• Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) powered into the Olympic Games' pre-quarterfinals after staving off a stiff challenge from Dominican Republic's Miguelina Hernandez Garcia in the opening round here on 25^th July 2021.
• The 38-year-old, who is a 2012 Olympic bronze-medallist, prevailed 4-1 against a rival who is 15 years her junior and a Pan American Games bronze-medallist.
• In about that was exciting from start to finish, Mary Kom displayed some brilliant tactics to overcome the spirted fight that Garcia put up.
• If she held back in the opening round to get a good measure of her rival, the veteran was aggression personified in the final three minutes after Garcia bagged the second round with some fierce punching of her own.

• The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has launched a technology innovation hub called ‘C3i Hub’ to find cyber security solutions for anti-drones technologies, intrusion detection system, block-chain and cyber-physical system.
• IIT Kanpur’s C3iHub is committed to creating a vibrant ecosystem of cyber security start-ups fostering world-class innovations.
• Around 13 start-ups and 25 research and development principal investigators were selected after a rigorous application process, to set up a start-ups cohort in cyber security.
• Now with C3iHub, these start-ups will innovate to disrupt the cyber security space, with focus on design and development of services and products to safeguard India’s critical infrastructure.

• The Government of Bangladesh is working to develop a social media platform dubbed as ‘Jogajog’.
• This platform will act as an alternative to Facebook.
• The basic objective of launching this platform is to help the local entrepreneurs to create their own marketplace for sharing information and data without depending on any foreign platform.
• Apart from this, the government is also working to develop a communication app called ‘Alapan’ as an alternative to Whatsapp.

• The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit on loans that can be sanctioned by a bank to any director or associates of other banks, without board approval to Rs 5 crore. Earlier this limit was Rs 25 lakh.
• However, for loan amounting to above Rs 5 crore, banks should not grant loans and advances, unless sanctioned by the board of directors or the management committee.
• The new regulations will apply to:
• Bank Directors, including the Chairman/Managing Director, of other banks, any firm in which they are interested as a partner or guarantor, or any company in which they hold substantial interest or is interested as a director or as a guarantor.
• All scheduled commercial banks, except regional rural banks, small finance banks and all local area banks.
• The revised limit will be applicable to only personal loans disbursed to any director of other banks, all loans to relatives of bank’s own directors, relatives of directors of other banks, and the companies or firms associated with them.
• RBI has revised this loan limit for the first time in 26 years. The limit of Rs. 25 lakhs was set in 1996.

• Former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa has come out with a book titled 'An Ordinary Life: Portrait of an Indian Generation.'
• In this book, Ashok Lavasa narrates about his father, Udai Singh, and his own experience on how his father’s principles served as a moral compass in his life, and can in ours too.
• Ashok Lavasa resigned as election commissioner in 2020 to become vice-president of the Asian Development Bank.

• India has scored 90.32% in UNESCAP’s latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation.
• The survey hails this as a remarkable jump from 78.49% in 2019.
• India has achieved a 100% score for the Transparency index and 66% in the Women in trade component.
• The survey notes that India is the best-performing country when compared to the South and South-West Asia region and Asia Pacific region.
• This survey is conducted every two years by UNESCAP.

• Director General Border Roads (DGBR) Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry conducted the last blast of the escape tube of the under-construction Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The first blast of the 1555 meters long escape tube was initiated by DGBR in January 2021.
• PM Narendra Modi initiated the Sela Tunnel in 2019.
• The tunnel is being constructed by the BRO under Project Vartak using the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM).
• This will increase connectivity in the entire Northeast.

• The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Rabo Foundation has launched the Agritech Challenge 2021.
• Aim: to help address challenges faced by smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa.
• Through this challenge, UNCDF will also enable cross-border collaborations among emerging markets across India, Indonesia, Malawi, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia among others.

• Sweden has ratified the framework agreement for the International Solar Alliance.
• ISA is an initiative of India aimed at promoting renewable energy and sustainable development.
• Sweden's ratification of the ISA came over four months after PM Narendra Modi and Swedish premier Stefan Lofven held a virtual summit focusing on boosting cooperation in areas of innovation, technology, and climate change.

• Renowned Marathi poet and writer Satish Kalsekar has passed away following a heart attack. He was 78.
• Kalsekar was honored with Sahitya Akademi Award in 2014 for his collection of essays ‘Vachanaryachi Rojanishee’.
• He is known for outstanding contribution in the fields of poetry, translation, prose writing and editing.

Download Daily GK PDF of 25 July 2021