Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation and a private engineering firm Afcons jointly completed India’s deepest underground ventilation shaft.
The ventilation shaft is 43.5m deep and is part of the East West Metro Line of Kolkata. These special purpose shafts are used for ventilation of the tunnels and for evacuation during critical times or emergencies.

Notes:
The construction work of the Katra (Jammu and Kashmir) – Delhi Express Road Corridor is proposed to be completed in 3 years and will be operational by 2023. The express corridor would bring down the travel time from Katra to Delhi to around six and half hours.
One key feature of this road is that it will connect the holy cities of Katra and Amritsar, and other major religious shrines between the two destinations.

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:
As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Odisha continued to be the top performer in implementation of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Scheme (AMRUT).
Odisha has secured first position by scoring 85.67 per cent and provided piped water supply to households of nine cities of the state. Out of the 191 projects started under the AMRUT scheme, the state has completed 148 of them. Odisha is followed by Chandigarh and Telangana. Tamil Nadu has completed the highest number of works.

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:
Google has collaborated with the Central Water Commission (CWC) for providing flood forecasting and public alerts.
Users in the affected region will receive alerts through their Android smartphones if they have enabled the location services. The timely and critical information is being used by several users amidst the heavy rains and floods across the country.

Notes:
The Government of Jharkhand has unveiled a new logo for the state. It was unveiled at Ranchi by the Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
It is a circular logo with the National Emblem of India placed at its center, between concentric circles. These concentric circles depict the state’s abundant natural resources and its rich culture. The logo contains “Palash flower” which is the state’s flower and “Elephant” which is the state animal.

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:
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has acquired a small equity stake in the leading Indian private sector bank, ICICI Bank.
It is one among the 357 institutional investors which had subscribed to the issue of the Qualified institutional investors (QIP) placement, of Rs 15,000 crore. PBOC has invested Rs 15 crore in the issue. It had earlier bought a stake in leading institution, HDFC.

Notes:
Indian railways has announced that it has procured ‘Ninja Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAV) for surveillance operations.
The Railway Protection Force is deploying the Ninja UAVs to improve monitoring and provide safety to railway assets and passengers. RPF has recently procured nine drones worth over Rs 30 lakh. It is to procure more drones shortly, which are capable of for real-time tracking and video streaming.