Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Union Government has extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for 2018-19 fiscal by two months till September 30.
The reason for the extension is constraints due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has extended the deadline for the third time to September 30. Earlier it was postponed from March 31 to June 30 and then to July 31.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation recently announced that IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) will be the single nodal agency to regulate space activities and the use of ISRO facilities by private sector.
The Union Cabinet cleared the setting up of IN-SPACe as a separate body. Announcing the detailed structure of IN-SPACe, ISRO said that the body will have its own Chairman, technical experts from academia and industries and members of Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of External Affairs.

Notes:
Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) organised the “National Digital conference on Ease of Doing Business for Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated the conference and said that the country is heading towards a complete digital eco-system. He also said that the government is aiming to cover the entire nation through optic fibres in the next two years.

Notes:
Veteran Folk musician Sonam Tshering Lepcha has recently passed away at Kalimpong, West Bengal at the age of 92.
He travelled to various parts of Sikkim and compiled several Indian folk and traditional Lepcha songs. He was also known for his efforts to popularise and represent Lepcha culture. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri award by the Government.

Notes:
Large companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore are mandated to submit sales invoices electronically.
This has been notified by the Government under the Goods and Services tax (GST) regime. As per the notification released, Units in special economic zones have been exempt from complying with e-invoicing. Earlier, the limit of turnover was Rs 100 crore.

Notes:
Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has recently approved a programme for artisans who make Agarbatti.
The programme aims to develop village industry under ‘Gramodyog Vikas Yojana’. Under the programme, four pilot projects will be started that includes one in the North Eastern part of the country. Each cluster of artisans will be provided with automatic Agarbatti making machines.

Notes:
The Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (WEE) is a national level social initiative by the India Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, to strengthen women ecosystem.
The initiative helps women in taking up entrepreneurship as a feasible career option. It is India’s first of its kind initiative, supported and sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology. 11 Women entrepreneurs are given cash awards amounting to Rs 25 lakh.

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:
The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu has launched a new mobile application named ‘E-Gyan Mitra’.
The application launched by the Education Department of the UT aims to teach the students through digital mode. Students from Primary to Higher secondary classes can take online classes and attend tests in the application.

Notes:
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India releases the ‘Consumer confidence Survey’. RBI has recently released the results of the July 2020 edition of the survey.
Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey was conducted online through telephone interviews from over 5000 households in 13 major cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai among others. The current situation index dropped to 53.8 in July, which was at the all-time low since the index was introduced.