DAILYGK 8-9 JULY 2025
1.
SURINAME FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT
·
National Assembly of Suriname
elected 71-year-old Dr.Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, a
physician and former parliamentary speaker, as the first
female President of Suriname, a country on the North-eastern
coast of South America (SA).
·
Gregory Rusland appointed as vice
president of Suriname.
·
Dr. Jennifer Geerlings-Simons’ National
Democratic Party (NDP) secured 18 seats.
·
The NDP had formed a coalition with
five other parties, collectively holding 34 seats in the parliament.
·
Suriname Capital – Paramaribo.
2.
CEO OF ICC
·
Sanjog Gupta, was named the CEO of
the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global
governing body for cricket.
·
He succeeds Geoff Allardice(Australia),
who stepped down as ICC CEO earlier in 2025.
·
He becomes the seventh CEO
in the history of ICC.
·
This marks the second top leadership
position at ICC held by an Indian, following Jay Shah’s election as ICC
Chairman in 2024.
3.
NATIONAL BIOBANK’ FOR PERSONALISED HEALTHCARE
·
Dr. Jitendra Singh,
Ministry of Science & Technology (MoS&T) inaugurated the “National
Biobank” at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative
Biology (IGIB) in New Delhi
·
This state-of-the-art facility marks
India’s first longitudinal health database, designed to
support personalized treatment plans while encompassing India’s wide-ranging
diversity.
·
The Biobank is a part of the Phenome
India Project, a long-term study that will track the health
trajectories of individuals over several years.
·
It is expected to help scientists
understand gene-environment interactions, disease patterns, and treatment
responses specific to the Indian population.
4.
FIRST STATE IN INDIA TO LAUNCH AADHAAR-BASED FACE
AUTHENTICATION FOR RATION DISTRIBUTION
·
Himachal Pradesh (HP)
became the first state in India to implement Aadhaar-based facial
authentication (FaceAuth) for the distribution of ration under
the Public Distribution System (PDS).
·
The new FaceAuth mechanism enables
real-time facial authentication of eligible PDS beneficiaries through a mobile application
installed on smartphones of Fair Price Shop (FPS) owners.
·
Unlike earlier methods that relied on
One-Time Passwords (OTPs), fingerprint, or iris scans, the Face Auth system
uses a mobile camera to authenticate beneficiaries using their Aadhaar-linked
facial data.
5.
1ST STATE IN INDIA TO JOIN CRUISE BHARAT MISSION
·
Gujarat has become the 1st state in
India to formally align with the Cruise Bharat Mission (CBM), a
flagship initiative of Ministry of
Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), aims to promote the tremendous
potential of cruise tourism in the country.
·
The objective was to leverage the state’s
vast 2,340 kilometre (km) long coastline and
navigable rivers like Sabarmati and Narmada, to boost cruise tourism and unlock
economic opportunities.
·
Cruise Bharat Mission(CBM): The
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) launched the initiative in
September 2024, at Mumbai Port, Maharashtra.
·
It will be implemented in three phases,
beginning from 1 October 2024 up to 31 March 2029.
·
It aims to boost India’s cruise tourism
industry by doubling cruise passenger traffic within 5 years (by
2029).
·
The mission focuses on 3 different
segments: Ocean & Harbour; River & Inland and Island.
6.
‘MUKHYAMANTRI SEHAT YOJANA’ IN PUNJAB
·
Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister (CM) of
Punjab, launched the ‘Mukhyamantri Sehat Yojana’
which offers free, cashless medical treatment up to Rs.10 lakhs per family
annually.
·
In its 2025-26 budget, the Government of
Punjab allocated Rs.778 Crores for this purpose.
·
Scheduled to commence on October
2, 2025, this program seeks to offer healthcare coverage to all
65 lakh families in the state.
·
This new scheme builds upon the existing
Government of India (GoI)’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana(ABY) and Punjab’s Mukh
Mantri Sarbat Sehat BimaYojana, which previously provided Rs.5 lakh
coverage.
·
To ensure seamless access, beneficiaries
will be issued ‘Sehat Cards’ that enable cashless
treatment at both government and empanelled private hospitals.
7.
PUNJAB LEADS IN
PARAKH RASHTRIYA SARVEKSHAN 2024
·
The Ministry of Education (MoE) released
the ‘Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic
Development (PARAKH) Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024’,
a comprehensive learning assessment.
·
Punjab emerged as the best-performing
state in India, achieving the highest scores across Classes
3, 6, and 9.
