Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
In the month of May, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had reduced EPF contribution by 4% for three months of May, June and July.
2% of employer’s contribution and 2% of employee’s contribution were reduced. This step was taken as a part of relief measures announced by the Government during the Covid-19 pandemic. From the month of August, the effective contribution will come back to the old deduction rate of 24%.

Notes:
Global chemical company SABIC’s polycarbonate plant in Spain is set to become the world’s first that will run entirely on renewable power.
The Riyadh-headquartered company has signed a major agreement with an electricity utility company Iberdrola, in this regard. This plant is expected to be completely operational by the year 2024.

Notes:
India’s solar-powered ferry Aditya has won the prestigious Gustave Trouve Award for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating.
It has been named the best electric boat in the category of ferries designed for paid passenger service. Aditya was the first solar-powered ferry of the country when it began its operations in 2017 in Kerala. The ferry built by NavAlt Boats belongs to the Kerala State Water Transport Department.

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:
Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has recently approved a programme for artisans who make Agarbatti.
The programme aims to develop village industry under ‘Gramodyog Vikas Yojana’. Under the programme, four pilot projects will be started that includes one in the North Eastern part of the country. Each cluster of artisans will be provided with automatic Agarbatti making machines.

Notes:
State-owned oil and gas company and the largest commercial oil company in the country, Indian Oil has partnered with France’s Total.
The Joint Venture has been formed to make Superior Quality Bitumen derivatives and specialty products for India’s road construction industry. The JB would initially take over the existing plant of Total at Jodhpur, Rajasthan and then invest Rs 226 crore to set up six new plants across India.

Notes:
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has recently announced that it will pardon the players who voluntarily declare age fraud.
It will grant amnesty to registered players who voluntarily declare that they have manipulated their date of birth but those who found to have breached the scheme would be granted a two-year suspension. Then, they will not be allowed to participate in any age group tournaments of BCCI and the State boards.

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 state government of Chhattisgarh has implemented a scheme called ‘Godhan Nyay Yojana’, under which cow dung is being procured from cattle farmers at Rs 2 per kg.
It is a first of its kind scheme, which produces vermicompost from the dung so procured. It is then sold with the help of cooperative societies. The Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel will inaugurate the process of payment to the bank accounts of beneficiaries under the scheme.

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.