Q1. Name the senior Indian diplomat  who has been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as his Envoy on Technology ?

1    Syed Akbaruddin                 

2    Amandeep Singh Gill

3    T. S. Tirumurti

4     Hardeep Singh Puri

5   None of These

Q2. Which country is currently chairman of ASEAN ?

1    Cambodia

2    Malaysia

3     Indonesia

4     Thailand

5   None of These

Q3. Which  among the following is NOT member of ASEAN ?

1   Brunei

2   Indonesia

3   Malaysia

4   Sri Lanka

5  None of These                           

Q4. Where is the Headquarter of  Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) ?

1   Paris

2   Geneva

3   Rome

4   Basel

5   None of These

Q5. Wimbledon  has announced that this year's total prize money will be a record 40.3 million pounds with men's and women's singles champion each will receive

1   1  million pounds.

2   2   million pounds

3   4   million pounds

4   5   million pounds

5   None of These

Answers

1-------------------2    Amandeep Singh Gill

2-------------------1    Cambodia

3------------------4   Sri Lanka

4-------------------3   Rome

5-------------------2   2   million pounds

Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India's second-biggest supplier of oil behind Iraq as refiners snap up Russian crude available at a deep discount following the war in Ukraine .

Indian refiners bought about 25 million barrels of Russian oil in May or over 16 per cent of all their oil imports.

Russian-origin crude hit 5 per cent of India's total seaborne imports in April for the first time, rising from under 1 per cent throughout 2021 and Q1 2022.

India, the world's third-biggest oil-importing and consuming nation, has long defended purchases of crude oil from Russia following President Vladimir Putin ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

The Oil Ministry had last month stated that "energy purchases from Russia remain minuscule in comparison to India's total consumption."

Iraq remained the top supplier to India in May and Saudi Arabia is now the third biggest supplier.

India has taken advantage of discounted prices to ramp up oil imports from Russia at a time when global energy prices have been rising.

After the US and China, India is the world's third-largest consumer of oil, over 85 per cent of which is imported.

Following its invasion of Ukraine, there are now fewer buyers for Russia's Ural crude oil, with some foreign governments and companies deciding to shun Russian energy exports, and its price has fallen.

Indian refiners have taken advantage of this and bought Russian crude oil at discount as high as USD 30 per barrel.

Earlier, the crude was disadvantageous because of high freight cost.

India’s vast network of national highways is poised for a technological makeover as the Union highways ministry has speeded up the process of completely mapping roads with geographic information system (GIS) by July 31.

The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has asked all the state and Central agencies engaged in developing and maintaining roads to coordinate with its regional offices so that field surveys can be conducted to update and verify details of the mapping done so far.

The mapping is being done by the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), Gandhi Nagar.  GIS maps contain detailed visual representation of data including location, topography, facilities and structures, and images. Besides, these maps can be easily added to various mobile apps and shared.

Officials said GIS mapping of the entire NH network is one of the most important requirements for planning, executing and monitoring the network but the task has not been completed so far and hence, a target of July 31 has been set.

According to the ministry, BISAG-N has already done GIS mapping of approximately 1. 30 lakh kilometres of NHs but it requires updates and verification.  The field units of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in coordination and support of BISAG-N are verifying the details but the field units of the ministry and other agencies such as state public work department (PWD), road construction department (RCD), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), and National Highways and Infrastructure Development (NHIDCL) are also required to engage themselves with BISAG-N for the job, said the officials.

The regional offices of the ministry have also been requested to coordinate with field units of other executing agencies to depute suitable personnel to get the details of all NH sections checked and mapped. They will also ensure availability of details with field units of respective executing agencies for ready reference.

