Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Parliament of Turkey approved a new legislation that gives its authorities more power to regulate social media content.
As per the law, major social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter will have to keep representative offices and also would store user data in Turkey. The government said this law will combat cyber-crime and protect users and Authorities can remove cyber bullying posts.

Notes:
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and non-profit Pure Earth jointly released a report titled “The Toxic Truth: Children’s exposure to lead pollution undermines a generation of potential”.
As per the report, one third of the world’s children (800 million) are affected by lead poisoning and 275 million of them are in India. The report also highlights that around half of the affected children were from South Asia. Informal recycling of lead-acid batteries is a major contributor to lead poisoning.

Notes:
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated during the first week of August (August 1-7) across the world in many countries.
The campaign was initially organised by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF in 1992. The week also marks the signing of the Innocenti Declaration. The theme of this year is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet”.

Notes:
Sanskrit Diwas also known as ‘Vishva samskrita dinam’ is celebrated on the full moon of the ‘Shravana’ month of Hindu calendar.
This year, Sanskrit Day that promotes the revival of the language is celebrated on August 3. All India Radio broadcasted the first special program in Sanskrit titled ‘Bahujan Bhasha – Sanskrit Bhasha’ to mark the occasion.

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 present Chairman of Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Ajay Tyagi has been given an 18-month extension till February 2022.
According to a Personnel Ministry order, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved his extension. The 1984 batch IAS (retired) officer has been serving as the Chairman since March 2017.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enhanced the amount of loan that banks can provide against the pledge of gold ornaments and jewellery.
As per the guidelines, banks can give 90 per cent of the pledged gold as loan for non-agricultural purposes. Earlier, the loan to value (LTV) limit was 75 per cent. This will only be applicable to banks and not to gold loan companies and will be valid till March 2021.

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:
A massive landslide occurred at Rajamalai, Idukki district of Kerala after torrential rains. At least 15 people were said to have been died with several people being injured.
More than 50 people among the settlement of tea estate workers in are feared to have been trapped under debris. A team of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) has been deployed in the rescue operations.

Notes:
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India releases the ‘Consumer confidence Survey’. RBI has recently released the results of the July 2020 edition of the survey.
Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey was conducted online through telephone interviews from over 5000 households in 13 major cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai among others. The current situation index dropped to 53.8 in July, which was at the all-time low since the index was introduced.