Current affairs 24 July 2023

Indian football team jumps to 99th place in FIFA rankings.

Indian men's football team climbed a rank in the latest FIFA rankings, released on Thursday, to be placed in the 99th position.
India's best FIFA ranking was 94th, attained in 1996. The country had also reached the 99th spot in 1993 and 96th in 2017 and 2018. It was placed at 100th last month.
Overall, world champions Argentina continued to be at the top, followed by France, Brazil, England and Belgium. In Asia, Japan led the chart at 20th spot, followed by Iran (22), Australia (27), Korea (28) and Saudi Arabia (54) in top five.

Anshuman Jhingran, an open sea swimmer, became the youngest person in the world to cross the North Channel.
With this achievement, 18-year-old Anshuman has become qualified for a place in the Guinness World Records.
He is only the 114th person to cross the channel since 1947.
The North Channel, located between Scotland and Northern Ireland, is considered the toughest of the Ocean Seven Swims because of its chilling temperature, the presence of numerous extremely dangerous lions’ main jellyfish and competing tides and currents all the way across right up until the final few metres.

The public sports broadcaster, DD Sports has bagged the TV rights in India for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
The tournament, starting on July 20, 2023, will mark the inaugural occasion when the World Cup is co-hosted by two countries, namely Australia and New Zealand.
Featuring 32 competing teams in the showpiece international event, this year’s game is being hailed as one of the grandest to date.
A total of 64 electrifying matches will take place across 10 different venues, with the New Zealand vs. Norway match kicking off the excitement.

Shah Rukh Khan has been appointed as the brand ambassador of ICC World Cup 2023.
The World Cup will be held in India from October 5 to November 19, 2023.
India will start their campaign against Australia on October 8 and the Rohit Sharma led side will take on Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15.

Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa emerged champion in the V Geza Hetenyi Memorial Super GM chess tournament 2023.
In 2016, at the remarkable age of 10, Praggnanandhaa achieved the title of the youngest international master in history.
On 20 February 2022, he accomplished a significant feat by becoming the third Indian player (after Anand and Harikrishna) to defeat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in any time format.