Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

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:
The Indian Government has imposed safeguard duty on solar cells for one more year till July 2021 to protect domestic manufacturers.
This move will also discourage cheap imports from countries like China. Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), the investigative arm of the Commerce Ministry had recommended to the Department of Revenue for this imposition of duty.

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:
India has recently imposed restrictions on the import of Colour Television sets, in an effort to promote its domestic production.
The import of the TV sets was freed from previous restrictions two decades ago and since then there has been no amendments in the import policy. Now the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notified to change the policy from free to ‘restricted’. However, there is no restriction on importing monochrome TVs.

Notes:
Union Environment Minister of India Prakash Javadekar attended the 6th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting.
The meeting was attended by the Environment Ministers of the five BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa through video conference. It was chaired by the current BRICS President Russia. India will assume the BRICS Presidency in 2021.

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:
Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has received SKOCH Gold Award for its “Empowerment of Tribals through IT enabled Scholarship Schemes”.
The 66th SKOCH award ceremony was organised on the title “India responds to Covid through Digital Governance”. The Tribal affairs won the award in ‘Digital India & E-Governance’ competition. The Ministry had integrated its 5 Scholarship Schemes with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Portal.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a USD 200 million deal with the Reliance Bangladesh LNG and Power Limited (RBLPL).
Under the deal, Reliance power would build and operate a 718-megawatt combined-cycle power plant in Bangladesh. USD 100 million would be provided by the ADB while the other 100 million would be sourced from the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) of Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Notes:
Apple surpassed multinational petroleum company Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company.
The market capitalisation of the technology company surged to USD 1.82 trillion, as per the regulatory filing of the company. Whereas, the market capitalisation of Aramco stood at USD 1.760 trillion.

Notes:
Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh has recently passed away at the age of 64. He was undergoing treatment in hospital for the past few months.
Several political leaders condoled the death of Amar Singh. He was a businessman turned Politician who had acquaintances in all major parties. He was active in his social media account even during last week.