  of Indonesia

Federal Reserve

Bank  of Singapore

None of These

Q5.  Name the prominent Indian-American finance executive who  has been appointed President of UBS Americas and CEO of UBS Americas Holding ?

Gita Gopinath

Raghuram Rajan

Naureen Hassan

Urjit Patel

None of These

Answers

1----------5    None of These

Ans - Jagdeep Dhankhar

2-------------1   Uttar Pradesh

3---------------4    Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

4---------------2    Bank  of Indonesia

The BJP on july 16 named Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its Vice-Presidential candidate. The decision was taken during the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board earlier in the day.

The ruling NDA’s nominee has an upper hand in the election as it enjoys a majority in the electoral college.

The Congress has anointed Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, to reach out to all Opposition Leaders to find a consensus candidate. With the numbers in favour of the ruling bloc, the contest will be a symbolic one.

Polling to elect the next vice president will be held on August 6 and counting of votes will take place the same day.

The BJP-led NDA has a clear edge in the poll in which members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are eligible to vote.

The last date for filing of nomination papers will be July 19.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on July 20 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is July 22. The term of incumbent M Venkaiah Naidu ends on August 10. The vice president is also the chairperson of Rajya Sabha.

The electoral college in the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members of both Houses of Parliament.

Since all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of vote of each MP would be the same -- one.

The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and the voting at such election is by secret ballot.

There is no concept of open voting in this election and showing the ballot to anyone under any circumstances in the case of presidential and vice-presidential elections is totally prohibited, the EC cautioned, adding that parties cannot issue whip to its MPs in the matter of voting.

A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least 20 electors as proposers and by at least other 20 electors as seconders.

An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder. A candidate can file a maximum of four nomination papers. The security deposit for the election is Rs 15,000.

Unlike the presidential poll where voting takes place in multiple locations as elected MLAs, not nominated, also form part of the electoral college, in the vice presidential election, voting takes place in Parliament House.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras retained the top spot among institutes in the country for the fourth consecutive year whereas the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru was the best university and research institution, according to the Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework rankings.

The seventh edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings was announced on july 15 by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

He also announced that every higher education institution needs to be accredited and all the institutions shall be part of NIRF.

He also said that soon there will be a system where each school will also be accredited.

Seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati -- figured in the top 10 in the overall rankings.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were ranked ninth and tenth, respectively in the overall rankings.

In the 'universities' category, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru bagged the top spot followed by JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia at second and third ranks, respectively.

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which was ranked third last year in the category, slipped to the sixth position this year.

Jadavpur University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Calcutta University, Vellore Institute of Technology and University of Hyderabad, bagged the subsequent positions in the universities category.

Eight IITs -- Madras, Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati and Hyderabad -- have figured among the top ten ranks in the 'engineering institutions' category.

"By next year, we will unify institutional accreditation which presently is done by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and programme accreditation by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). Ranking on Innovation done earlier by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will henceforth be integrated with NIRF. All institutions will be a part of the combined system of assessment, accreditation and rankings. Such a system will be transparent and objective," Pradhan said.

"From next year, NIRF ranking categories will also include innovation and entrepreneurship. NIRF rankings categories can be increased as per the needs. There is already work going on rankings of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics," he added.

The education minister further said only those universities and colleges which have NAAC grading or NIRF ranking will be eligible for inclusion in the list maintained by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 12 B of the UGC Act, 1956 for receiving financial assistance.

The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirapalli -- which was ranked ninth last year -- has bagged the eighth spot this year, while NIT Surathkal has retained its 10th position.

Among colleges, Miranda House retained its spot as the best college in the country followed by Hindu College, which has improved its rank to make it to the second spot from the ninth position last year.

Lady Sri Ram College for Women slipped to fifth rank from the second spot last year, while Presidency College, Chennai climbed to the third spot from the seventh position.

Loyola College in Chennai has slipped to the fourth spot from the third rank.

Delhi University's noted colleges St.Stephen's and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), which figured in the top 10 list last year, found no mention in this year's rankings.

IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta retained their first, second and third ranks, respectively among the B-Schools in the country.

In the 'pharmacy' category, the top institute is Delhi's Jamia Hamdard, followed by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderbad and Panjab University, Chandigarh which slipped to the third position from second rank.

In the 'medical colleges' category, AIIMS, Delhi bagged the top spot, followed by PGIMER Chandigarh and Christian Medical College, Vellore.

Among the dental colleges, Saveetha Institute of Medical And Technical Sciences, Chennai; Manipal College of Dental Sciences and DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune were the top three institutions.

The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters of Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR).

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

A total number of 4,786 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under overall, category-specific and domain-specific rankings for NIRF, 2022.

The government has procured 2.5 lakh tonnes of onion from farmers to create buffer stocks for 2022-23 and will intervene in the market in case of rise in retail prices of onion.

Onion production is estimated to have risen to 31.70 million tonnes in 2021-22 from 26.64 million tonnes in the previous year, according to the government data.

"Beating past records, the Centre has procured 2.50 lakh tonnes of onion for the buffer in 2022-23. The onion buffer size in current year is 0.50 lakh tonnes higher than the 2 lakh tonnes created during 2021-22," Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

The current rabi harvest onions were procured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) from farmers through the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the onion growing states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

"The stocks will be released through targeted open market sales and also offered to states/UTs and government agencies for supplies through retail outlets during the lean months (August-December) to moderate price rise," the ministry said.

