ANS : B

• Indian diplomat Devesh Uttam has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Lithuania.
• He is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of batch 2003.
• He is presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. 

• Manish Gupta, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of batch 1998, has also been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Ghana.

ANS : D

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the regional office of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Kuala Lumpur to facilitate close defence industrial collaboration between India and Malaysia.
• It will also serve as a hub for the HAL’s engagement with the wider South-East Asian region and act as a window for other Indian defence PSUs.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) :

• It is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company.
• Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the world. 
• Headquarters: Bangalore
• It works under the Ministry of Defence 
• It produced Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Light Combat Helicopter, Advanced Light Helicopter etc. for the Indian Air Force.
• Chairperson: R. Madhavan

ANS : B

• The East-West Center’s Board of Governors has elected Dr Samir Saran, head of India’s leading think tank, as one of the board’s five international members.
• Dr Saran, who is President of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF), will begin his term at the board’s next semiannual meeting in October.
• The East-West Center was established by the United States Congress in 1960 as a national educational institution to foster better relations and understanding among the peoples of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific islands through programs of cooperative study, training, and research.
• The East-West Center Board of Governors consists of 18 members.
  • The Governor of Hawaii appoints five members, the US Secretary of State appoints five members, and these ten members in turn elect five members from Asia and the Pacific.
  • There are also three ex-officio members – the Governor of Hawaii, the CIS Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the President of the University of Hawaii.
  • The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.

ANS : A

• Sikkim has topped the northeastern states in addressing public grievances, followed by Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The government of Sikkim tops the ranking among the North Eastern States with a score of 66.70 per cent, followed by the Government of Assam with a score of 57.45 per cent and the Covernment of Arunachal Pradesh with a score of 52.30 per cent.
• Sikkim has disposed of 173 grievances with an average closing time of 43 days from January to June 2023.
• The ranking was made in the Centralised Public Crievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPCRAMS) monthly report, released by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Personnel Ministry, for states for June 2023.
• The Grievance Redressal Index includes 2 dimensions and 4 indicators.
• The initiation of rankings is part of the DARPC’s effort to improve the grievance redressal and delivery amongst States/UTs and in line with the recommendations of the 127th Parliamentary Standing Committee which recommended that DARPC should monitor the effective redressal of grievances in the North Eastern States.
• Meanwhile, the Government of Uttar Pradesh topped the ranking among States with more than 17,500 grievances with a score of 63.90 per cent, followed by the Government of Jharkhand with a score of 48.95 per cent and the Covernment of Madhya Pradesh with a score of 43.53 per cent. 

ANS : C

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the winners of the ICC Player of the Month awards for June 2023. 
• The ICC Men’s Player of the Month award goes to Sri Lanka’s record-breaking spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, who was instrumental in his side’s successful ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier campaign. ​
• Hasaranga becomes the first Sri Lanka player to win the award since Prabath Jayasuriya in July 2022. 

• The ICC Women’s Player of the Month prize goes to Australia’s star all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner following a memorable performance in the first Women’s Ashes showdown, making her the first to win three ICC Player of the Month awards, having also won in December 2022 and February 2023.
• Gardner won her third Player of the Month crown by overcoming fellow nominees Tammy Beaumont of England and Hayley Matthews of the West Indies.

ANS : C

• The Directorate Ceneral of Civil Aviation approved Tamil Nadu’s first Flight Training Organisation (FTO).
• A senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCCA) official informed that EKVI Air Training Organisation Pvt. Ltd. based at Salem Airport in Tamil Nadu got the approval to establish FTO.
• This will be the 36th Flying Training Organization in the country that DCCA has approved.
• As the sole approved flying Training school in the region, it would provide aspiring pilots of Tamil Nadu with training opportunities as per DCCA standards and contribute to the growth of the aviation industry in the country.

Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) :

• It is a statutory body of the Government of India to regulate civil aviation in India.
• It became a statutory body under the Aircraft (Amendment) Act, 2020.
• DGCA has fourteen Regional Offices across the country.
• It has also five Regional Air Safety offices located in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Director General: Vikram Dev Dutt

ANS : D

• The book titled ‘We are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World’ has been authored by Malala Yousafzai.

ANS : D

• Four Indian-origin women have made it to the Forbes list of America’s 100 richest self-made women, with a combined net worth of a $4.06 billion.
• Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of Arista Networks, a computer networking firm; Neerja Sethi, co-founder of IT consulting and outsourcing firm Synte; Neha Narkhede, co-founder and former chief technology officer (CTO) of cloud company Confluent; and Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s former chair and CEO, are the four Indian-origin women who have been named by Forbes.
• For the sixth time in a row, Daine Hendricks, the co-founder of ABC Supply, topped the list.

ANS : C

• SBI Cards & Payment Services (SBI Card), the country’s largest pure-play credit card issuer, has appointed Abhijit Chakravorty as MD & CEO. 
• Chakravorty, who is presently a Deputy Managing Director at SBI, will assume charge of his new role on August 12, SBI Card said in a filing with stock exchanges. 
• He has been appointed as SBI Card’s MD&CEO for two years. 
• Incumbent MD & CEO Rama Mohan Rao Amara has tendered his resignation owing to his transfer to SBI. Amara will demit office on August 11. 

SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd.,

• It was previously known as SBI Cards & Payment Services Private Limited, is a credit card company and payment provider in India.
• SBI Card launched in October 1998 by State Bank of India and GE Capital
• Founded: October 1998
• Headquarters: Gurugram

ANS : A

• In Jammu and Kashmir, a path-breaking Mobile-Dost-App has been launched in sync with the vision of Apka-Mobile-Hamara-Daftar, a pioneering initiative for mobile-based delivery of citizen-centric services in the Union Territory. 
• The Mobile-Dost-App aims at empowering the people of Jammu & Kashmir by providing a comprehensive platform to access all the Government to Citizen Services (G2C) directly from their mobile devices.
• With just a few taps, residents can now effortlessly avail a number of services, enhancing their daily lives and fostering an efficient, effective, and transparent governance system.