·
The assessment was conducted by
the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),
an autonomous institution under the MoE.
·
PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan,
formerly the National Achievement Survey (NAS), was conducted in December 2024,
across 36 States and Union Territories (UTs), covering 21.15 lakh
students from 74,229 schools across 781 districts in Classes 3, 6,
and 9.
8.
7 NEW AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN E-NAM PLATFORM
·
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’
Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India (GoI), added seven
new agricultural products to the Electronic National Agriculture
Market (e-NAM) platform to enhance market access,
ensure better price realisation, and improve farmers’ economic well-being
across India.
·
With this inclusion, the total number of
commodities tradable on the e-NAM platform has increased to 238.
·
The newly included agricultural products
are: Sugarcane , Marcha rice (aromatic rice from Bihar), Katarni rice (premium
rice from Bihar),Jardalu mango (Bihar’s Geographical Indication (GI) tagged
mango),Shahi litchi (GI-tagged litchi from Bihar), Magahi paan (Bihar’s betel
leaves), Banarasi paan (Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s betel leaves).
·
The e-NAM, launched in 2016,
is a digital trading platform designed to integrate the agricultural produce
markets across India.
·
It enables transparent,
technology-driven trading by facilitating online bidding,
real-time price discovery, quality-based auctions, and instant payment
settlements.
·
The Small Farmers Agribusiness
Consortium (SFAC) serves as the nodal
agency responsible for implementing the e-NAM platform, operating
under the guidance of the MoA&FW, GoI.
9.
COLOMBIA AND UZBEKISTAN JOIN NDB
·
Colombia and Uzbekistan have
joined the New Development Bank (NDB), a multilateral
development bank, also known as the BRICS (Brazil,
Russia, India, China, South Africa) bank, as borrowing members of the NDB,
expanding its membership to 11 nations.
·
The announcement was made by NDB
President Dilma Rousseff following the 10th Annual
Meeting of the NDB Board of Governors (BoG), held ahead of the 17th BRICS
Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
·
The current members of the NDB
include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Algeria, Colombia, and Uzbekistan.
·
Uruguay holds the status of a
prospective member.
10.
PM NARENDRA MODI’S 5-NATION VISIT
·
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi undertook a 5-nation visit
to Ghana, Trinidad & Tobago, Argentina, Brazil & Namibia to
bolster India’s bilateral ties and global partnerships.
·
During his visit to Ghana,
India and Ghana signed 4 Memorandum of
Understanding (MoUs) to bolster bilateral
cooperation in key areas such as: culture, health, standardisation, and
institutional dialogue.
·
He was conferred with ‘The Officer
of the Order of the Star of Ghana’ by John Dramani Mahama,
President of Ghana.
·
During his PM Modi visit to T&T,
India signed 6 MoUs with Trinidad and Tobago
to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including
infrastructure and pharmaceuticals.
·
He was conferred with ‘The Order
of the Star of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago (ORTT)’,
the highest honour of the Caribbean nation by Christine
Carla Kangaloo, President of T&T.
·
PM Modi visit to Argentina
marked the 1st Indian bilateral visit at the Prime Ministerial level in 57
years.
·
Leaders of both countries agreed to
diversify bilateral trade and ramp up cooperation in areas like: defence,
critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, energy, agriculture, science &
technology, among others.
·
He was conferred with the ‘Key
to the City of Buenos Aires’ by Jorge Macri, Chief
of the City Government of Buenos Aires.
·
During his visit to Brazil, he attend
the 17th BRICS Leaders’ Summit and also held a
bilateral meeting with Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva at Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Brazil.
·
Leaders of both countries set a target to increase
bilateral trade from existing USD 1.2 billion to USD 20 billion over the
next 5 years.
·
He was conferred with ‘The Grand Collar
of the National Order of the Southern Cross’ the highest civilian honour of
Brazil by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President
of Brazil.
·
India and Brazil inked six Memorandums
of Understanding (MoUs) aimed at bolstering cooperation
in vital sectors like energy, agriculture, Renewable Energy(RE), digital
infrastructure, security, and Intellectual Property(IP).
·
PM Narendra Modi reached Namibia for
a one-day official visit, the concluding leg of his five-nation tour, at the
invitation of Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
·
India signed 4 Memorandums
of Understanding (MoUs) with Namibia to strengthen
bilateral cooperation in various areas including energy and healthcare.
·
PM Narendra Modi was conferred with
the ‘Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis’, the
highest civilian honour of Namibia, by Namibian President Nandi-Ndaitwah during
a special ceremony held in Windhoek.