The open market sales will be targeted towards states/cities where prices are increasing over the previous month.

"The price stabilisation buffer serves the twin objectives of providing remunerative prices to onion farmers and augmenting the availability of onions at affordable prices to the consumers," the statement said.

Onion is a semi perishable vegetable and post-harvest losses due to physiological weight loss, rotting and sprouting are estimated to be substantial.

Rabi onion crops harvested during April-June accounts for 65 per cent of India's onion production and meets the consumers' demand till kharif crop is harvested from October-November.

It is therefore vital to successfully store onion in order to ensure the regular supply, the ministry said.

To address the post-harvest losses of onions, including loss on account of sub-optimal storage and processing, the Department of Consumer Affairs has announced a Grand Challenge for development of "Technologies for Primary Processing, Storage and Valorisation of Onions".

The grand challenge on onions invites efficient and cost-effective solution for reducing the wastage from students (UG/PG/Diploma), research scholars, faculty members, startups and other individuals having interest in this area.

Rajya Sabha member Laxmikant Bajpai  has been appointed as the BJP's new chief whip in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.

Bajpai, a former Uttar Pradesh BJP president, succeeds Shiv Pratap Shukla who retired from the house recently.

Bajpai has served as a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly for four terms.

Meanwhile, the BJP has again appointed Piyush Goyal as its leader in the Upper House.

The party is yet to take call on its deputy leader in the House after the retirement of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

For the first time since 1978, Sri Lanka will elect the crisis-hit country's next president through a secret vote by the MPs and not through a popular mandate, following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was ousted by a popular uprising against him.

The 225-member Parliament will elect the new president by a secret vote on July 20, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said . Never in the history of the presidency since 1978 that Parliament had voted to elect a president.

Presidential elections in 1982, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019 had elected them by popular vote.

The only previous occasion when the presidency became vacant mid-term was in 1993 when president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated. DB Wijetunga was unanimously endorsed by Parliament to run the balance of Premadasa's term.

The new president will serve the remaining tenure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa till November 2024. The front runner in next week's race would be Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The 73-year-old became prime minister from nowhere in May when he assumed the job to handle the unprecedented economic crisis. His United National Party (UNP) was routed in the 2020 parliamentary election.

Wickremesinghe for the first time failed to win a seat since 1977. He made it to Parliament in late 2021 through the party's only seat allocated on the basis of cumulative national vote.

Unpopular he may be and hated for his pro-Western policies and ways, he still enjoys acceptance as a thinker and strategist whose vision is futuristic.

With the island nation facing its worst economic crisis since independence he has wider acceptance as the one with the capacity to steer the island through turbulence.

A man who always wanted to become president, Wickremesinghe had lost two presidential elections in 1999 and 2005.

Without parliamentary numbers of his own, Wickremesinghe would be entirely dependent on the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) member vote. Not a foregone conclusion of their support as the SLPP stays ideologically opposed to him.

The next main contender could be Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader. Aged 55, for long the understudy of Wickremesinghe was the one who turned tables on his former leader.

His newly formed SJB ousted the grand old party of Wickremesinghe from all its bastions to emerge as the main opposition in 2020.

Ironically it was his failure to step in to fill the power vacuum mid May which made way for Wickremesinghe to become Prime Minister from nowhere. He only stands an outside chance as the most ruling SLPP members are unlikely to back him. Unlike Wickremesinghe though he starts the race with 50 votes minimum.

Another hopeful is Dullas Alahapperuma, 63, from the breakaway group of the ruling SLPP.

The ex-Cabinet Minister of Information and Mass Media and former newspaper columnist is being seen as a left-leaning political ideologue. Held ministerial positions since 2005 and enjoys the reputation of having a clean public life. His task too would be uphill given his position as a breakaway member.

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, 71, the Army commander who won the military conflict with the LTTE who fought the Army in its bid to set up a separate Tamil home land in the north and east regions, could be a potential candidate.

Fonseka enjoys support among the Sinhala Buddhist majority. He comes out as the only politician who was not opposed by the wider group of protesters who engineered Rajapaksa's downfall.

An acquitted suspect in the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 331 people was shot dead in an apparent targeted shooting in westernmost Canada.

Ripudaman Singh Malik, a one-time supporter of the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement who was in 2005 acquitted in the Air India mass murder plot for lack of evidence, was reportedly shot outside his clothing business in the area of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland that killed all 329 passengers and crew had been the deadliest act of airborne terrorism prior to the September 11 attacks in the United States.

It came as another bomb exploded at Japan's Narita airport, killing two workers who were loading baggage onto an Air India flight.

Both suitcase bombs were later traced back to Vancouver, home to a large Sikh immigrant population.

Inderjit Singh Reyat is the only person to have been convicted in the plot, for making the bombs and for lying at the trials of fellow militants, one of whom was Malik.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted in 2005 in a verdict that prosecutors said would have been different if Reyat had told the truth on the stand.

Reyat was paroled in 2016 after serving two decades behind bars.