Modern network

GIS maps contain detailed visual representation of data including location, topography, facilities and structures, and images. Besides, these maps can be easily added to various mobile apps and shared

Mapping done by Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), Gandhi Nagar

1.41 lakh km Total length of NHs in the country as of November 2021

1.30 lakh km Mapping already completed

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has initiated a social media campaign in favour of India in a bid to counter the ‘India Out’ campaign in the country. The campaign, called ‘Baakeenuvey’ is “a call to action to not break ties with India,’’ Maldivian Speaker Mohamed Nasheed said. “The low number of participants in the India Out campaign is proof that it is not supported by Maldivians,’’ he added. Nasheed had sometime back stated that Chinese projects in the Maldives had left the government with a debt burden, and that accepting the Belt and Road Initiative was a mistake.

Meanwhile, the Maldivian government has expressed its gratitude to India for its donations of Covid vaccines, the medical treatment that Maldivians get here, and the many projects being carried out under the Line of Credit support.

China has overtaken Germany as the biggest buyer of Russian energy exports since the start of the war in Ukraine, an independent research group said .

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said Russia received about 93 billion euros ($97 billion) in revenue for the sale of oil, natural gas and coal since Feb. 24, when it invaded Ukraine.

About 61% of the fossil fuels worth some 57 billion euros was exported to the European Union during the conflict’s first 100 days, the Helsinki-based group said.

That included 12.1 billion euros worth of exports to Germany, 7.8 billion euros each to Italy and the Netherlands, and 4.4 billion euros to Poland, the group said.

Germany, which was the biggest importer of Russian fossil fuels during the first two months of the war, slipped to second place behind China, which has purchased some 12.6 billion euros worth of energy from Moscow.

The shift reflects the growing importance of China and other non-European economies for Russian energy exports, which provide about 40% of the country’s federal budget, the group said.

Figures published by the organization show that Germany remains heavily dependent on Russian energy, particularly natural gas. Imports in May were down 8% compared with the previous two months, coinciding with warmer weather.

As a whole, the European Union cut its energy imports from Russia by more than 100 million euros per day in May, led by Poland, which was previously a big buyer of Russian oil and gas, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculated.

By contrast, France, Belgium and the Netherlands snapped up more natural gas and oil on the short-term markets in May, the group said.

It noted that because Russia is exporting more oil by ship to countries where it doesn’t have pipelines, tankers are in high demand. Four-fifths of those tankers are owned by European or American companies, it said.

China on June 14  waded into the furore over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended BJP functionaries against Prophet Mohammad, expressing the hope that the incident can be properly handled.

China, which faces serious allegations of a mass crackdown on Uygur Muslims in the volatile Xinjiang province, said: "“China always believes that different civilisations and religions should respect each other and live together as equals”."

Significantly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman's comments came a day after Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's visit to China.

The BJP on June 5 suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after their controversial remarks against the Prophet.

Amid protests by Muslim groups over the remarks, the party also issued a statement aimed at assuaging the concerns of minorities and distancing itself from these members, asserting that it respects all religions and strongly denounces the insult of any religious personality.

The Ministry of External Affairs has said that India accords the highest respect to all religions.

China downplays Western allegations of massive human rights violations against Uygur Muslims and their mass incarcerations in the volatile Xinjiang province.

Ceylon Electricity Board Chairman Ferdinando had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of pressurizing the Sri Lankan government over the allotment of a wind power project to the Adani Group.

Days after he alleged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressurized the Sri Lankan government over allotting a wind power project to Adani group, the Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) MMC Ferdinando has quit. Ferdinando's revelation had sparked a political controversy forcing him to retract his statement and finally leading to his resignation

United Arab Emirates (UAE) based business group META4  has said it will invest Rs 250 crore to set up an electric two-wheeler manufacturing plant in Telangana.

The group has inked a pact with the state government in this regard.

As part of the agreement, the Telangana government will provide 15 acres of subsidised land to the company in Zaheerabad, Telangana.

META4 said it is making the investment through Voltly Energy, which provides advanced EV two-wheeler manufacturing and delivers energy-efficient EV charging solutions for all electrified vehicles.