Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

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:
Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), a deemed university under the Defence Ministry’s Department of Defence Research and Development, has won the first prize in the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2020.
SIH is a national-level digital product building competition, jointly organised by the Ministry of Education and AICTE. The DIAT team developed a technology called ‘DRISHTI’ to recognise face, expression and gesture using artificial intelligence (AI).

Notes:
Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer, Shirley Ann Grau has recently passed away at the age of 91. She was born in New Orleans and was brought up on Alabama.
All her six novels and four short story collections were all set in the southern states of the United States. She won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for her fourth book titled ‘The Keepers of the House’ in the year 1965. Her first book was ‘The Black Prince and Other Stories’.

Notes:
The San Giorgio Bridge, that has been found in news, was inaugurated in Genoa, one of the largest cities in Italy.
Designed by the world-famous architect Renzo Piano, the bridge is the replacement for the Morandi Bridge that collapsed in a storm two years ago in Italy. The 1,100-metre-long motorway bridge was inaugurated by the Italian prime minister.

Notes:
The Union Education Ministry formerly the HRD Ministry organised ‘Conclave on Transformational Reforms in Higher Education under National Education Policy’ along with the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at the Conclave through video conferencing. He also highlighted various aspects of the National Education Policy. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal also participated in the event.

Notes:
The Delhi government has launched the UT’s own Electric Vehicle Policy that aims to boost the economy and reduce the pollution level.
The Government will also introduce financial incentives for people to buy e-vehicles in the range of Rs 30000 for two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws and Rs 150,000 for cars. The policy also offers subsidies and waive road tax and registration fee for electric vehicles.

Notes:
Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a USD 250-million worth Line of credit (LOC) to Mozambique to improve power supply quality in the country.
With the signing of this LoC Agreement, India has so far extended 14 LoCs to Mozambique worth USD 772.44 million. A total of 264 LoCs have been extended to as many as 62 countries across the world around USD 25.98 billion.

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:
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will inaugurate the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair.
This new network will provide fast and reliable mobile and landline telecom services to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The project was announced by the Prime Minister in the year 2018. About 2,300 km of Submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has been laid at a cost of over Rs 1200 crore.

Notes:
Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh launched the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Saptah’ (Self-reliant India week).
The campaign aims to promote the domestic production of Defence equipment in India. Earlier, the Ministry announced that import of over 100 weapons and military platforms will be restricted in a phased manner till 2024