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:
The former Defence Minister of the African country Ivory Coast Hamed Bakayoko, has been recently named as the Prime Minister of the country.
Earlier, the previous Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly passed away suddenly on July 8 and Hamed Bakayoko has been serving as the acting Prime Minister. The 55-year old leader has been serving as the Defence Minister since 2017 after serving as the Interior Minister since 2011.

Notes:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy launched a cybercrime awareness programme E-Rakshabandhan.
It is a first-of-its-kind virtual programme of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the State Police. The one-month-long programme aims to create awareness among the public, especially women, youth and children in cyberspace.

Notes:
Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh has recently passed away at the age of 64. He was undergoing treatment in hospital for the past few months.
Several political leaders condoled the death of Amar Singh. He was a businessman turned Politician who had acquaintances in all major parties. He was active in his social media account even during last week.

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:
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:
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank laid the foundation stone of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur.
The Minister inaugurated it virtually along with the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur, in Dhaulakuan, Himachal Pradesh. The institute has been operationalised by IIM Lucknow from August 2015 as the mentor Institution. The Union Government has sanctioned Rs 531.75 Crore for the construction and functioning of the institute.

Notes:
Malayalam movie ‘Moothon’ has won the best film award at the New York Indian Film Festival 2020 (NYIFF).
In addition to the best film award, Malayalam star Nivin Pauly won the best actor award and Sanjana Dipu won in the best child artist category. The Malayalam-Hindi bilingual movie was directed by Geetu Mohandas and was released in the year 2019.

Notes:
The Government of India has abolished All India Handicrafts Board, as per the recent notification of the Textiles Ministry.
The Board was constituted on January 23, 1992 under the chairmanship of the Union Textiles Minister. It has Secretaries in Ministries of Rural development and Micro small & medium enterprises and various states as members. It had been advising the Government on creation of development programmes in the handicrafts and handloom sectors.