Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is set to roll out a new National Clinical Registry of COVID-19 patients admitted across the county.
To launch this comprehensive database, the ICMR has collaborated with the Health Ministry and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). This database will help to improve treatment in hospitals and will let officials conduct clinical trials and study the effectiveness of new therapies.

Notes:
The US House of Representatives has recently passed a legislation to promote the legacies of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.
The bill seeks to set up an educational forum and an exchange programme for Indian and American students to study about the two great leaders. It also seeks to develop a professional development training initiative based on the principles of non-violence.

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:
Union Ministry of Defence, IIT Kanpur and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding.
The MoU is for developing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques to analyse public grievances. The grievances received on the web-based Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System of the Ministry would be subjected to predictive analysis.

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:
India’s leading private sector bank Axis Bank is set to launch a an Artificial-Intelligence powered multilingual voice bot ‘AXAA’.
The bank has entered into a partnership with a Bengaluru start-up Vernacular.ai in this regard. The partnership aims to optimise AI-based voice solutions and automate customer interactions through human-like dialogues.

Notes:
Technology major Google launched a new file-sharing feature named ‘Nearby Share’ for its Android users.
Using the feature, users can share content seamlessly with others in close range. The sender’s phone emits a low energy Bluetooth signal, which will be picked by the receiver’s phone. It can also use wi-fi to transfer files. It creates a reliable and fast connection in both online and offline modes.

Notes:
The state government of Chhattisgarh has launched a social security scheme for Tendupatta (Tendu leaves) collectors.
The scheme was named as ‘Saheed Mahendra Karma Tendupatta Sangrahak Samajik Suraksha Yojana’, after the Congress leader Mahendra Karma, who was killed by rebels in the year 2013. The scheme aims to provide financial support to families of tendupatta labourers.

Notes:
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) took over the security at the strategic Leh airport from local Police.
The Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport is one among the country’s highest-altitude commercial aerodromes. It is also the 64th civil airport to be brought under the security cover of the CISF. Around 185 CISF personnel will provide round-the-clock armed security in the airport.

Notes:
RBI formed the Expert Committee on Debt Resolution in August 2020 with K V Kamath as chairperson. The committee set financial parameters for restructuring stressed loans, recommending sector-specific benchmarks under RBI’s Prudential Framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets for banks.