Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs has formed a five-member central team under Smart Cities Director Rahul Kapoor.
The panel will formulate project reports for both the cities, to improve infrastructure and employment opportunities in Ladakh. These cities have been selected in addition to the 100 smart cities in different states. This idea was initially proposed by the Home Affairs Ministry.

Notes:
The US House of Representatives has recently passed a legislation to promote the legacies of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.
The bill seeks to set up an educational forum and an exchange programme for Indian and American students to study about the two great leaders. It also seeks to develop a professional development training initiative based on the principles of non-violence.

Notes:
The Union Government has extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for 2018-19 fiscal by two months till September 30.
The reason for the extension is constraints due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has extended the deadline for the third time to September 30. Earlier it was postponed from March 31 to June 30 and then to July 31.

Notes:
The Sports Ministry has constituted a 12-member committee to select this year’s National Sports Awards winners.
The committee is to be headed by retired Supreme Court Justice, Mukundakam Sharma. It will select the award winners among both athletes and coaches. The members include Former India Cricketer Virender Sehwag, Hockey star Sardar Singh and Paralympic silver-medallist Deepa Malik.

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:
Large companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore are mandated to submit sales invoices electronically.
This has been notified by the Government under the Goods and Services tax (GST) regime. As per the notification released, Units in special economic zones have been exempt from complying with e-invoicing. Earlier, the limit of turnover was Rs 100 crore.

Notes:
NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) has recently launched an Incubator Capabilities enhancement program named ‘AIM iCREST’.
AIM has collaborated with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation for support and expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation. The program aims to support start-ups in knowledge transfer and reaching global markets.

Notes:
The United States astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, landed back on the Earth.
The astronauts splashed down aboard Crew Dragon ‘Endeavor’ in the Gulf of Mexico after a 64-day voyage in space. This is NASA’s first crewed mission from American soil in nine years. This splash down is the first of its kind by NASA in 45 years.

Notes:
Nokia is set to establish a robotics lab at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru to study about 5G technology.
Nokia Center of Excellence (CoE) for networked robotics lab will be deployed to research on socially-relevant use cases based on 5G and emerging technologies. This will promote cooperation between colleges and industries.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Defence, IIT Kanpur and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding.
The MoU is for developing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques to analyse public grievances. The grievances received on the web-based Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System of the Ministry would be subjected to predictive analysis.