Current Affairs of 10th July 2019

• Christine Lagarde (6C), the first woman head of the Washington-based body, International Monetary Fund(IMF) nominated to become the first woman to lead the ECB (European Central Bank). EU (European Union) leaders nominated France's Christine Lagarde as president of the ECB in a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. She would succeed current ECB president Mario Draghi (Italy), whose term ends on October 31. Lagarde was born on 1 January 1956 in Paris, France. She has served eight years as head of the IMF since 2011 and four as French finance minister- the first woman to hold the role in any G7 country.

• The German bank, Deutsche Bank announced to pull out of global equities sales and trading to scale back investment banking. The decision is expected to cut off 18,000 jobs for a globally of around 74,000 employees by 2022.

• Uttarakhand has been adjudged as one of the country's five best performing states under the National Programme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme aimed at addressing declining child sex ratio and issues of women empowerment. As per the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, the State received this recognition for its consistent performance in respect of sex ratio at birth. In addition to Uttarakhand, Haryana has bagged three awards, including one state-level and two district-level awards, for consistent performance in respect of the sex ratio at birth (SRB).

• Mumbai based Private sector lender, YES Bank has acquired a 9.47% stake in dry cell battery maker, Eveready Industries India by invoking shares pledged by McLeod Russel. The acquisition comes after the Indian tea company, McLeod Russel defaulted on repayment of credit facilities extended by the Yes bank. McLeod's debt is about Rs.1,800 - 2,000 crore.The bank acquired 68,80,149 equity shares having a nominal value of Rs 5 per share constituting 9.47% of the post-issue paid-up share capital.

• Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (UP). The following programs were undertaken by him: Unveil of Statue: PM unveiled the statue of former Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi, UP. He was greeted by Shastri's sons Anil and Sunil Shastri, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Working President JP Nadda and state unit chief Mahendra Nath Pandey at the International Airport. Tree Plantation Drive: PM launched a tree plantation drive at Harahua primary school in Anand Kanan forest on the Panch Kosi Marg by planting a sapling. UP government has planned to reconstruct this route for Rs 97 crore and Rs 4 crore was spent on developing basic infrastructure.

• IPS officer from Odisha cadre, M Nageswar Rao, has been removed from his current post of Additional Director of CBI and appointed as the Director-General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guard by Central Government. He will continue this post till July 2020. He will succeed in S.N Pradhan. Earlier Mr.Alok Verma had been transferred to Fire Services as Director-General from the CBI department, but Verma denied the offer and never took charge as DG of Fire Services.

• France will impose a green tax up to €18 on plane tickets from 2020. The move aims to fund less-polluting transportation projects. A similar tax was introduced in Sweden in April 2018, which imposed an added charge of up to €40 on every ticket in a bid to lessen the impact of air travel on the climate.

• Lucrezia Terzi, a researcher at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCKCEN), has come up with a new way of predicting the monsoon at a science and technology conference organized in Vienna by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). The new method measures how much Beryllium-7 (an isotope of the element Beryllium) is present in the air. The Be-7 is chosen because it is created only in the stratosphere when cosmic rays hit and break the nuclei of nitrogen and oxygen. Due to the sun warming the oceans differently at different latitudes, and the spin of the earth, water-bearing air moves up and down in circular fashions, which is the basic cause of the monsoons. When air flows down from the stratosphere (upwards of 33,000 feet from the earth's surface), it brings with it some Be-7. That makes the strong connection between the amount of Be-7 and the timing of monsoons.

• State Bank of India has reduced its benchmark lending rate by 5 bps across all loan tenures. The lender's one-year marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) will be 8.4% compared with 8.45%.

• The Assam government has taken a step to develop 316 tourists spot in the state. 150 crore rupees will be spent to develop these locations under Axom Darshan. MD of Assam Tourism Development Corporation Phukan added that river tourism is one of the sought after sectors in Assam and the state government will utilize the mighty Brahmaputra to develop the sector.

• Italy Prosecco added to the UNESCO Heritage list recently. The grapes produce the famous prosecco sparkling wine are grown. The landscape is characterized by hogback hills, Viglione and small plots of vines on narrow grassy terraces, forests, small villages, and farmland.

• The government fixed the price of the new series of Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) at Rs 3,443 per gram opening on July 8, 2019. In consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Centre decided to allow a discount of Rs 50 per gram from the issue price (Rs 3,393 per gram) to those investors who apply online and if the payment is made through digital mode. SGBs will be issued every month from June 2019 to September 2019. Under the SGB scheme, launched in November 2015, bonds are denominated in units of one gram of gold and multiples thereof. Minimum Investment in bonds is 1 gram and a maximum limit of a subscription of 500 gram/person/fiscal year (April-March). Maximum Limit of a subscription is 4 kg for an individual and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal.

• The world's largest burn and plastic surgery institute named Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute started its functioning in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Outpatient Department (OPD) of the institute was inaugurated by the Health and Family Welfare Minister of Bangladesh Zahid Maleque. It is a 500-bed hospital with 50 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and 12 operation theatres. It will provide advanced treatment to burn patients in Bangladesh. It was built at a cost of over 500 crores Taka.

• Popshot, the world's first-ever interactive browser built for smartphones, launches in India. Popshot is a smart app that changes the way people explore, share, and save the web through a first-of-its-kind interactive screenshot feature. This promises to redefine the users' digital capabilities in exploring, bookmarking and sharing content by making it more visual, organized and direct.

• Youth Affairs and Sports Minister, Kiren Rijiju has announced that the government is going to set-up three Sports Centre of Excellence in Itanagar. The three centers of excellence will be for Martial Arts, Weight Lifting and Boxing. The government will also set up 12 to 15 football stadiums in the next 3 years.

• Dutee Chand from Odisha has won the gold medal in the women's 100-meter sprint at the 30th Summer University Games in Naples, Italy. This is the first time an Indian has won a 100-meter gold at this global event.

• Russia successfully launched its Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a hydrometeorological satellite and 32 small satellites. The rocket blasted off at 8.41 a.m. (local time) from the Vostochny spaceport in the Far Eastern Amur Region, it said in a statement.

• The Indian Army is planning to acquire the Excalibur artillery ammunition from the Americans under the emergency procurement procedures. It is capable of hitting targets more than 50 Kilometers away. This Excalibur ammunition can be fired from US-made M-777 ultra-light howitzers which are already in process of being inducted in the Army