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Current Affairs Today – July 19 & 20 2015

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Dear Readers, We cover some important news in Current Affairs Today Section, which are not covered in Daily Detailed News, More Current Affairs coverage will help you to Score Good Marks in Competitive Exam.

**Blue Heading are Detailed News, Click the News to Read More**

Indian Affairs 

Plastic-made national flags to be banned soon

  • A senior Home Ministry has announced that the government is on the track to ban the use, sale and purchase of plastic-made national flags in the country soon.
  • The decision has been taken after lots of flags are found lying on roads and gutters.
    A proposal to ban manufacture of national flags made of plastic was pending, so the central government has also informed the court about it.
  • Earlier in March, the Bombay High Court had asked Maharashtra Government to come up with a policy to ensure a ban on use, sale and purchase of national flags made of plastic and also create public awareness.

Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara new Secretary of Delhi Assembly

  • Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, who served as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Somnath Chatterjee when he was Lok Sabha Speaker, has been selected as the new secretary of Delhi Legislative Assembly by Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel.
  • Before moving to Delhi Assembly, Suryadevara served Lok Sabha for five years and Rajya Sabha for over six years.

Government Raises Daily Minimum Wage to Rs 160 Per Day

  • The Government raised the daily minimum wage from Rs. 137 to Rs. 160. This goes into effect from this month and is the first time in 2 yearsthat the minimum wage has been altered.
  • In a statement, the Minister of State for Labour & Employment Bandaru Dattatraya said that the decision to raise the minimum wage had been taken in view of the recent increase in retail inflation for industrial workers. He wrote to all the Chief Ministers and lieutenant governors to take all measures to ensure the implementation of the raised minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wage has numerous advantages:
• The cost of living is rising.
• It helps cope with inflation.
• It narrows the wealth gap.
• It provides a new lease of life for impoverished Indians.

International Affairs

Awards

Appointments

Swati Maliwal took charge as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Swati Maliwal took charge as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief.
Maliwal, who is an RTI Activist, and also the youngest member of India Against Corruption succeeded Barkha Shukla whose tenure ended in July 2015
Swati Maliwal, the wife of AAP leader Navin Jaihind, before this assignment, she was Advisor (Public Grievances) to the Chief Minister of Delhi

Hero Motors Group elevates Pawan Munjal as CMD

  • Hero Motors Group, which includes flagship company Hero Cycles, on Monday, said it has elevated Pawan Munjal as its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).
  • Pawan Munjal has taken over from O P Munjal, who led the Ludhiana-based company for more than 60 years.
  • O P Munjal has now been elevated to the position of Chairman Emeritus.

Banking & Finance 

Environment 

Two 4,000-year-old reliefs discovered in Egypt

  • Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty announced that two 4,000-year-old reliefs, belonging to Ptolemaic Queen Berenice, were found by Polish archaeologists in the temple of Serapis, on the coast of the Red Sea.
  • The pieces date to Ancient Egypt’s so-called Middle Kingdom (2050-1750 BC) and the Second Intermediate Period (1650-1550 BC), epochs long before the temple’s construction date, EFE news agency quoted el-Damaty as saying on Sunday.

Sports

Shubham Jaglan wins World Junior Golf Championship

  • Shubham Jaglan, a 10-year-old son of a milkman from Israna village in Panipat, Haryana has won at the Junior World Golf Championships being played at Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.
  • His competition was from a total of 114 other young golfers competing in the tournament and he had a total of 7-under 179 in three days of competition.
  • Shubham had missed out last year and came second.
  • He thanked his family and coach, Nonita Lall Qureshi for his remarkable achievement.

France’s Amelie Mauresmo inducted in International Tennis Hall of Fame

Amelie Mauresmo, the two-time Grand Slam winner and former number one tennis player of France, was on 18 July 2015 inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

About Amelie Mauresmo

  • Amelie Mauresmo is a two-time Grand Slam winner which i.e, Australian Open (2006) and Wimbledon (2006).
  • Amelie Mauresmo is a former world number one and had spent a total of 39 weeks atop in the rankings in 2004 and 2006.
  • Mauresmo has won 25 singles titles and was a silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
    Mauresmo is one of three French women to win a Grand Slam title in the Open Era, along with Mary Pierce and Marion Bartoli.
  • She was the fifteenth World No. 1 in women’s tennis since the computer rankings began
    She officially retired from professional tennis on 3 December 2009 , ending a career of fifteen years. Mauresmo has coached Andy Murray since June 2014.

Obituary

Godfather actor Alex Rocco dies at 79

  • Alex Rocco, the US actor best known for his role in crime drama The Godfather, has died of cancer aged 79.
  • Rocco played Moe Greene, the casino boss who angrily resisted a takeover attempt from rising mafia boss Michael Corleone and paid for it with a bullet through his eye.
  • In a career spanning half a century, Rocco won an Emmy for his role in 1990s sitcom The Famous Teddy Z. He also voiced the studio boss behind Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons.
  • Rocco made his debut in cult director Russ Meyer’s 1965 film Motor Psycho.
  • Six years later, he won a part in what was to become regarded as one of the best films ever made.

Noted Urdu writer Dr Bisheshar Pradeep died

  • Noted Urdu fiction writer Dr Bisheshar Pradeep died in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on 19 July 2015. He was 80.
  • Pradeep was a prolific writer who penned more than a dozen fiction books in Urdu and was best known for his ‘Afsana Nigari’, the fiction writing form in Urdu.
  • Retired as director from state PWD of Uttar Pradesh, he was a native of a place near Pakistan’s Faisalabad and migrated to India after partition.
  • He was awarded with ‘Urdu Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award’ in 1996 and also won a national level award for his children’s book ‘Surkh Gulab’.