Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The first batch of five Rafale fighter jets have landed at the Ambala Air Force Base, located in the state of Haryana.
The Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria received the fighter jets, which will be inducted in the No. 17 Squadron, ‘Golden Arrows’. The jets were flown by Indian Air Force pilots for seven hours with the help of the mid-air refuellers.

Notes:
The Indian Government has imposed safeguard duty on solar cells for one more year till July 2021 to protect domestic manufacturers.
This move will also discourage cheap imports from countries like China. Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), the investigative arm of the Commerce Ministry had recommended to the Department of Revenue for this imposition of duty.

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:
Veteran England all-rounder Ian Botham has been made a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament.
The 64-year-old former England captain is the first cricketer to be awarded this honour since 2011. He is among the 36 new members announced by the Government. He was knighted in the year 2007 for his services in cricket and in the field of charity.

Notes:
The Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (WEE) is a national level social initiative by the India Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, to strengthen women ecosystem.
The initiative helps women in taking up entrepreneurship as a feasible career option. It is India’s first of its kind initiative, supported and sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology. 11 Women entrepreneurs are given cash awards amounting to Rs 25 lakh.

Notes:
The Union Government has provisionally granted permission for the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2020 edition to be scheduled in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the IPL governing council had earlier postponed the tournament. It is to be held from September 19 to November 10 across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, after the final clearances from the Indian government.

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:
The United States has successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile named Minuteman 3 from California.
The missile was test flighted from the Vandenberg Air Force Base to a target in the Pacific Ocean. The unarmed missile and its three vehicles travelled over 6750 kilometers to the Marshall Islands as a part of the test.

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:
RBI formed the Expert Committee on Debt Resolution in August 2020 with K V Kamath as chairperson. The committee set financial parameters for restructuring stressed loans, recommending sector-specific benchmarks under RBI’s Prudential Framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets for banks.