Keeping its commitment, the Odisha government has provided international standard infrastructure to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for conducting national camps  in Bhubaneswar at the Kalinga Stadium. With the camp for the under-16 men's team already going on at the venue, the under-17 women's team also reached the facility to prepare for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Q1. Name the  Prime Minister of Netherlands with whom Indian  Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, spoke over the phone and both leaders discussed India-Netherlands bilateral ties, including Strategic Partnership on Water, cooperation in the key area of agriculture, and potential for bilateral cooperation in high tech and emerging sectors ?

1.  Mark Rutte
2.  Jan Peter Balkenende
3.  Wim Kok
4.  Ruud Lubbers
5. None of These

Q2. The Gujarat Police have arrested former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt through a transfer warrant in a case of conspiring to falsely implicate innocent people in the  communal riots of

1. 1992
2. 2002
3. 2012
4. 2020
5. None of These

Q3.  Which  has  became the first state in the country to initiate process of implementing the Centre's New Education Policy, with chief minister inaugurating 'Bal Vatikas' at anganwadi kendras across the state to strengthen the pre-primary education system ?

1. Himachal Pradesh
2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Uttarakhand
4. Punjab
5. None of These

Q4. Amid a row over the national emblem installed atop the new Parliament building in Delhi,  name  its sculptor  who has said that the  sculpture should be seen from a distance and from the same angle as the original version at Sarnath is viewed ?

1. Rajendra Tiku
2.  Sudarshan Sahoo
3.  Nek Chand
4.  Sunil Deore
5. None of These

Q5. Name the  IT services company  which has  said that it will acquire Denmark-headquartered BASE life science for 110 million euros ?

1. Larsen & Toubro Infotech
2.  Tech Mahindra
3.  HCL Technologies
4. Tata Consultancy Services
5. None of These

Answers

1---------1    Mark Rutte

2----------2   2002

3----------3    Uttarakhand

4----------4     Sunil Deore

5----------5    None of These   Ans -Infosys

Sri Lanka's Acting President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on  july 13 asked Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a Prime Minister who is acceptable to both the government and the Opposition.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe held a meeting with the Members of the Cabinet at his office on july 11.

All the ministers who participated in this meeting were of the opinion that as soon as there is an agreement to form an all-party government, they will hand over the responsibilities to that government, it said.

Accordingly, the ruling party and the opposition must form an all-party government.

Wickremesinghe is under pressure to quit before the expected resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is said to be flying from the Maldives to Singapore.

The protesters who stormed Wickremesinghe's office on july 13 are attempting to enter the parliament compound at the time of reporting.

The police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters near the official residence of the speaker, police said.

The Prime Minister's Media Division said the ruling party and the opposition must form an all-party Government.

President Rajapaksa on Wednesday fled to the Maldives from where he appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the acting President, escalating the political crisis and triggering a fresh wave of protests in the country reeling under the worst financial crisis in decades.

Speaker Abeywardena has said that President Rajapaksa has informed him over telephone that he will resign as promised.

He said the vote for the new president will take place on July 20.

President Rajapaksa issued a Gazette Extraordinary, appointing Wickremesinghe as the acting president to exercise, perform and discharge the powers, duties and functions of the Office of President with effect from July 13, 2022.

US President Joe Biden on july kicked off a Middle East tour in Israel where both sides vowed to deepen the Jewish state's integration in the region as they face their common foe Iran.

Biden -- whose first regional tour since taking office will also take him to Saudi Arabia -- pledged strong backing for Israel, which has forged ties with several Arab states in recent years and hopes to do so with Riyadh as well.

Israel's caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid said that "we will discuss building a new security and economy architecture with the nations of the Middle East", following US-brokered accords in 2020 with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.

"And we will discuss the need to renew a strong global coalition that will stop the Iranian nuclear programme," he added, amid ongoing efforts by world powers to salvage Iran's frayed 2015 nuclear deal, which Israel opposes.

Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia on july 15  will be the major focus of the tour, after he branded the oil-rich kingdom a "pariah" over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The trip is seen as part of efforts to stabilise oil markets rattled by the war in Ukraine, by re-engaging with a long-time key US strategic ally and major energy supplier.

Air Force One will make a first direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia amid efforts to build ties between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not recognise Israel's existence.

Biden  will also meet Palestinian leaders angered by what they describe as Washington's failure to curb Israeli aggression.

The persistent frustrations of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy are nothing new for Biden, who first visited the region in 1973 after being elected to the Senate.

Palestinians claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital and, ahead of the visit, accused Biden of failing to make good on his pledge to restore the United States as an honest broker in the conflict.

