Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has launched Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Academy in New Delhi.
This has been inaugurated as part of the ongoing week-long behaviour change campaign Gandagi Mukt Bharat. This is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based free mobile online learning course on ODF Plus. The ODF Plus is an extension of the ODF programme under the Swachch Bharat Mission.

Notes:
The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has recently won a landslide re-election victory, as per the country’s central Election Commission.
As per the figures of the votes counted, around 80 per cent of the votes were secured by the President. His main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, won over 9 per cent of the votes. At least one person was killed and dozens were injured in the clashes held during the elections.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Tourism organised a themed webinar titled “Cellular Jail: Letters, Memoirs & Memories”, as a part of the “Dekho Apna Desh” webinar series. The webinar has been organised ahead of the 74th Independence Day celebrations.
The Cellular Jail is in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Indian Nationalist who were part of freedom struggle were exiled and imprisoned. The Webinar showcased the journey of India’s independence struggle through the galleries and cells of the Cellular jail.

Notes:
World Animal Protection, an international animal welfare organisation has released a new report titled “Elephants. Not commodities”.
The third edition of the report reveals that India has the second-highest number of elephants used in tourism in Asia. It also reveals that as many as 225 of the elephants, which is more than 45%, were kept in severely inadequate conditions.

Notes:
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a new platform ‘Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest’.
The platform aims to ease the compliance and fast- track the refunds so that all honest taxpayers are benefitted. Three main features of the platform include faceless assessment, faceless appeal and tax payers’ charter.

Notes:
Among all the Indian Prime Ministers, Narendra Modi has the longest tenure as head of elected government.
Including his term of more than 12 years as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, his total term as the head stands over 18 years and 300 days. He is also the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister of the country. The term as the head of Jawaharlal Nehru was over 16 years and that of Indira Gandhi was over 15 years.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved an annual dividend pay-out of more than Rs 57,000 crore to the Indian Government.
In this year’s budget, the Government had estimated a dividend of Rs 60,000 crore from the central bank and other government owned financial institutions. The Government’s fiscal deficit stood at a record high Rs 6.62 lakh crore in the April-June period.

Notes:
Maldives is the first neighbouring country with which India is operating transport services under the air bubble agreement.
Recently, the Director-General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced that Indians holding any kind of valid visa can travel through air to US, UK, Canada under air bubble agreement.

Notes:
A 10-member Technical Response Team and 30 tons of Technical Equipment are sent by India to assist Mauritius in its effort to contain oil spill. This has been done in response to the request by the Government of Mauritius.
A Japanese ship named MV Wakashio, ran aground at Pointe d’Esny of Mauritius last month and oil began leaking from it. It is estimated that more than 1000 tons of oil leaked from the ship. Government of Mauritius has announced this as a National Emergency.

Notes:
The World’s tallest Pier bridge is being constructed by Indian Railways in Manipur across the river “Ijai”. The height of its tallest pier is 141m. The bridge is a part of Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line project. The existing record for the tallest pier bridge is 139m at Montenegro in Europe.
The bridge is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.280 crore and the construction work is expected to be completed by March 2020. The total length of the bridge is estimated to be 703 meters.