• India has joined the group of top 50 countries in the global innovation index for the first time, moving up four places to the 48th rank and keeping the top position among the nations in central and southern Asia.

• India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and R&D-intensive global companies.

• Switzerland, Sweden, the US, the UK and the Netherlands lead the innovation ranking, and the top 5 positions are dominated by high-income countries.

• The 13th edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 has jointly released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD Business School.

• Union Minister R K Singh launched the Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) for electricity.

• The move, that will lead to an increase in the participants in the renewable energy sector.

• The initiative will also help in achieving 175 GW renewable energy (RE) target of the country.

• It will lessen the burden on RE-rich states and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO (Renewable Purchase Obligation).

• This would promote RE merchant capacity addition and help in achieving RE capacity addition targets of the country.

• Sumit Nagal (23 years) has become the first Indian to win a singles main draw match at a Grand Slam in the last 7 years.

• He went into second round of the ongoing US Open Tennis by defeating Bradley Klahn of USA 6-1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the US Open

• Prior to him, Somdev Devvarman is the last player to reach the second round of the Australian Open, French Open and US Open in 2013

• He will now face Austria's Dominic Thiem in the 2nd round.

• Joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Usha Padhee has been given additional charge as Director-General of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

• She is the first woman and third IAS officer to have been appointed to the post.

• The central deputation tenure of Usha is scheduled to end on 16th July 2022.

• She succeeds Rakesh Asthana (IPS) who was appointed as the Director-General of Border Security Force (BSF) on 17th August 2020.

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited has introduced an Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice chatbot, “LiGo”, on Google Assistant.

• This will enable the company’s policyholders to address their queries by simple voice commands. It provides an easy to use and convenient service touch-point for customers.

• Expanding the functionalities of LiGo to Google Assistant is part of the company’s strategy to be on platforms that customers prefer and to offer them an immersive experience.

• The customers by activating ‘Google Assistant’ on their Android smartphones and speaking out their policy number or registered phone number, they can instantly access the information about their policies.

• Mustapha Adib become the crisis-stricken Lebanon's next prime minister after getting the support of senior Sunni politicians.

• He was Lebanon's ambassador to Germany.

• Mustapha Adib was named by four former prime ministers on the eve of binding consultations between the president and parliamentary blocs on their choice for the post.

• Madhya Pradesh government has launched a 15-day campaign named ‘Gandagi Bharat Chhodo’. Under the campaign awareness programmes were organized in seven thousand 178 settlements.

• About 35 lakh people from 378 urban bodies in Madhya Pradesh took part in the campaign.

• During the campaign, as per the performance of the urban bodies, the best ones were awarded by the chief minister.

• During the campaign over 7 lakh, people took the oath to maintain cleanliness and eight lakh 70 thousand people were approached to make compost from wet waste.

• Four lakh 65 thousand masks were distributed with the help of citizens under the mask awareness campaign.

• About 10,000 Corona Warrior sanitation workers were honoured. A total of 18 thousand 560 challans were made against polythene carry-bags.

• The Union Cabinet has approved J&K official languages Bill 2020. According to the J&K official languages Bill 2020, Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi along with Urdu and English, will be the official languages in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

• The J&K official languages Bill 2020 will be introduced in Parliament in the upcoming Monsoon Session. This bill will include Dogri, Hindi and Kashmiri as officials languages of the Union Territory.

• Bhoti is spoken in ladakh region.

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India has decided to block 118 mobile apps in view of the emergent nature of threats.

• These applications have been blocked as there was information that these apps are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state as well as public order.

• The step is expected to safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users and will also ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.

• 118 mobile apps have been blocked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology by invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.

• To provide convenient and affordable options of Federal Bank Debit Cards through Innoviti Point of Sale (POS) terminals, the Federal Bank and Innoviti Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Innoviti) have entered into a partnership.

• The partnership will offer Equated Monthly Installments (EMIs) options to over 7.5 million Federal Bank Debit Card holders at over 70,000 Innoviti POS terminals across 1000 cities.

• The partnership is in view of COVID-19 crisis as people are cautious about their spending and still will need affordable options in essential categories such as healthcare, education and IT (computers and laptops).

• Through this partnership customers can access the credit, which can be repaid in convenient Equated Monthly Installments(EMIs) through their Federal Bank Debit Card, particularly in smaller Tier 2/Tier 3 towns.