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- India signed Rs.200 crore deal with Russia for acquiring Strum Ataka anti-tank missile for its fleet of Mi-35 attack choppers of Indian Air Force (IAF) to keep IAF battle-ready in situations like post-Balakot aerial strikes. Strum Ataka anti-tank missile would give an added capability to Mi-35 attack choppers of IAF to take out enemy tanks and other armoured elements.
- The 2nd anniversary of implementation of historic tax reform of Goods & Services Tax is celebrated on 1st July 2019 as GST (Goods & Services Tax) Day. On this occasion Finance Ministry introduced Sahaj & Sugam returns for small tax payers on trial basis which will be mandatory from 1 October 2019. On 29th March 2017, Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in Parliament and Act came into effect on 1st July 2017.
Aparna Kumar - Aparna Kumar, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and DIG Frontier in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) scaled North America’s Highest Peak De ali (20,310 feet) in Alaska, USA to become 1st civil servant to climb the rare mountain. Mount Denali was her seventh Summit in her mission ‘Seven Summits’ Challenge. She is the 1st civil servant and IPS officer to achieve this rare feat. 1st such challenge was completed in 1985 by Dick Bass, Texas oil tycoon.
- International Day of Parliamentarism is observed every year on 30 June across the world to commemorate the day of establishment of Inter-Parliamentary Union, the global organization of parliaments in 1889. United Nations General Assembly in 2018 adopted a resolution A/RES/72/278 to observe this day. Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, founded in 930 is World’s oldest parliament.
- ISALEX19, International Security Alliance (ISAs) first joint security exercise is being hosted by Abu Dhabi, capital of United Area Emirates (UAE). It will simulate a real-life security threat in a virtual context, to test readiness of different teams and to evaluate strategies, procedures and tools developed jointly between member countries since formation of Alliance in 2017. Launched in 2017 with headquarters at Abu Dhabi, ISA now comprises of nine countries.
- Uttar Pradesh government has launched a massive campaign called ‘Dastak’ from 1st to 31st July 2019 to eradicate deadly Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) Disease. Under it teams will go door to door in every village of state’s 75 districts to create awareness about communicable diseases as well as AES and JE. The campaign will ensure availability of clean drinking water, initiate sanitation drive.
- Butterfly species Tamil yeoman (Cirrochroa thais) has been officially declared as state butterfly of Tamil Nadu. The southern State formally notified this by an order on lines of the State Tree (Palm), Bird (Emerald Dove), Flower (Gloriosa) and Animal (Nilgiri Tahr). This butterfly species is endemic to Western Ghats. It is uniformly orange in colour with a dark brown outer ring. Maharashtra was 1st to declare Blue Mormon as its state butterfly.
Today’s Quiz
