The Daily Brief – 18th July 2019

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1. Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama) has elected four eminent personalities in the field of Performing Arts namely tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, dancer Sonal Mansingh, dancer and choreographer Jatin Goswami and Bharatnatyam exponent K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows or Akademi Ratna Awards for 2018. The Akademi’s General Council also selected 44 artistes for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards or Akademi Puraskar for 2018. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Award has been conferred since 1952.

   

2. Google India and Tata Trusts are set to expand their ‘Internet Saathi’, digital literacy programme for rural women, to villages in Punjab and Odisha. Currently, the programme has reached 2.6 lakh villages across 18 states. The programme was launched in July 2015 and was started as a pilot in Rajasthan.
3. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has directed Pakistan to review the death sentence order of Kulbhushan Yadav, to reconsider it and give him a fair trial by providing him consular access. The ICJ ruled in favour of India by 15 to 1 votes. The court stated that Pakistan has violated Jadhav’s elementary human rights. Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian national, who was arrested in Pakistan and accused of terrorism and spying for Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
4. Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen has been elected as the first female President of the European Union Commission. She will replace Jean-Claude Juncker on 1^st November. The 60-year-old is Germany’s Defence Minister.
5. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the world’s third-richest person with USD 107 billion as compared to the second-richest person Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault’s USD 108 billion wealth. Arnault is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the world’s largest luxury goods business, LVMH. The world’s richest person is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has an estimated net worth of $125 billion.
6. Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Pakistan’s Punjab Province on 17^th July, 2019. Saeed-led JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
7. The Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to the Inter-Institutional Agreement between India and the US in the areas of regenerative medicine and 3D bioprinting, new technologies, and joint use of scientific infrastructure. The objective of the agreement is to contribute towards the development of research and education of the institutions of both the countries through academic collaboration.
   

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   Today’s Quiz
   

   1. Who among the following is not a recipient of the Akademi Ratna Awards for 2018?

   
   Zakir Hussain
   Kalyanasundaram Pillai
   Sonal Mansingh
   Vijay Kumar Das
   

   2. In how many states of India has the Internet Saathi programme been implemented?

   
   15
   18
   20
   22
   

   3. Who will be the first female President of the European Union Commission?

   
   Ursula von der Leyen
   Angela Merkel
   Christine Lagarde
   Theresa May
   

   4. Who is the world’s richest person?

   
   Bill Gates
   Jeff Bezos
   Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault
   Tim Cook
   

   5. When was the Mumbai terror attack carried out?

   
   2004
   2005
   2007
   2008
   

   6. The Cabinet has approved the Inter-Institutional Agreement between India and the ____ in the areas of regenerative medicine and 3D bioprinting, new technologies.

   
   Russia
   Japan
   USA
   UK