current affairs 09 July 2022

Ex-NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant is new G-20 Sherpa.

• Amitabh Kant will replace Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, who was appointed as the G-20 Sherpa in September 2021.
• India is going to hold the presidency from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023 and Kant’s appointment comes ahead of India assuming the G-20 presidency.
• The previous Sherpas for the G-20 include Suresh Prabhu, Shaktikanta Das and Montek Singh Ahluwalia besides Goyal.

Gita Gopinath is 1st Woman To Join IMF’s "Wall Of Former Chief Economists".

• India-born Gita Gopinath becomes the 1st woman and 2nd Indian to feature on the wall of former chief economists of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Raghuram Rajan was the first Indian to achieve the honour of Chief Economist and Director of Research of IMF between 2003 and 2006.
• In 2018, Gopinath was appointed as IMF Chief Economist and was later promoted as the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director in December 2021.
• Gopinath served as the 1st female chief economist of the Washington-based global lender for three years.

Odisha got 1st place in the ranking of states for implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA).

• Odisha has topped the ranking of States for implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), followed by Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
• This was announced by Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal at the Conference of Food Ministers on Food & Nutrition Security in India in New Delhi.
• Odisha received an index score of 0.836.
• Uttar Pradesh has been ranked second, with index score of 0.797.
• Andhra Pradesh has been third, with score of 0.794.
• Tripura has topped among Special Category States/UTs.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad Memorial Award in the field of education announced.

• Union Minister Jitendra Singh announced the setting up of Dr Rajendra Prasad Memorial Award in public administration for academic excellence, in memory of the first President of India.
• Dr. Singh chaired meeting of Executive Council of Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in New Delhi.
• The institute has to have a futuristic vision for the next 25 years to attain the goals set by Prime Minister NarendraModi.
• IIPA has the capacity and it needs to continue performing by having an enlarged pool of experts and a wide spectrum of activities.

Google announces Startup School India initiative in small towns for startups.

• Google announced the launch of Startup School India (SSI) as part of the Google for Startups initiative.
• This is a platform under which Google will bring together investors, successful entrepreneurs and programmers that startups from the smaller cities can to tap into and learn from the best.
• Topics covered will include fintech, language, social media and networking, job search, and business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce.