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 European Union has imposed its first-ever sanctions over cyber attacks, on alleged agents, spies and firms of Russia, China and North Korea.
Six people and three groups which have been hit with sanctions also include the GRU military intelligence agency of Russia. The agency was earlier blamed by the European Union for the 2017 WannaCry ransomware and NotPetya malware attacks and a cyber espionage campaign.

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:
The United Arab Emirates has successfully commenced operation of the Arab world’s first commercial nuclear power plant.
The Barakah reactor is located in the oil-rich city of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. With the commission, the UAE joins the group of 30 countries that can generate nuclear energy. It is built and run by a joint venture with Korea Electric Power Corporation.

Notes:
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has integrated four additional states Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand to the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.
With this, the scheme has been enabled in a total of 24 States/UTs across the country. Around 80 percent of the beneficiaries of National Food Security Act (NFSA) have been covered. The Ministry aims to integrate all states/UTs to the scheme by March 2021.

Notes:
Indian journalist and Special Correspondent of the Indian Express Dipankar Ghose has won the Prem Bhatia Award for political reporting.
He covered various issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic including the migrant labour crisis. People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a journalism website has been selected for the award for the reporting on environmental and development issues.

Notes:
Hyderabad has been ranked 16th among the ‘Top 20 Most Surveilled Cities globally’, according to a report published by Comparitech.
In the survey conducted by the UK-based firm, Hyderabad topped the country with its 3 lakh CCTV cameras to organise surveillance operations in a city of over 1 crore. The Taiyum city of China was ranked at the top spot with 4.65 lakh CCTV cameras.

Notes:
Veteran politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, John Hume passed away recently at the age of 83 due to age related illness.
He was a Catholic leader of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party. John Hume was known for initiating the agreement that ended violence in his native Northern Ireland. He was also called as the ‘Champion of Peace’.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat announced that the state will set up the country’s first snow leopard conservation centre.
The centre will be opened in the Uttarkashi forest division in the state. It is to set up jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a part of its six-year long project called ‘SECURE Himalayas’. It was started in 2017 to conserve snow leopards and other endangered species in the Himalayas.