current affairs 31 July 2021 (In English)

Australia to return 14 stolen, illegally acquired artefacts to India.

• Australia's National Art Museum is set to return a collection of 14 artifacts to India,
• including bronze and stone sculptures, a painted scroll and photographs.
• The artwork belongs to infamous art dealer Subhash Kapoor – acquired by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) between 1989-2009.
• The value of these artifacts to be handed over to the Government of India is about 3 million US dollars.
• The museum, where the art was preserved, has established that the artifacts were stolen and illegally exported.

NASA's Hubble Telescope has revealed the first evidence for water vapor in Jupiter's moon Ganymede.

• The researchers found that Ganymede's surface temperature varied greatly throughout the day,
• becoming sufficiently warm around noon, causing the icy surface to release some water molecules.
• Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon and ninth largest celestial body in our solar system.
• Ganymede may contain more water than all of Earth's oceans,
• but temperatures are so cold that water freezes at the surface and the ocean lies about 160 km below the crust.

UNESCO has included Madrid's Paseo del Prado and Retiro Park in the heritage list.

• With this announcement the total number of World Heritage Sites in Spain has gone up to 49, which is the third largest globally after Italy and China.
• Before the addition of these two sites none of the countries heritage sites were located Madrid, the capital of Spain.
• Buen Retiro Park is a green haven with a total area of 118 hectares, located in the center of the capital city.
• Paseo del Prado Boulevard houses six museums, the famous Plaza de Cibeles square and the famous Fuente de Cibeles fountain.

The Harappan-era city of Dholavira in Gujarat is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

• It has been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list during the 44th session held online.
• Dholavira, located in the Khadir Island of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, represents the ruins of an ancient city of the Harappan civilization.
• This is the 40th such Indian position on the list.
• Gujarat now has four World Heritage Sites - Dholavira, Champaner near Pavagadh, Rani ki Vav in Patan and the historic city of Ahmedabad.

Karnataka became the 1st state to provide 1% reservation for transgender persons in government employment.

• For this, the government has amended the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977.
• The amendment is made to Rule 9 by inserting Sub Rule (1D) to provide for 1% of vacancies which needs to be filled in any service or post by the state government from among the transgender candidates in each category of general, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and in each of thecategories among the Other Backward Classes.