Daily Current Affairs, 10th July 2019

1) Lal Bahadur Shastri Statue unveiled by PM

•The Prime Minister unveiled the statue of former Prime Minister Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi. It is built by Northern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India.

2) “News bulletin” launched in National Museum of Indian Cinema

•A News bulletin of the National Museum of Indian Cinema, brought out by the Films Division,was launched. This bulletin will give them a physical document to cherish and to get relevant information.

3) Sri Lanka eliminates measles

•Sri Lanka  has become fifth country in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Southeast Asia region to eliminate measles. The other countries in the region which have achieved this feat are Bhutan, Maldives, DPR Korea and Timor-Leste.

4) France to impose green tax on plane tickets from 2020

•France will impose 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.

5) Russia launched Soyuz Carrier Rocket with 33 satellites

•Russia successfully launched Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a hydrometeorological satellite and 32 small satellites. The satellite will provide images of clouds, the surface of the Earth, ice and snow covers in the visible, infrared and microwave ranges.

6) 2nd India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue begins

•The 2nd India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue begins in New Delhi. It was held under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and Deputy Minister of the Economic Development of Russia, Timur Maksimov. The first Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg in November 2018.

•The meeting will focus on six core areas of cooperation, including development of transport infrastructure and technologies, agriculture and agro-processing sector and small and medium business support.

7) Arun Kumar appointed as DGCA chief

•Arun Kumar has been appointed as the Director General of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation. He will replace BS Bhullar.

8) Deposits in Jan Dhan Yojana accounts crosses Rs 1 lakh crore

•Deposits in bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan scheme have crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. As per the latest finance ministry data, the total balance in over 36.06 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts was at Rs 1,00,495.94 crore as on July 3.

•The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, with an aim to provide universal access to banking facilities to the people in the country.

9) SBI slashes lending rates by 5 bps

•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%.