The 30 NATO allies signed the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, sending the membership bids of the two countries to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals.
The 30 ambassadors and permanent representatives have to formally approve the decisions of last week’s NATO summit. Turkey warned that it could still block the process if the countries fail to fully meet Turkey’s demand to extradite terror suspects.

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind addressed the Dhammacakka Day 2022 celebrations at Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
The Ministry of Culture in association with the International Buddhist Confederation is celebrating the Ashadha Purnima Divas, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Leader of Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid has been officially became the 14th prime minister of Israel, after replacing the Naftali Benett. He is a former journalist who serving as PM of Israel since 1 July 2022. Yair Lapid’s term could be the short one as he take over the caretaker government ahead of Israel’s election which was scheduled to take place on November 1.

Senior bureaucrat R K Gupta was appointed as the deputy election commissioner, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. He comes in place of T Sreekanth.

India-born Gita Gopinath became the first woman and second Indian to feature on the ‘wall of former chief economists’ of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Public enterprises selection board (PESB) selected Mr. Sanjai Kumar for the post of Chairman & Managing Director, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd (RCIL).

The 2022 Presidential Election is conducted to choose the 15th President of India are being held in India.
NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu and the opposition’s Yashwant Sinha are participating in the election. The President is elected by the members of the Electoral College, comprising elected members of both houses of Parliament and legislative assemblies of all states as well as the NCT of Delhi and the UT of Puducherry.

P Gopinathan Nair was known for following Gandhian ideology in his life and was honoured with the Padma award. He had participated in the freedom struggle.

Universal Service Obligation Fund is the pool of funds generated by the 5% Universal Service Levy charged to all the telecom fund operators on their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). It is deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India and is dispatched with the approval of the Indian Parliament.  USOF aims to provide a balance between the provision of Universal Service to all uncovered areas, including the rural areas. Thus, this is the correct answer.

Rafael is a MMRCA(Med. Multi-role Combat Aircraft) made by French Dassault Aviation. It  was selected after an MMRCA tender was floated by the defence ministry,  as lowest bid in 2012.

ISRO’s three-day Human Space Flight Expo is being held in Bengaluru. It includes model-plane-making workshops to interactive models of satellites, and a movie about the history of India’s space programme.
It is being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bengaluru. The expo commemorates Indian achievements in space and has been organised as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations marking 75 years of Independence.

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.

PM Narendra Modi was the Chief Guest of the ‘Swavlamban’, the maiden seminar of the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO), held in New Delhi on 18-19 July 2022.  Shri Rajnath Singh was the Guest of Honour. Thus, this is the correct answer.

The city of Varanasi will be declared the first Cultural and Tourism Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Varanasi will become the Capital of SCO for 2022-23 under a new rotating initiative by the eight-member organisation, which aims to promote people-to-people contacts and tourism among the member states.

• Bonalu is a traditional folk festival celebrated every year in the Telugu month of Ashadham (falling in June/July), in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and some other parts of Telangana state.
• The Bonalu festival involves devotees offering the traditional ‘bonam’ (derived from Bhojanam, meaning meals) to the goddess Mahankali at 25 temples.
• The origin of this festival can be traced back to the 18th Century in the erstwhile Hyderabad State. Other major festivals of Telangana: Bathukamma Festival and Sammakka Sarakka Jatara.

Private lender IndusInd Bank board has approved a proposal to raise Rs 20,000 crore in debt to fund business growth.

INS Sindhudhvaj bid adieu to Indian Navy on Saturday, 16 Jul 2022, serving for a glorious period of 35 years. Vice Adm Biswajit Dasgupta Flag Officer Commanding -in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command was the Chief Guest for the ceremony. The Decommissioning event was attended by 15 of the former Commanding Officers including Cmde SP Singh (Retd), the Commissioning CO and 26 Commissioning crew veterans.

Gujarat will host for the first time the 36th National Games 2022 starting September 27 to October 10, 2022. Games will be organized in six cities of Gujarat, i.e., Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. The event will see a total of 36 sports and participation from all 28 States and eight Union Territories.  “Sports for Unity” is the theme of the event. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s Statue of Unity and the Lion of Gir can be seen in the logo.  Thus, this is the correct answer.