Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Kanpur has developed BEEG (Bio compost Enriched Eco-friendly Globule), an indigenous seed ball.
It contains indigenous seeds, compost, and clay. The seed balls, if thrown at target places, would germinate when comes in contact with water. It is aimed to help farmers to eliminate the requirement for digging pits and planting samplings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has launched Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Academy in New Delhi.
This has been inaugurated as part of the ongoing week-long behaviour change campaign Gandagi Mukt Bharat. This is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based free mobile online learning course on ODF Plus. The ODF Plus is an extension of the ODF programme under the Swachch Bharat Mission.

Notes:
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, in association with the Armed Forces Medical College has released “Building Positive Health in Nine Simple Steps”.
It is a visual guide for reference by the people to know about the link between their lifestyle and mental health. The bilingual guide that has been issued in English and Hindi, which would be released in other regional languages also. The guide has been targeted at Urban audience.

Notes:
The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 chaired by Dr V K Paul, Member NITI Aayog, met for the first time on 12th August. The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The expert group has been constituted under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It discussed on the parameters required in selecting the COVID-19 vaccine candidates for India and procurement mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine.

Notes:
The United States’ NASA launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has completed its primary mission.
During its 2-year long primary mission, the survey satellite has found 66 new exoplanets outside our solar system. TESS also found over 2000 objects which would be confirmed by astronomers soon. The extended mission of TESS is to be completed in 2022.

Notes:
E-commerce major Amazon announced that it will launch its online pharmacy in India. The first online platform will be set up in Bengaluru.
The new service named ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ will offer both prescription-based drugs and over-the-counter medicines. It will also sell health devices and traditional Indian medicines. Amazon is witnessing severe competition with Flipkart and JioMart.

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:
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:
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has partnered with leading online learning platform Coursera, to offer two new certificate programs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) and in Data science. It is proposed to launch these programmes in 2021.
The certificate program in AI& ML would comprise of lectures, on hand learning, team projects and workshops. The certificate program in data science will impart skills in data management, data collection and critical thinking.

Notes:
The Center for Biopharma Analysis (CBA), which is set up at Pune has been virtually inaugurated by the Secretary of Department of Bio Technology. It is an initiative of the Venture Centre, which is a Technology Business Incubator hosted by CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.
The CBA is supported and funded by National Bio Pharma Mission implemented by the Department of Bio Technology. The CBA is a facility with high end instrumentation which complies with globally accepted standards of Bio pharmaceutical analysis.