Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The cabinet of Odisha has approved the tender amounting Rs.1138 crore for implementation of its ambitious irrigation project named “Gangadhar Meher Lift Canal System”.
The irrigation project would irrigate 25,600 hectares of agricultural land in drought hit regions of Barghar and Sonepur districts of Odisha. The project was first announced in the year 2017. The implementing agency will be announced soon.

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:
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved a proposal of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) to expand to cover border and coastal districts.
The proposal regarding the scheme was announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address. As many as one lakh cadets from 173 border and coastal districts will be inducted to the NCC with one-third Cadets being girls. Over 80 NCC units will also be upgraded as a part of this expansion.

Notes:
IPS officer Rakesh Asthana has been appointed as the Director General of Border Security Force (BSF). The incumbent head RK Shukla is set to retire in February 2020.
Prior to this appointment, he was the head of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security since January 2019. SS Deswal is set to replace him in the said post. Asthana was a 1984-batch IPS Officer and a former official of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Notes:
A new strain of coronavirus has been detected in Malaysia which is found to be 10 times more infectious than the existing Corona virus.
The mutated form of the virus called D614G was found in 3 of the 45 cases in a test cluster. The detection of new strain has implied that studies on COVID 19 vaccines may be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation. WHO has explained that the new strain will not cause a more severe disease.

Notes:
USD 1 billion (equivalent to Rs 7,485 crore) financial support by way of loan has been approved by the Manila based-Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Delhi-Meerut regional rapid transit system.
The project is first of the three priority rail corridors in country. The financial assistance from ADB will be used for construction of railway tracks, station buildings, maintenance facilities and power supply.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh has sanctioned 58,476 loans to street vendors under Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors Atma-Nirbhar Scheme (PM SVA Nidhi). This makes Madhya Pradesh the top performing state under the scheme.
More than 47% of the total sanctions in the country is made by Madhya Pradesh. Under the scheme, working capital loan of Rs.10000/- for a term of one year is given to street vendors, to resume their livelihoods.

Notes:
A proposal for leasing out Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports through public-private partnership (PPP) has been cleared by the Union Cabinet.
The rights to run these airports in addition to Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru airports have been awarded to Adani Enterprises by way of competitive bidding. Presently, these six airports are owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Notes:
As per a recent release by the Government, India ranks first in terms of number of organic farmers and 9th in terms of area under organic farming.
In order to boost organic farming, the Union Government had launched “Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region” (MOVCD) and “Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana” (PKVY) in 2015. Sikkim became the first state in the world to become fully organic in farming.

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a one-time relaxation to Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for extending loans to state-owned electricity distribution companies (Discoms).
This measure has been made by the Government to inject liquidity into Discoms, as a part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme. As per the existing guidelines, Discoms can avail working capital loans equal to 25% of last year’s revenues, under UDAY scheme from PFC and REC.