DAILY GK 20 JULY 2019

DAILY GK 20 JULY 2019

1. INDIA TO BE FREE OF TUBERCULOSIS BY 2025

✔Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the parliamentarians take up a social cause or an issue of human sensitivity as a mission.

✔India has fixed a deadline of 2025 for eradicating tuberculosis against the global deadline of 2030. He stressed on the need to eradicate them.

✔Union Health Ministry signed a MoU with the Ministries of Defence, Railways and Ayurveda, AYUSH to eliminate TB from India by 2025 in the presence of Minister of State for Health Ashwini K Choubey and Minister of AYUSH Shripad Nayak.

2. ADB LOWERS INDIA’S FY2020 GDP GROWTH FORECAST TO 7%

✔According to ‘Asian Development Outlook 2019, India’s GDP growth expected to grow by 7% in 2019 (FY-Fiscal Year 2020).

✔Growth is expected to increase again to 7.2% in FY21, helped by recent reforms to improve the business climate, strengthen banks and relieve agrarian distress.

✔Due to the manufacturing and agriculture sectors witnessed slowing down over the past year, Fitch also decreases India’s GDP growth forecast for FY20, to 6.6% from 6.8 %.

3. INDIA’S CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE DEFICIT SHOOTS UP TO $68 BILLION IN 2018-19: IMF

✔According to the International Monetary Fund, India’s current account balance deficit rose to $68 billion in 2018-19 from $49 billion in 2017-18.

✔India’s Net International Investment Position has marginally improved with the deficit comes down from $438 billion in 2017-18 to $431 billion in 2018-19.

✔India’s overall international reserves stood at $411.9 billion at the end of March 2019 from $12.5 billion in March 2018.

✔India’s low per capita income, favorable growth prospects, demographic trends, and development are the reason for CA deficits.

4. SAARC FILM FESTIVAL 2019 HELD AT THE NATIONAL FILM CORPORATION CINEMA HALL, COLOMBO, SRI LANKA

✔The 9th Edition of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Film Festival for the year 2019 was held at the National Film Corporation Cinema Hall, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

✔Indian entries bagged 6 awards.

• Nagarkirtan, a Bengali film, was awarded the Best Feature Film.
• Best Director Award was conferred to Kaushik Ganguly for Nagarkirtan.
• Riddhi Sen won the best actor award and Prabuddha Bannerjee bagged Best Original Score for Nagarkirtan.
• Best Short Film Award was conferred to Na Bole Wo Haram directed by Nitish Patan.
• Special Jury Award for Direction and Story was conferred to ‘Walking with the Wind’, by Praveen Morchhale.

5. “TATA” BECOMES INDIA’S MOST VALUABLE BRAND FOR 2019: BRAND FINANCE INDIA 100 2019 REPORT

✔According to the ,“Brand Finance India 100 2019”, report “Tata” has become India’s most valuable brand for the second straight year in 2019 with the brand value of $19.6 billion followed by LIC (2nd )with $7.3 billion and Infosys (3rd )$6.5 billion.

✔The brand value of Tata increased to 37% with $19.6 billion, the highest in the top 25 compared to $14.23 billion in 2018.

6. COMMONWEALTH WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP 2019- OVERVIEW, INDIA TOPPED THE MEDAL TALLY IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP

✔Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships held in Apia, Samoa. The championship was held across three categories — senior, junior and youth.

✔India topped the medal tally by winning 35 medals across three categories viz 22 golds, 10 silvers and 3 bronze medals in all categories.

✔India also broke a total of 22 records in all 3 age groups in World, Asian, Commonwealth and National level as well as set a new junior record at Commonwealth and National level.

✔Indian weightlifter Ajay Singh created a new Commonwealth record in the clean and jerk category by lifting more than double his body weight.

7. SACHIN TENDULKAR BECAME THE 6TH INDIAN TO BE INDUCTED INTO ICC HALL OF FAME

✔Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was inducted into International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame along with South African pace legend Allan Donald and Australian woman cricketer Cathryn Fitzpatrick.

✔With this, Tendulkar became the 6th Indian cricketer to be inducted into ICC’s Hall of Fame after Bishen Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid.

8. ARJUN BHATI OF INDIA WON JUNIOR WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP 2019

✔Arjun Bhati of India won Future Champions Golf Callaway Junior World Golf Championship 2019 by defeating Taiwan’s Jeremy Chen in Palm Desert, California.

✔He was followed by Jeremy Chen and New Zealand’s Joshua Bai at second and third positions.

9. ZIMBABWE CRICKET SUSPENDED BY ICC WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT

✔Zimbabwe cricket has been suspended by the International Cricket Council with immediate effect after it breached the ICC Constitution by failing to provide free and democratic elections and ensuring that there is no government interference in its administration.

✔With this suspension, Zimbabwe Cricket will be frozen and representative teams from Zimbabwe will not be allowed to participate in any ICC tournaments.