Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
A Data Recovery Centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) named KRISHI MEGH has been launched at Hyderabad by the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The objective of establishing the Recovery Centre is to protect the precious data of ICAR.
It is set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) in Hyderabad. This data center has been set up under National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), which is funded by the Government of India and World Bank.

Notes:
The procurement of 106 Basic Trainer Aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for Indian Air Force has been approved by the Ministry of Defence.
The procurement of 106 HTT-40 aircraft from HAL was approved by Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the highest decision-making authority of the Defence Ministry. A total of Defence Acquisition proposals worth over Rs.8500 crore was cleared by the DAC.

Notes:
A webinar titled “Weaves of Maharashtra and Textiles of Odisha” was organized by Press Information Bureau (PIB) – Mumbai and India Tourism – Mumbai. The key focus of the webinar was on the handlooms & fabrics of Maharashtra and Odisha.
August 7 is celebrated as National Handloom Day in India, to honour the handloom weavers of the nation. August 7 was chosen to mark the Swadeshi Movement which was launched on this day in 1905 to protest against partition of Bengal by the British Government.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs has released the ‘Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)’.
The report has proposed a new Reporting Framework for companies to reporting of Non-Financial Parameters. The framework is called ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)’. The BRSR is to be integrated with the MCA 21 portal. Also, the information captured through the framework would be used to develop “Business Responsibility-Sustainability Index”.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs implements the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
The scheme aims to provide basic infrastructure for water supply, sewage and seepage management in 500 Mission cities. Recently, the scheme was in news because the states across India have completed 2,854 projects worth ₹11,110 crore under the scheme. Tamil Nadu completed the highest number of works.

Notes:
As per the findings published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, a new low-cost nasal swab test named ‘N1-STOP-LAMP’ has been developed.
As per the researchers, the test can accurately diagnose the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, in just 20 minutes. It is also 100 per cent accurate in diagnosing the samples at high loads. It uses a single tube and involves only one step and so it is very efficient and affordable.

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:
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has built an infrastructure at Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh.
The project has been designed to transport fly ash in bulk at affordable rates to cement plants. NTPC has committed to utilise the fly ash completely from power plants. The power plants will upgrade their infrastructure for utilising the fly ash using the loading facilities of the Indian Railways.

Notes:
The “Konkurs Missile Test Equipment” and “Konkurs Launcher Test Equipment” indigenously developed by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has been launched by the Defence Minister.
Launched as a part of the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat Week” celebrations, the two equipment have been designed by BDL to check the serviceability of Konkurs-M anti-tank guided missiles and Konkurs-M missile launchers. These products were earlier imported from Russia.

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.