1. India gets full membership of SCO

(i)  India accepted full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an international alliance of countries like China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members.

(ii) Along with India, Pakistan was accepted as a permanent member.

(iii) India, which had an observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become a member by 2016. 

2. Indigenously made Akash inducted into Indian Air Force

(i)The Akash Missile System, developed by Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) was inducted into the Indian air force at a ceremony held at the Gwalior Air Force base on July 10. 

(ii) S K Sharma Chairman & Managing Director, BEL, handed over the key of the weapon system to the Defence Minister Mr Manohar Parrikar, who in turn handed it over to the Air Chief Marshal and Chief of the Air Staff Arup Raha, Dr S Christopher, Director General of DRDO.

(iii) Akash thus is a commendable feat of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

3. SBT NRI Family Card launched by SBI 

(i) The State Bank of Travancore (SBT) launched the ‘SBT NRI Family Card’, an exclusive card targeting non-resident Indians.

(ii) It was launched by Jeevandas Narayan, MD of SBT at a function in Thiruvananthapuram. 

(iii) It enables a card holder in India to receive remittance from an NRI by way of periodic recharging through the NRI’s internet banking account.

4. Exim Bank of India and New Development Bank ink an MoU

(i) The Export – Import Bank of India has signed a multilateral agreement to cooperate with New Development Bank (NDB) promoted by the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which will be operationalised by 2016. 

(ii) As per NDB’s press release, the agreement was signed between Exim Bank of India’s Chairman and Managing Director Yaduvendra Mathur and chairpersons or presidents of other member development banks of BRICS in Ufa, Russia during the BRICS Summit 2015.

(iii) The MoU aims at sharing of knowledge, information and best practices, capacity building of personnel including project development skills, promotion of joint events, research, development of effective and sustainable financing solutions for projects of mutual interest. 

5. IMF predicts India’s Growth at 7.5%

(i) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook Update has said that India will be the world’s fastest growing economy for the second consecutive year in 2016 at 7.5 per cent even as it decreased its current year global economy growth forecast to 3.3 per cent.

(ii) India’s growth forecast is higher than China’s 6.8 per cent. 

6. Indirect tax revenue rises 37.5% 

(i) Indirect tax collections that include excise, customs and service taxes, grew

37.5% from April-June this year.

(ii) Even in the last fiscal, indirect tax revenues grew 37.5% in the first quarter.

(iii) Analysts believe that the government has achieved approximately 20 % of its budgeted target for indirect tax collections in the first three months of the fiscal year itself.

7. Northeast to get 8 postal ATMs 

(i) The Department of Post will soon launch 8 ATMs in the Northeast region. 

(ii) Chief Post Master General of Northeast circle, Smita Kumari said in Shillong on July 9 that 15 more locations are under the process of getting ATMs. 

(iii) The DoP has a network of around 1.55 lakh post offices out of which 2,920 are in the Northeast circle at present. 

8. UNESCO adds 24 new sites in the World Heritage Sites list 

(i)  

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee concluded its annual meeting in Bonn, Germany, after adding 24 new sites to the list.

(ii)  Of the total 30 sites that were examined this year, 24 sites were granted world heritage status for their outstanding universal value. Thus, the total number of world heritage sites is 1,031. 

(iii) The newly added sites are: 

* Blue and John Crow Mountains (Jamaica).

* Tusi Sites (China), 

* Christiansfeld, a Moravian Church Settlement (Denmark). 

* Par Force Hunting Landscape in North Zealand (Denmark). 

* Climats, terroirs of Burgundy (France)

* Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars (France)

* Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus (Germany)

* Susa (Iran)

* Cultural Landscape of Maymand (Iran)

*  Necropolis of Beth She’arim-a Landmark of Jewish Revival (Israel). 

* Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefal

and Monreale (Italy)

* Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining (Japan) 

* Baptism Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” (Al-Maghtas, Jordan)

* Baekje Historic Areas (South Korea) 

* Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic System (Mexico)

* Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape (Mongolia)

* Rjukan-Notodden Industrial Heritage Site (Norway)

* Rock Art in the Hail Region (Saudi Arabia)

* Singapore Botanical Gardens (Singapore) 

* Ephesus (Turkey)

* Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape (Turkey) 

* Fray Bentos Industrial Landscape (Uruguay)

* The Forth Bridge (United Kingdom and Northern Ireland)

* San Antonio Missions (United States)

9. Sania Mirza is the first Indian woman to win the women’s doubles Grand Slam trophy

(i) Sania Mirza with her Swiss partner Martina Hingis made history on July 10. The former became the first Indian woman to win women’s doubles Grand Slam trophy.

(ii) Mirza and Hingis battled past the second-seeded Russian team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina  scoring 5-7 7-6 (4) 7-5 in a thrilling match. 

(iii) The trophy is another first for Sania. She became India’s first woman player to win a Grand Slam when she won the Australian Open with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009. She later added the French Open title (2012 with Bhupathi) and US Open title (2014 with Bruno Soares) to her mixed doubles collection and now a women’s doubles Grand Slam trophy in 2015. 

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