Daily Current Affairs,23rd July 2018

1) PM Modi Embarked On 3-Nation Visit To Rwanda, Uganda, And South Africa

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi left on a three-nation visit to Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa. In the first leg of his five-day visit, Mr Modi will reach Rwanda. India will extend two lines of credit of 100 million US Dollars each for agriculture and industrial sectors to Rwanda during his two-day visit to that country. 

•On second leg he will leave for Uganda where he will call on the President. He will have delegation-level talks and will address Indian community. Two lines of credit worth 164 million US Dollars will be extended to Uganda during the visit. In the last leg of his visit, Prime Minister Modi will reach South Africa to attend the 10th BRICS summit at Johannesburg. 

2) Public Affairs Index 2018: Kerala Best Governed State, Bihar Worst

•According to the Public Affairs Index 2018, Kerala is the best-governed state in the country, released by a Bengaluru think-tank, Public Affairs Centre. As per the report, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat are among the top five states delivering good governance. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha ranked the lowest on the index, indicating higher social and economic inequalities. 

•Among smaller states – with the population less than two crore – Himachal Pradesh topped the list of states with good governance, followed by Goa, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. Meghalaya performed the worst in this list. Manipur, Nagaland, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir were the other poor performers. This year’s index also measured how child-friendly each state is. Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram topped this index. 

3) Environment Minister Inaugurates Advanced System Of Air Quality ‘SAFAR’

•Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan unveiled a state-of-the-art Air Quality and Weather Forecast System– ‘SAFAR’ (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting) at Chandni Chowk in New Delhi. The Environment Ministry’s mission model project ‘SAFAR’ is being implemented in four cities of India – Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad as an operational service. 

•First of its kind in the country, the system was developed indigenously by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and operationalised by India Meteorological Department (IMD). The giant true colour LED display will give out real-time air quality index on 24x7 basis with colour coding along with 72-hour advance weather forecast. 

4) Federal Bank Gets RBI Nod To Enter Bahrain, Kuwait, Singapore

•Private Sector Lender Federal Bank has received the regulatory nod to open offices in Bahrain, Kuwait and Singapore, but is awaiting local clearances before it starts operations. 

•Federal Bank already has representative offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and its desire to expand comes even as a majority of its larger peers are downsizing their overseas presence. 

5) Historic Win: Lakshya Sen Wins Badminton Asian Junior Championships Title

•Indian badminton player Lakshaya Sen bagged the gold medal after defeating Indonesia’s top-seeded Kunlavut Vitidsaran in the final match of the Badminton Asia Junior Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

•The 16-year-old thrashed his Indonesian opponent to win gold for the country at the mega-event after a gap of six years. The feat is only the second for India in the men's singles category since Gautam Thakkar's gold way back in the 1965 edition of the tournament. 

•Other Indian shuttlers who have previously won a medal at the Asian Junior Championships include Gautam Thakkar (gold in 1965), Pranav Chopra and Prajkta Sawant (bronze in 2009), Sameer Verma (silver) and PV Sindhu (bronze) in 2011, Sindhu (gold) and Sameer Verma (bronze) in 2012. 

6) Junior Asian Wrestling Championship: India Win 8 Medals, Iran Tops

•India won 8 medals in the two day Junior Asian Wrestling Championship which concluded in New Delhi. The medals comprised 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze. Sachin Rathi won the gold after winning the bout in the 74-kilogram category. Deepak Punia then won the gold in the 86 kilogram category.

•Iran with 189 points topped the team championship. India with 173 points finished second while Uzbekistan with 128 points came third.