Biden will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas

in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, but there is no expectation of bold announcements toward a fresh peace process.

US-Palestinian ties have been strained by the May killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank.

Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who landed in the Maldivian capital Male on a Sri Lankan Air Force plane, will be leaving for Singapore on july 13.

Rajapaksa landed at the Velana International Airport in the Maldives early on july 13. The Prime Minister's Office also confirmed that Rajapaksa has left the country.

A statement issued by the Sri Lankan Air Force said that Rajapaksa prepared a SLAF aircraft to fly to the Maldives per his presidential powers and with the approval of the Ministry of Defence.

Rajapaksa and his wife along with two bodyguards travelled to the Maldives after full approval of the country's Defence Ministry, Sri Lanka officials confirmed.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed armed forces and police to bring the situation under control.

As protests intensified in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, protestors who had gathered outside Sri Lanka Prime Minister's office have taken over his residence at Flower Road.

Security personnel resorted to tear-gas shelling to drive away protestors on the streets of Colombo.

Wickremesinghe  has declared an emergency and imposed a curfew in the western province of the country as protesters came prepared to face tear gas shelling by security forces deployed outside Wickremesinghe's residence. Air patrolling has also started around the PM's residence.

The country's opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said that the PM cannot exercise the powers of the President, and cannot declare a curfew or a state of emergency.

Military personnel used tear gas shells to disperse protestors who scaled the wall to enter the Sri Lankan PM's residence in Colombo.

73-year-old Gotabaya Rajapaksa had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will resign on July 13.

Chinese phone maker Oppo's India unit has been slapped with a notice for alleged Rs 4,389 crore import duty evasion, the Finance Ministry said on july 13

A show-cause notice (SCN) has been slapped on Oppo India on July 8 after the recovery of documents during searches on its premises that indicated wilful misdeclaration in the description of some imports and remittance of royalty and license fees to various MNCs, including those based in China.

During an investigation of Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Ltd, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected Customs duty evasion of around Rs 4,389 crore.

Reacting to the development, Oppo India said it has a "different view" on the charges mentioned in the SCN and will take appropriate steps, including legal remedies.

Oppo India is engaged in the business of manufacturing, assembling, wholesale trading, distribution of mobile handsets and accessories thereof across India. It deals in various brands of mobile phones, including Oppo, OnePlus and Realme.

The investigation also revealed that Oppo India had remitted/made provisions for payment of 'royalty' and 'licence fee' to various multinational companies, including those based in China, in lieu of the use of proprietary technology/brand/IPR license etc.

The said 'royalty' and 'licence fees' paid by Oppo India were not being added to the transaction value of the goods imported by them, in violation of provisions of the Customs Act.

The alleged duty evasion by Oppo India on this account is Rs 1,408 crore.

The ministry further said that Oppo India has voluntarily deposited Rs 450 crore as partial differential customs duty short paid by them.

The economic meltdown has reached Big Tech and Satya Nadella-run Microsoft has become the first tech giant to lay off employees as part of a 'realignment'. The layoffs at Microsoft reportedly affect nearly 1 per cent of its 1,80,000-strong workforce across its offices and product divisions.

Microsoft has also slowed hiring in the Windows, Teams and Office groups. Microsoft reported strong earnings in its third quarter, with a 26 per cent jump (on-year) in cloud revenue and overall revenue of $49.4 billion.

However, last month, the company revised its Q4 revenue and earnings guidance downward. Twitter has also cut 30 per cent of its recruiting team while Elon Musk-run Tesla has been laying off hundreds of employees.

Other tech companies that have slowed hiring include Nvidia, Snap, Uber, Spotify, Intel and Salesforce, among others. Cloud major Oracle recently considered laying off thousands of workers to save up to $1 billion in cost-cutting measures.

India has moved to the third spot, surpassing Pakistan in the ICC ODI Team Rankings after their emphatic win in the first game of the three-match series against England at The Oval.

India was placed fourth with 105 points but the 10-wicket win on July 12  propelled them to 108 rating points, leaving Pakistan behind at 106 in the latest chart. New Zealand continues to reign supreme at the top of the table with 126 rating points, while England is second with 122.

Pakistan had pushed India down to the No.4 spot in the rankings last month after a clean sweep over the West Indies. It also helped that Australia slipped after their series loss in Sri Lanka. However, their stay at No.3 has been a short one, with India claiming the spot.

India could stretch their lead even further with the two remaining ODIs against England and the three-match series against West Indies later this month. Conversely, India could drop back behind Pakistan and down to fourth if they lose the final two matches of the series against England.