Daily Current Affairs For Competitive Exam - 13th July

National Affairs

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a nationwide Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight (IDCF) to check child diarrhoeal deaths. 

The IDCF drive was launched by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda in New Delhi. 

It will be observed from 11th to 23rd July, 2016 across the country.

Science & Technology

Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet, named 2015 RR245, beyond Neptune which goes around the Sun in a 700-year wide orbit. 

The new object, which is roughly 700 kilometers in size, is around five billion kilometres to the sun at its closest approach (next in 2096) and over 120 times further from the Sun than Earth at its farthest.

Awards & Honors

President Pranab Mukherjee today conferred the 51st Jnanpith Award on renowned Gujarati writer Dr.RaghuveerChaudhari.

Singer Taylor Swift has been named the world's highest-paid celebrity of 2016 as part of the 'Celebrity 100' list by 'Forbes', having earned $170 million from June 2015 to June 2016. 

With earnings of $110 million, boy band 'One Direction' ranked second. 

Singer Adele and actors Kevin Hart and Jennifer Lawrence were among the top 50 in the list.

Actors Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar are the only Indians to feature in the 'Celeb 100' list by Forbes, an annual list featuring the world's highest paid celebrities. 

With earnings of $33 million, Shah Rukh ranks 86th on the list. 

Meanwhile, Akshay has slipped from the 76th rank in 2015 to the 94th position with earnings of $31.5 million.

Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the most liked person on Facebook with over 114 million likes. 

Colombian singer Shakira, who is the most liked female, is second on the list with more than 104 million likes. 

American actor Vin Diesel is third on the list with over 99 million likes.

Places in News

India’s first Centre of Excellence on Internet of Things (CoE– IoT) was launched in Bengaluru, Karnataka by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). 

The centre was launched at NASSCOM’s Startup Warehouse in Bengaluru to encourage start-ups to come up with tech solutions centred on Internet of Things (IoT).

New Appointments

Home Secretary Theresa May will become the second female Prime Minister to lead the United Kingdom. 

This comes after May's rival, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew her candidacy and current PM David Cameron announced that he will submit his resignation tomorrow. 

Important Note : Margaret Thatcher was the first female to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Union Government appointed Utpal Bora as the full-time Chairman of Oil India Ltd.

This appointment was recommended by a three-member search-cum-selection committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha.

The Department Of Personnel And Training also announced the appointment of D Rajkumar as Head of Bharat Petroleum.

He is going to replace BPCL's current chief S Varadarajan, who is going to retire in September 2016.

MOUs & Agreements

As part of programmes to implement the Roadmap for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bihar (2015-30), the state government today signed an MoU with Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC).

As per provisions of the MoU, the ADPC will provide technical assistance to the state government to implement the Roadmap for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bihar (2015-30), which was approved by the Cabinet in March.

Business & Economy

NABARD is celebrating it's 34th Foundation Day today. 

NABARD : National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

NABARD is an apex development bank in India having headquarters based in Mumbai.

It was established on 12 July 1982.

NABARD Chairman : Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwal

Mortgage lender HDFC today announced that it plans to raise up to ₹3,000 crore through synthetic INR notes called 'masala bonds', a first for an Indian company. 

HDFC added that it has appointed Axis Bank, Credit Suisse, and Nomura as joint book runners and lead managers to the issue. 

Note : 'Masala bonds' are rupee-denominated borrowings by Indian entities in overseas markets.

Sports

Indian Hockey Mens' & Womens' squads for Rio 2016 Olympics announced.

Goalkeeper P.R Sreejesh will captain the Men's team.

Sushila Chanu will lead the Women's squad.

Indian golfers, Anirban Lahiri, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia and Aditi Ashok will be representing India at the 2016 Rio Olympics based on their rankings. 

Important Note : Golf is making a return to the Olympics for the first time after the 1904 St. Louis Games. 

The tournament will feature the top 60 ranked golfers with a maximum of two from each country.

Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid sportsman, with $88 million yearly earnings, as per Forbes’ Celeb 100, a list of the top-earning celebrities worldwide. 

Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is the second on the list with yearly earnings of $81.5 million. 

Note : No Indian sportsperson or cricketer features in the list.

The 14th edition of the Homeless World Cup kicked off in Scotland. 

The tournament will feature 48 male and 16 female teams from 52 countries, including a male and female team from India. 

The Indian teams' participation in the tournament was confirmed after a crowd sourcing campaign was launched for them in June.

The Indian men’s junior hockey team beat Russian club Dynamo Stroitel 3-2 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, to win the 2016 Eur Asia Hockey Cup.