Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

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.

Notes:
A joint report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated that, 41 lakh youth in the country lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ‘Tackling the Covid-19 youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific’ report stated that construction and farm sector workers account for the majority of job losses. Youth (15-24 years) will be hit harder than adults (25 and older) in the immediate crisis.

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:
The rockets manufactured by Economic Explosives Ltd (EEL) have been successfully test fired by the Indian Army.
This is the first ever set of rockets fully manufactured by a private sector company, and is expected to reduce the single source dependency on Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The Pinaka rockets were manufactured after a technology transfer agreement with the DRDO.

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:
Indira Rasoi scheme has been launched by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Under the scheme, poor and needy people will be provided with quality food at Rs 8 per plate in urban areas.
The subsidy is estimated to have an expenditure of Rs 100 crore every year to the state. The scheme will be rolled out in 213 urban local bodies of the state and food will be served to 1.34 lakh people per day.

Notes:
Former Indian footballer turned coach Bhaskar Maity passed away at a Navi Mumbai. He was 67 years old.
He was celebrated as one of the most reliable goalkeepers of India in the 1970s and ’80s. Bhaskar Maity made his debut for India at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, against Iraq. He has also represented Maharashtra State in the Santosh Trophy from 1975 to 1979. Maity served as the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) coach.

Notes:
The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently announced that the country has discovered a large natural gas reserve along the Black Sea coast.
Around 302 billion cubic meters area of natural gas reserve has been discovered that will reduce the import dependency of the country. As per the country, it will start extracting and using the gas by 2023, when Turkey marks the centenary of the founding of Republic.

Notes:
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) has signed a MoU with Switzerland based HELP Logistics.
This partnership is aimed to develop humanitarian logistics in India through consulting services and logistics training to United Nations bodies, Government Institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations. The MoU will be in force of a period of 1 year.

Notes:
As per the recent date given by the Ministry of Finance to the Rajya Sabha, over 15 crore loans worth Rs 4.78-lakh crore have been disbursed to women borrowers since the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) was launched.
Among the states, Tamil Nadu topped the list of women beneficiaries with loans amounting Rs 58227 crores. It is followed by the women in West Bengal (Rs 55,232 crore) and Karnataka (Rs 47,714 crore).