Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila launches the country’s cheapest version of Remdesivir, under the brand name Remdac.
The generic version of the medicine will be used for treating patients suffering from severe symptoms of Covid-19. A 100-mg vial has been priced at Rs 2800 and this the most economical medicine so far. It will be available across the country.

Notes:
A new PMRU (Price Monitoring and Resource Unit) has been set up in the state of Karnataka under NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority), Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
The main function of the PMRU is to assist NPPA to monitor the price of drugs in the market and also to ensure their availability. NPPA has established PMRUs in 12 States/ UTs under its Central Sector Scheme called Consumer Awareness, Publicity and Price Monitoring (CAPPM).

Notes:
ICGS SARTHAK – the new Offshore Patrol Vessel of Indian Coast Guard has been launched. The vessel is indigenously designed and built by Goa Shipyard Limited. It is the fourth vessel among the five series Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV).
The new vessel is set to be deployed for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surveillance, Coastal Security and other duties related to search and rescue operations.

Notes:
An application called the ‘Interactive Neural Machine Translation (INMT) tool’, has been developed by the Microsoft Research Lab.
Microsoft Lab has collaborated with CGNet Swara, an Indian voice-based online portal and IIIT Naya Raipur for developing this tool. It translates sentences from Hindi to South-Central Dravidian language Gondi and vice-versa. The application aims to motivate youth from the Gond tribal community to learn the language.

Notes:
The Government of Goa has signed a tri-partite agreement with Siemens and GIZ, a German based agency, for vocational education and training at ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) of the state.
The Indo-German agreement would facilitate in-plant trainings to students, so that they would be exposed to hands-on experience in their respect domain, thereby improving the employability of the students.

Notes:
The Anti Drone System, developed by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) has been deployed at Delhi in the Independence Day celebrations.
The system can capture drone movements and jam them up to a distance of 3 km. The system can also bring down a target up to 2.5 km using laser. It is seen as an efficient mechanism to counter drone based anti-national activities.

Notes:
The famous computer scientist Russel Kirsch who is celebrated for invention of Pixel died at the age of 91.
Russel Kirsch created a small 2 by 2 inch black and white image of his son in digital form in 1957. This was also the world’s first photograph that was scanned into a computer using a device created by his research team. That was the basis for satellite imaging, medical scans, virtual reality and other imaging technology being used recently.

Notes:
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a new rapid saliva test to detect Covid-19 named ‘Saliva Direct’.
The new inexpensive test uses only saliva samples instead of the nasal and throat swabs to detect the coronavirus samples. As per the administration, the test also has higher sensitivity when compared to the usual methods of testing.

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.