Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
China has recently claimed that the Diaoyu islands are Chinese territory and it has the right to conduct law enforcement activities in the area.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied the criticism of the U.S. of incursions of China. The islands located in the East China sea has also been claimed by Japan for several year. Japan calls the territory as Senkaku and China calls as Diaoyu.

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 England all-rounder Ian Botham has been made a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament.
The 64-year-old former England captain is the first cricketer to be awarded this honour since 2011. He is among the 36 new members announced by the Government. He was knighted in the year 2007 for his services in cricket and in the field of charity.

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:
Indian President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed former Union minister Manoj Sinha as the next Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
He will replace the previous LG Girish Chandra Murmu who has resigned and his resignation has been accepted by the President. Manoj Sinha has served as Junior Railways Minister. He represented Ghazipur constituency in Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha.

Notes:
Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), a deemed university under the Defence Ministry’s Department of Defence Research and Development, has won the first prize in the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2020.
SIH is a national-level digital product building competition, jointly organised by the Ministry of Education and AICTE. The DIAT team developed a technology called ‘DRISHTI’ to recognise face, expression and gesture using artificial intelligence (AI).

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.

Notes:
The ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’ was launched on the Innovate platform of MyGov.
It received entries from around 7000 entries from entrepreneurs and start-ups in 9 different categories including Business, e-Learning, Work from Home etc. Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, MEITY Start-up Hub and National e Governance Division also collaborated in this regard. 24 applications were named the winners of the challenge.

Notes:
Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh launched the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Saptah’ (Self-reliant India week).
The campaign aims to promote the domestic production of Defence equipment in India. Earlier, the Ministry announced that import of over 100 weapons and military platforms will be restricted in a phased manner till 2024

Notes:
Bangladesh has decided to construct a monument for the Indian soldiers who died in 1971, during the country’s efforts for independence from Pakistan.
Bangladesh announced that the war memorial would be constructed to align with the 50th anniversary of the country’s Independence Day celebrations. Bangladesh already has a National Memorial at Dhaka for all 1971 martyrs, but the proposed one is to honour only Indian soldiers.