19th July 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• With 35 sites in UNESCO's World Heritage list, India has the sixth highest number of culturally and historically important places in the world. 
• This comes after UNESCO recently added three Indian sites, including the Nalanda University, to the list. 
• Top 5 Countries ahead of India are, 
• Italy (51)
• China (50)
• Spain (45)
• France (42) 
• Germany (41)
• India and Malaysia have agreed to "proactively" engage in combating the "menace" of ISIS activities​. 
• At a delegation level meeting between the two countries, Home Minister Rajnath Singh stressed on strong intelligence sharing to stop the propagation of ISIS ideology. 
  
• The two sides also discussed issues like Extradition Treaty and the circulation of fake Indian currency notes.

National Affairs

• The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012, was passed in the Rajya Sabha today. 
• Amending the Child Labour Act, 1986, the Bill seeks to prohibit the employment of children below 14 years in "all" occupations and increases the penalty for violations from 6 months to 2 years. 
• The bill will now be discussed in the Lok Sabha.
• India's first paperless court was inaugurated at the Hyderabad High Court by Justice Madan B Lokur, who heads the Supreme Court's e-Committee. 
• The paperless court, which began functioning yesterday, uses digitised case records to allow "better access to justice for public". 
• 'Amudham Thaippal Maiyam' (ATM), a bank which offers mother's milk, has been opened in Puducherry. 
• The initiative by Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research aims to provide nourishment to save premature babies born in the hospital as 30% of 1,500 babies born there per month are of low birth weight.
• Judges at the Calcutta High Court have unanimously "declined to accept" the Centre's recent proposal to rename the court to 'Kolkata HC. 
• The judges cited the court's "long history and tradition associated with the existing name" as the reason for the denial. 
• The Parliament has passed the Regional Centre for Biotechnology Bill, 2016 to provide statutory status to the existing Regional Centre for Biotechnology in Faridabad, Haryana. 
• The Bill seeks to provide legislative backing to the Regional Centre and also confers upon it the status of an institution of national importance.
• The Indian Railways has initiated process to launch the Terrain Imaging for Diesel Drivers- Infrared Enhanced Optical and Radar Assisted (Tri-NETRA) system to avoid train accidents. 
• The system will be installed on locomotives for enhancing the vision of Locomotive Pilots in inclement weather.

Business & Economy

• Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) CEO Jiji Mammen today announced that the government has set a target for banks to disburse ₹1.8 lakh crore as loans under the MUDRA scheme during 2016-17. 
• Note : The banks disbursed ₹25,000 crore in the June quarter.
• In line with the announcements under the Indradhanush initiative and the Budget, the Centre has allocated ₹22,915 crore for the capitalisation of 13 public sector banks for the year 2016-17. 
• This will provide liquidity support and allow banks to raise capital from markets. 
• The amount released is 75% of that collected for each bank and the remaining will be performance-linked.
• Check complete bank-wise allocation details from here

Places in New

• Sikkim's Khangchendzonga National Park has been designated as India's first “Mixed" site on the UNESCO World Heritage List, by fulfilling the criteria under both Natural and Cultural heritage. 
• Important Points to Note :
• Earlier, Chandigarh's Capitol Complex and Nalanda University were also added to the list. 
• With this, India now has 35 sites on the World Heritage List, including seven natural and 27 cultural sites.

People in News

• Tamil Nadu's Sri Ram S emerged the national topper of the 2016 Chartered Accountants final examination as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India declared the results yesterday. 
• Securing 76.63% marks, Sri Ram cleared the exam in his first attempt. 
• Andhra Pradesh's KNVV Upendra (76.25%) and Gujarat's Yash Manojkumar Goyal (74.88%) were ranked second and third respectively.

New Appointments

• The World Bank (WB) today confirmed New York University's economics professor Paul Romer as its next Chief Economist. 
• Romer will take the post in September and replace Kaushik Basu, an ex-Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian government. 
• Senior IAS officer Guruprasad Mohapatra was appointed as Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI). 
• Malcolm Turnbull was sworn in for another term as Australia’s Prime Minister after a narrow election victory with budget repair and a public vote on same sex marriage among his top priorities.

Deaths

• Ghazal maestro and playback singer Mubarak Begum Shaikh (80) passed away. 
• She was known for songs including 'Woh Na Aayenge Palat Kar' from the 1955 film 'Devdas' and 'Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein' from the 1961 film 'Hamari Yaad Aayegi'. 
• She sang for over 110 films in her career of over four decades.

Sports

• The Pakistan Cricket Board has started a ‘Misbah Push-Up Challenge’, after Pakistani captain Misbah-ul-Haq celebrated his century at Lord’s with 10 push-ups last week. 
• The challenge requires people to post videos of themselves doing ten push-ups with the hashtag #PushUpChallenge.
• WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) recommends banning Russia from Olympics and Paralympics after evidence is found of a four-year state-sponsored doping programme

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

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