Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Indian Navy has signed a deal with Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) for setting up a “Centre of excellence”. The Centre of excellence is to come up in the Defence corridor of Uttar Pradesh.
The centre of excellence would provide solutions to the problems and challenges of the Indian Navy. The centre is proposed to be established with the help of IIT, BHU and other prominent institutions of the country.

Notes:
The Governor of Goa, Satya Pal Malik has been transferred as the Governor of Meghalaya, as per a recent communication from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
He is to replace the incumbent Governor of the North Est state, Tathagata Roy who completed his five-year tenure. The Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, will discharge the additional functions of the Goa Governor.

Notes:
Ashok Lavasa has recently steeped down from his Election Commissioner position as he is to join the Asian Development Bank.
ADB has appointed Ashok Lavasa as Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships. His resignation has been accepted by the Indian President Ram Nath Kovind. He was next in the row to become the Chief Election Commissioner.

Notes:
The President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has recently stepped down from his role, after the prevalent military rebellion in the country.
The soldiers had detained the President and the country’s Prime Minister Boubou Cisse. The country was seeing a large number of protests against alleged corruption and worsening security. People were demanding the resignation of the President for some time.

Notes:
“Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge” has been launched by the Government of India to promote indigenous microprocessor manufacturing and designing.
100 shortlisted companies will be given grant to build their prototype. 25 finalists will win Rs.1 crore each. The top ten teams will get a fund of total Rs.2.30 crore with 12-month incubation support, from the Ministry of Information Technology.

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:
In order to reduce the dependency of China, three countries namely India, Japan and Australia have begun discussions to launch a trilateral “Supply Chain Resilience Initiative” (SCRI).
The initiative was originally proposed by Japan, which had approached India to take forward the initiative. The first meeting of the commerce and trade ministers of the three countries will be held next week.

Notes:
Under the Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana, Employees and State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has relaxed its norms, wherein it would pay 50% (up from earlier 25%) of average wages of three months as unemployment benefit.
The scheme would be available to people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic between March 24 and December 31 this year. This is expected to benefit nearly 40 lakh industrial workers.

Notes:
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), an US based India-centric business advocacy group has announced to honour Anand Mahindra and Shantanu Narayen with 2020 Leadership Awards.
The Mahindra group Chairman and Adobe Chairman and CEO are awarded for promoting US-India bilateral ties. It will be presented at 3rd Annual Leadership Summit of USISPF titled “US-India Week: Navigating New Challenges”, that will be virtually convened from August 31.

Notes:
The Myanmar government has signed an agreement for implementing “National Ceasefire Agreement” (NCA) with 10 armed ethnic groups. The peace accord is called Union Peace Accord III contains 15 provisions to implement the NCA.
The agreement was entered into by the parties at Nay Pyi Taw during the 4th session of the Union Peace Conference named – 21st Century Panglong.