Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) releases the Business Confidence Index (BCI) and Business Expectation Survey (BES).
As per the recent survey conducted by NCAER, the Business Confidence Index fell to 62% from the last year’s level. The index recorded in the first quarter of this fiscal is the lowest index since 1991. During the period, the BCI for North India increased by 25.1% and decreased by 89.3% and 68.1% for East and West India.

Notes:
Indian Railways is observing ‘Cleanliness Week’ from August 10, to commemorate the Independence Day.
During the week, a special Cleanliness campaign will be launched and Cleaning of tracks, offices and other areas near Railway premises will be focussed. Collection of wastes with separate pool of plastic waste will also be done. Awareness drives will also be organised to keep the places clean.

Notes:
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is set to open the country’s first Silk Training cum Production Center in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
A school building in the tribal village of Chullyu in the state has been modified into the training cum production center. KVIC will also conduct training of artisans and support the production of Eri Silk, an indigenous silk variety of the North Eastern states.

Notes:
National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a new loyalty platform named ‘nth Rewards’.
It is an analytics-enabled multi-branded loyalty platform that allows users to earn points through various bank transactions. The points can be redeemed on various products like e-vouchers, hotel and flight bookings. Using the platform, banks and merchants can identify consumer behaviour.

Notes:
IC-IMPACTS is an Annual Research Conference between India and Canada. ‘IMPACTS’ stands for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnership to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability.
The conference for the current year was held on 6th August, in a virtual mode. The conference discussed ways of boosting the cooperation between the two countries higher levels by strengthening existing international links, sharing best practices of two countries, and initiating new collaborations.

Notes:
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) of Government of India has launched a new national portal called SURAKHSYA. It has been launched for real time data collection on Human Animal conflict.
The portal is launched as a part of the World Elephant Day, which is observed every year on 12th August. The portal would be used by policy makers for preparation of Action Plans and Strategies to mitigate conflicts.

Notes:
According to a recent data from the NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft, the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is not a barren space rock.
It was earlier believed that the dwarf planet is barren but the data collected reveal that it is a water-rich place and there could be a large and deep reservoir of salt water. In the year 2015, the Dawn spacecraft arrived at Ceres, which us far smaller than the Earth’s moon.

Notes:
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Indian Industrialist Mukesh Ambani is the 4th richest person in the world. According to the index, his personal wealth is USD 80.6 billion in 2020.
Mukesh Ambani, the CMD of Reliance Industries Ltd has surpassed Bernard Arnault, the Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The top 3 richest positions are occupied by Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

Notes:
The state of Assam has proposed to launch a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme named “Arunodoi”.
This scheme will be launched in lines with the flagship DBT scheme Jan Dhan Yojana. This is claimed as the largest DBT scheme of Assam till date. The scheme also called as Orunodoi, seeks to transfer Rs 830 per month to around 19.7 lakh families. The main beneficiaries of the scheme will be women.

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.