Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
An affordable helicopter service on the Dehradun-New Tehri-Srinagar-Gauchar route in Uttarakhand under Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik- Regional Connectivity Scheme (UDAN-RCS) has been inaugurated.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri along with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat virtually inaugurated the service, which is to be operated by Pawan Hans Limited. These helicopter services will be available for three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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:
India’s largest private shipping company, Great Eastern Shipping Company has named former Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel as an additional and Independent director.
The Mumbai headquartered company has named him for a term of five years with effect from August 1, 2020. Urjit Patel served as the 24th governor of the RBI from September 2016 to December 2018.

Notes:
Former Maharashtra Chief minister Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar passed away at the age of 89, due to prolonged illness.
He had earlier been tested positive for coronavirus disease. Nilangekar was a Congress leader, who was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from June 1985 and March 1986. However, he resigned from the post after an allegation and order of the Bombay High Court.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held its second bi-monthly monetary meeting of FY 2020-21 on August 6, 2020.
After the meeting, the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the central bank has decided to keep the key policy rates unchanged with ‘accommodative stance’. Hence, the repo rate will remain at 4 per cent and the reverse repo at 3.35 per cent. There were two rate cuts in March and May.

Notes:
The Founder and Chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk announced that the company has successfully flight-tested a prototype of its Mars rocket ship.
The test rocket was launched hundreds of feet into the air for nearly 45 seconds and it was landed upright. Some more shorter launches are being planned before the full version of ‘Starship’ would be launched. SpaceX is now the only private company to fly people to and from orbit.

Notes:
Veteran Writer and activist Sadia Dehlvi has recently passed away at the age of 63. She served as the editor of the Urdu women’s journal, Bano.
She was also known for her books on Delhi’s culinary history written in 2017, titled ‘Jasmine & Jinns: Memories and Recipes of My Delhi’. She was a close friend of the veteran author Kushwant Singh and produced a television show with him.

Notes:
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), an organisation under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
The MoU seeks to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for using Artificial Intelligence in Decision making and Advance Data Management System for Highways. IIT Delhi will develop simulation models in this regard and provide space and infrastructural facility for the CoE.

Notes:
Mauritius has recently declared an ‘Environmental emergency’ after the Japanese-owned ship MV Wakashio was found spilling tons of fuel.
Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth announced the decision as the areas that were declared as ‘very sensitive’ were found as a dark layer in satellite images. The ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and it had suffered cracks.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will inaugurate the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair.
This new network will provide fast and reliable mobile and landline telecom services to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The project was announced by the Prime Minister in the year 2018. About 2,300 km of Submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has been laid at a cost of over Rs 1200 crore.