Daily Current Affairs and GK | 18 July 2024

Topic: Awards and Prizes

1. The Best Ship of Eastern Fleet award presented to INS Delhi.

• At the annual "Fleet Awards Function-2024" held in Visakhapatnam, INS Delhi was selected as the best ship in the Eastern Fleet.
• On July 14, the event was held to acknowledge and celebrate the operational achievements of the Eastern Fleet during the past year.
• The Best Ship in Corvettes/ OPVs/ LSTs award was given to INS Kavaratti.
• While INS Shivalik, INS Sumedha and INS Sumitra were declared the most spirited ships of the Sunrise Fleet for having undertaken a variety of challenging missions in the last one year.
• The chief guest of the event was Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command.
• The event was hosted by Rear Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar, Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Fleet.

Topic: International Appointment

2. Roberta Metsola was re-elected Chief of the European Parliament.

• On 16 July, EU lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to give conservative Maltese politician Roberta Metsola another term as President of the European Parliament.
• Metsola was approved by a majority of EU parliamentarians to lead the EU Assembly for the next two and a half years, with 562 out of 623 supporting her reappointment.
• Metsola is a Maltese lawmaker who became the first woman in 20 years to lead the European Union Assembly in 2022.
• She is only the second president, after Germany's Martin Schulz, to win another term since the EU Parliament became a directly elected institution in 1979.

(Source: DD News)

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

3. Government launched the ‘ASMITA' project to develop 22,000 books in Indian languages.

• The Union Ministry of Education and UGC launched the ASMITA project to produce 22,000 books in Indian languages in the next five years.
• The ASMITA (Augmenting Study Materials in Indian languages through Translation and Academic Writing) project has been launched by the secretary, Higher Education, Sanjay Murthy.
• It is one of several initiatives taken by the government to promote Indian languages in the education system.
• This project is a collaborative effort of the UGC and Bharatiya Bhasha Samit.
• The project aims to produce 1,000 books in 22 languages within five years.
• Under this initiative, 1,800 textbooks covering Arts, Science and Commerce streams will be produced by June 2025.
• 13 nodal universities have been identified to lead this project. The UGC has also created a standard Operating Process (SOP) for the book-writing process.

Topic: Government Schemes and Initiatives

4. Government launched India's first toll-free national anti-narcotics helpline number.

• The government has launched the helpline 1933 also known as 'MANAS' (Madak Padarth Nisedh Asuchna Kendra' or Narcotics Prohibition Intelligence Centre).
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched it during the seventh apex-level meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD).
• It will allow people to tip off the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) about the illegal narcotics business and related issues.
• The helpline named MANAS aims to establish a user-friendly platform for every citizen to conveniently report drug-related matters 24×7.
• Amit Shah also inaugurated the NCB zonal office in Srinagar virtually. He also released NCB's 2023 annual report and compendium on “Nasha Mukt Bharat”.