Current Affairs

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018 is going to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha today. The Bill will be moved by the Minister of Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh to alter the Right to Information Act, 2005. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet his Bhutanese counterpart, Tshering Tobgay today to discuss the issues of mutual interest. Tshering Tobgay has come to India for a three-day visit and will be meeting President Ram Nath Kovind this evening. This year, India and Bhutan are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels yesterday. During the meeting, both the leaders exchanged their views on the advancements made on the understandings reached during the last India-EU Summit in 2017. 

The government has given its consent to the merger of  Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, as confirmed by the Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha today. There are still some formalities left to be completed to finalize this deal. After the merger, these two big telecom giants will become the largest telecom operator in the country with more than Rs. 1.5 lakh crore, 35% of market share, and over 430 million subscribers. 

The sugarcane's fair and remunerative price (FRP) has been increased by Rs. 20 per quintal to Rs. 275 by the government today. This price will be applicable from the next marketing year beginning from October. 

Indian automobile giants Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra stood on the top in the list of the biggest spenders on research and development in 2016-17. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra spent ₹2,100.1 crore and ₹2,075.8 crore respectively in R&D.  According to the reports, the five biggest R&D spenders in 2016-17 were Tata Motors, M&M, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), Honda Cars India, and Ashok Leyland. 

India claimed victory against England by 8 wickets with 59 balls to spare in the 1st ODI at Trent Bridge on Thursday. With a tough target of 269 to chase, Rohit and Dhawan got India off to the best possible starts. Kuldeep Yadav befuddled England batsmen with a captivating spell before Rohit Sharma’s great century saw India move to an eight-wicket victory in the first ODI. 

Archer Deepika Kumari, who previously won four silver medals at an Archery World Cup stage, has finally succeeded in getting gold for India at Salt Lake. It is her first individual gold in five years at the Salt Lake World Cup. She competed against  Germany’s Michelle Kroppen and won by 7-3  in the recurve final. After this triumph, she will be representing India at the Archery World Cup Final in Samsun, Turkey in October.

The Chennai Super Kings won the IPL 2018 against the SunRisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the high-voltage clash at the overcrowded Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. All credit goes to Shane Watson's unbeaten 117 runs off 57 balls, that ultimately turned the match in favor of the CSK. It was an astounding comeback by the team after serving two years of the ban.

England defeated India by 5 wickets in the second T20 International match which took place at Cardiff on Friday. The series is now levelled by England by 1-1. Former skipper MS Dhoni played his 500th international match yesterday and scored 32 from 24 balls contributing to India's total of 148. Virat Kohli made the top score of 47 runs while Raina made 27 runs in the match.

The evacuation process of nearly 1200 stranded pilgrims has been completed on Saturday. The remaining 160 pilgrims were airlifted and moved to safety from Simikot and Hilsa today. The situation is back to normal and now the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is underway smoothly.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was granted regular bail in Sunanda Pushkar death case on Saturday as directed by a Delhi Sessions Court on July 5. Mr. Tharoor applied for regular bail at the Patiala House sessions court which was granted to him on two conditions- First, that he will not leave the country without informing and second that he will have to furnish a bail bond of one lakh rupees.