Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs has formed a five-member central team under Smart Cities Director Rahul Kapoor.
The panel will formulate project reports for both the cities, to improve infrastructure and employment opportunities in Ladakh. These cities have been selected in addition to the 100 smart cities in different states. This idea was initially proposed by the Home Affairs Ministry.

Notes:
India’s leading NBFC and a Public sector Unit (PSU) under Ministry of Power, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur (IIT-K) for Training and Research in Smart Grid Technology
Under the agreement, PFC will provide financial assistance of over Rs 2 Crore to the institution under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. This is expected to promote research and Entrepreneurship Development in the field.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet of India has given approval to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Zimbabwe on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy.
The MoU that was originally signed on November 3, 2018, will mutually benefit the two countries in the field of Traditional Medicine including recognition of educational qualifications, provision of scholarships etc.

Notes:
State-owned oil and gas company and the largest commercial oil company in the country, Indian Oil has partnered with France’s Total.
The Joint Venture has been formed to make Superior Quality Bitumen derivatives and specialty products for India’s road construction industry. The JB would initially take over the existing plant of Total at Jodhpur, Rajasthan and then invest Rs 226 crore to set up six new plants across India.

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:
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:
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:
On August 5 2019, the special status of Article 370 and 35-A of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was abrogated and it was bifurcated into two Union Territories.
The first anniversary of the event was observed on the same day this year. During the past year, several initiatives carried out in the UTs include National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS), Extension of all allowances of Central Government employees, J&K Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission.

Notes:
India’s leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd and the cloud services subsidiary of Amazon, Amazon Web Services (AWS), entered into a strategic partnership to provide a range of cloud solutions to large, small and medium businesses.
The partnership aims to develop products that provides security to remote working. Under the partnership, Airtel Cloud will build an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Practise and develop Airtel Cloud products.

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.