Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The Death Valley is a desert valley which is located in Eastern California, USA. Recently, the temperature at the Death Valley’s Furnace Creek is recorded at 54.4°C. This would be hottest temperature officially verified since 1913, as per World Meteorological Organization.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, Death Valley’s all-time record high is 56.7°C that was recorded in the year 1913. It still stands as the hottest ever temperature recorded on the surface of the earth.

Notes:
Iran has displayed a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, that has a range of 1,400 kilometres, named martyr Qassem Soleimani.
The country also displayed a new cruise missile called martyr Abu Mahdi, with a range of over 1,000 km, amidst the demand from the United States to stop its missile programme. The head of Iran’s Quds Force, Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in a U.S. strike.

Notes:
A recent survey by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has revealed that, over 27 % students do not have access to smart phones or laptops to attend online classes.
The survey also pointed out that lack of electricity was an obstacle in the learning process for nearly 28 % students and parents. Over 34,000 participants participated in the survey by the NCERT on the challenges of online education.

Notes:
The state Government of Maharashtra, has decided to exempt all serving and retired soldiers from the Gram Panchayat property tax. A Government resolution has been passed in this regard.
Earlier, the exemption was applicable only to Defence Gallantry Awardees or their dependents. The present decision has included all the serving and retired soldiers.

Notes:
Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has signed a strategic partnership with Nepal’s leading e-commerce company Sastodeal.
This partnership will provide lakhs of sellers registered with Flipkart, an access to the e-commerce market of Nepal. Sastodeal will host more than 5,000 products from Flipkart sellers including the Flipkart Private Brands, MarQ and SmartBuy in various categories.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh is set to be the first state in the country to recruit candidates to government jobs on the basis of National Recruitment Agency (NRA) test.
This decision has been informed by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, a day after the Union cabinet approved setting up of NRA to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET), for conducting examinations which are presently conducted by IBPS, RRB, SSC among others

Notes:
Banks Board Bureau has recommended Ashwini Bhatia for the position of Managing Director (MD) of the State Bank of India (SBI).
The Personnel Ministry has appointed Ashwani Bhatia for the said position, up to the date of his superannuation (May 31, 2022). He is currently serving as the MD and CEO at SBI Mutual Fund, and will replace P K Gupta who retired on March 31.

Notes:
The Union External Affairs Ministry has recently organised the first India-Uzbekistan National Coordination Committee.
The virtual meeting was held to monitor the implementation of mutually agreed projects between India and Uzbekistan. They also reviewed implementation of identified projects under India’s LoC, cooperation between the Gujarat state and Andijan region among others.

Notes:
The water technology company “Va Tech Wabag” has been conferred with the Global Water Award. This award has been given to the company for setting up a tertiary treatment reverse osmosis plant (TTRO) with a capacity of 45 million litres a day, at Chennai.
The award has been given under ‘wastewater project of the year’ category. With this project, Chennai is the first Indian city to reuse more than 20 % of its treated wastewater.

Notes:
‘Nuakhai Juhar’ is the agricultural festival and one of the most ancient festivals celebrated in Odisha, Chhattisgarh. It is also celebrated in regions of neighbouring states. This festival is celebrated to welcome the new crop of the season.
‘Nua’ means new and ‘Khai’ means eat. During the festival, people worship food and farmers offer their first agriculture produce from their lands to Goddess Samaleswari.