Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
For the first time in the world, US Technology Giants Facebook and Google will pay the media outlets of Australia for news content.
Australia is set to pass a dedicated law which mandates a royalty-style system. This is a historic move by the country to protest independent journalism. Last year, the Australian government asked the tech firms to negotiate with media companies to use their content.

Notes:
The European Union has imposed its first-ever sanctions over cyber attacks, on alleged agents, spies and firms of Russia, China and North Korea.
Six people and three groups which have been hit with sanctions also include the GRU military intelligence agency of Russia. The agency was earlier blamed by the European Union for the 2017 WannaCry ransomware and NotPetya malware attacks and a cyber espionage campaign.

Notes:
‘Samarth’ is an initiative of E-Commerce major Flipkart, to help artisans of India that was launched last year.
Under the programme, Walmart-owned Flipkart had partnered with five non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help local artisans in using the online marketplace to sell their products. Flipkart recently announced that under ‘Samarth’, it has supported 6 lakh artisans to reach around 200 million customers.

Notes:
Facebook has recently launched the second phase of its consumer marketing campaign ‘More Together’ in India.
The first phase was rolled out in the month of March 2020. Through the campaign, Facebook will spotlight people who connected with one another through Facebook for the first time and jointly addressed many challenges

Notes:
The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is an apex Ayurveda medicine and research institution located in New Delhi.
It was seen in news as the institute has started providing free testing and treatment to patients in its COVID 19 Health Centre (CHC). AYUSH Minister Shri Naik inaugurated the ventilator-equipped Intensive Care Unit of the centre as well as a COVID Call Centre at AIIA.

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:
Mohamed Irfaan Ali has been sworn in as the new President of the South American country Guyana, five months after the General Elections.
The 40-year-old former housing minister and lawmaker will succeed the previous President David Granger. After several allegations in the elections, the opposition candidate has been selected by the Election Commission.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announced that it will establish an innovation hub to assist start-ups to tackle the challenges of financial inclusion.
The hub seeks to provide solutions for efficient banking transactions. This has been introduced in the bi-monthly monetary policy statement released by the RBI. The funds allocated for the project and its location will be disclosed by the Central Bank.

Notes:
Veteran Professor Pradeep Kumar Joshi has been appointed as the chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
PK Joshi, who is currently a member in the UPSC, had earlier served as the Chairperson of both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commissions. He is to succeed Arvind Saxena whose term as the UPSC Chairman has ended.

Notes:
United States President Donald Trump has issued orders that would ban the social media applications TikTok and WeChat from operating in the United States in 45 days, if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
The order bans any transaction by any person, with respect to any property with the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, ByteDance Ltd.