1) IRS Officer Nitin Gupta named as the new chairman of CBDT
•IRS officer Nitin Gupta has been appointed as the new Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman. Gupta, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the 1986 batch of the Income Tax cadre, is serving as the Member (investigation) in the Board and is scheduled to retire in September next year.
•The post of the CBDT chief was being held in an additional capacity by Board member and 1986-batch IRS officer Sangeeta Singh after J B Mohapatra retired on April 30. The CBDT is headed by a Chairman and can have six members who are in the rank of special secretary.
2) Four-day Ambubachi Mela at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati
•Devotees were finally permitted to take part in the annual Ambubachi Mela at Assam’s renowned Kamakhya Temple after a two-year absence. The head priest of Maa Kamakhya Devalaya, or “Bor Doloi,” Kabinath Sarma, explained that the “Pravritti” was used to symbolically close the temple doors for four days as part of the rites. The door will be unlocked or Nivriti in the morning of the first day.
3) RBI approves SBI’s establishment of operations support subsidiary
•The Reserve Bank of India has given the State Bank of India preliminary approval for its proposed operations support subsidiary, which aims to reduce the cost-to-income ratio. Before introducing the new subsidiary across India, the bank will soon begin a pilot programme in a select areas. Dinesh Kumar Khara, the chairman of SBI, said that a subsidiary for operations assistance is being established. It aims to allay the worry over the cost to income ratio. They already have RBI‘s in-principle permission, and we’ll be starting a trial programme soon.
4) IRARC’s Avinash Kulkarni to head India Debt Resolution Company
•The chief govt of India Resurgence Asset Reconstruction Firm (IRARC), Avinash Kulkarni, has been chosen to head the India Debt Decision Firm (IDRCL). Kulkarni is a (SBI) veteran, having undertaken numerous roles on the public sector behemoth. His engagements on the SBI group have included assignments within the funding banking and advisory arm, Capital Markets.
•Kulkarni was selected from among a shortlist of about six candidates earlier this month. With this selection, the key executives are in place to start consolidating bad loans from banks through the NARCL.
•Kulkarni’s appointment follows another SBI veteran Natarajan Sundar being selected as CEO of the National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) in April. Sundar took over as the CEO at the end of May. Both appointments now mean that the key executive leadership to run the government-backed ARC is in place.
5) Largest bacteria in the world discovered in Caribbean mangrove swamp
•In a Caribbean mangrove swamp, researchers found the largest bacterium known to science. While the majority of bacteria are tiny, this one is so large that it can be seen with the unaided eye. It is by far the largest bacterium known to date, according to Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a co-author of a paper reporting the finding in the journal Science. The thin white thread is about the size of a human eyelash.
•The cell has a shape that is unusual for bacteria, according to the researchers, but they have not yet been able to develop it in lab culture. One significant distinction is that it includes a sizable central compartment, or vacuole, which enables some cell functions to take place there rather than all across the cell. The reason the bacteria is so enormous is unknown to the researchers, although co-author Volland proposed that it might be an adaptation to assist it avoid being eaten by smaller creatures.
6) Togo and Gabon become Commonwealth Association members
•The Commonwealth of Nations now has 56 member nations after the admission of Togo and Gabon. The two historically French-speaking nations were formally admitted to the union at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which was presided over by Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali, the country’s capital. According to Patricia Scotland, the organization’s secretary-general, admission is determined by evaluations of a number of standards, including the democratic process, effective leadership, and rule of law.
7) IWF chooses Mohammed Jalood as President 2022
•The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) believes that substantial progress has been made in enhancing the culture and leadership of the sport. Mohammed Jalood has been elected as the organization’s president, and 11 additional new members have been added to its Executive Board, according to a press release from Tirana, Albania, which hosted both the Special & Electoral Congress and the recently concluded European Weightlifting Championships.
8) Kerala Govt to roll out “MEDISEP” scheme for State Government
•Kerala state government has issued orders regarding the implementation of a medical insurance “MEDISEP” scheme for government employees and pensioners and the deduction of premium from the salary of June 2022 and pension of July 2022. MEDISEP scheme is applicable to government employees, pensioners/family pensioners and their eligible family members and employees and pensioners of universities that receive grant in aid from the state government and the local self-government institutions.
9) Khushi Patel from UK is crowned Miss India Worldwide 2022
•The winner of the longest-running Indian beauty pageant outside of India, Miss India Worldwide 2022, was announced as British biomedical student Khushi Patel. Shrutika Mane was named the second runner up, and Vaidehi Dongre from the US was named the first runner up. The top 12 competitors at the pageant were the champions of other international competitions.
10) Dhanalakshmi becomes 3rd fastest Indian woman in 200m
•Ace sprinter Sekar Dhanalakshmi ran her personal best time to win 200m gold at the Qosanov Memorial Athletics. Dhanalakshmi ran a creditable sub-23 second, clocking 22.89s to better her earlier personal best of 23.14s she had come up last year. Dhanalakshmi is only the third Indian woman to run sub-23s after national record holder Saraswati Saha (22.82s) and Hima Das (22.88s).
•Dhanalakshmi had won a 200m gold in the national Inter-Sate Championships in Chennai earlier this month with a time of 23.27s. She missed the automatic qualification mark of 22.80s for World Championships (July 15 to 24) in Oregon, USA, but will have to see if she can make it to the showpiece through world ranking quota.
