Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets have landed at the Ambala Air Force Base, located in the state of Haryana.
The Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria received the fighter jets, which will be inducted in the No. 17 Squadron, ‘Golden Arrows’. The jets were flown by Indian Air Force pilots for seven hours with the help of the mid-air refuellers.

Notes:
Major technology company Microsoft has unveiled the latest edition of its Security Endpoint Threat Report 2019.
As per the report, India has been placed among the countries with the highest cryptocurrency mining encounters in the last year. India registered the seventh highest malware encounter rate in the past year and the third highest ransomware encounter rate across the Asia-Pacific region.

Notes:
China is celebrating the completion of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), which is seen as a competitor to the U.S. Global Positioning System.
After the 55th and final satellite that was launched last month started operating, the Chinese President Xi Jinping formally commissioned the system. The satellite is a part of the third sequence of the BeiDou system.

Notes:
India’s solar-powered ferry Aditya has won the prestigious Gustave Trouve Award for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating.
It has been named the best electric boat in the category of ferries designed for paid passenger service. Aditya was the first solar-powered ferry of the country when it began its operations in 2017 in Kerala. The ferry built by NavAlt Boats belongs to the Kerala State Water Transport Department.

Notes:
Veteran England all-rounder Ian Botham has been made a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament.
The 64-year-old former England captain is the first cricketer to be awarded this honour since 2011. He is among the 36 new members announced by the Government. He was knighted in the year 2007 for his services in cricket and in the field of charity.

Notes:
The Union Government has provisionally granted permission for the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2020 edition to be scheduled in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the IPL governing council had earlier postponed the tournament. It is to be held from September 19 to November 10 across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, after the final clearances from the Indian government.

Notes:
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has recently launched the official YouTube channel of the National Cooperative Development Corporation.
It is called the ‘Sahakar Cooptube NCDC Channel and is a new initiative by NCDC, a statutory Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The Union Minister also launched instruction videos produced by NCDC on ‘Formation and Registration of a Cooperative’.

Notes:
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has touched a record high transaction of 1.49 billion in the month of July.
This is its highest count of transactions since its inception and a 11% growth over that of the previous month. The monthly transactions were worth Rs 2.9 trillion. IMPS recorded 222.1 million transactions in July while Bharat Bill Payment Services hit 20.16 million transactions.

Notes:
The state government of Andhra Pradesh signed an MoU with leading Multinational companies such as ITC, Procter and Gamble and Hindustan Unilever Limited.
The MoU seeks to conduct skill-based training programmes for women in rural areas of the state aged between 45-60 years. The state would also launch a scheme called YSR Cheyutha to provide financial assistance to women belonging to backward and scheduled communities.

Notes:
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative of the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.
AIM conducts the ATL Tinkering Marathon, a national annual innovation challenge in partnership with MyGOV. AIM has released the results of the 2019 edition of the challenge. As many as 150 winners of the Marathon was announced by the AIM.