Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The World’s tallest Pier bridge is being constructed by Indian Railways in Manipur across the river “Ijai”. The height of its tallest pier is 141m. The bridge is a part of Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line project. The existing record for the tallest pier bridge is 139m at Montenegro in Europe.
The bridge is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.280 crore and the construction work is expected to be completed by March 2020. The total length of the bridge is estimated to be 703 meters.

Notes:
The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka has stated that an industrial corridor between Mysuru and Bidar would be built by the state to promote the development of industry and commerce.
The proposed industrial corridor would be in line with Bengaluru-Chennai and Bengaluru- Mumbai corridors. This project forms a significant part of the state’s target to make it a USD 500 billion market in next 5 years.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot has launched a subsidised meal scheme named ‘Indira Rasoi Yojana’.
It aims to provide subsidised meals to the poor and needy in the state at Rs 8 per plate with dignity. Earlier, the state was implementing a similar scheme named Annapurna Rasoi Yojana from 2016. The scheme was launched on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the ‘Sadbhavana Diwas’.

Notes:
Social networking major Twitter released its latest transparency report, which has the data between July -December 2019 on its rule enforcement, legal demands on content removal among others.
As per the report, India stands at fifth position in requesting Twitter and Periscope to remove content, based on local laws. Japan, Russia and Turkey ranked in the top 3 positions in the list. Twitter recorded a 21% rise in global account information requests and 789 requests from India.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Power recommends all power generating companies and transmission companies to charge Late payment surcharge (LPS) within 12% per annum.
In many cases, LPS is up to 18 per cent per annum and the high cap has adversely impacted Discoms during the nation-wide lockdown. This measure aims at easing the financial burden on Discoms as well as the consumers.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Thailand’s Foreign Ministry has organized the 6th Round Table of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT). The round table conference was conducted virtually.
The theme of the conference was ‘ASEAN-India: Strengthening Partnership in the Post COVID Era’. More than 400 eminent members from various educational institutions, industry, government and diplomats attended the Round Table.

Notes:
Technology major Microsoft has launched a new program to teach quantum computing skills to train around 900 faculty from across the country.
As a part of this initiative, Microsoft is organizing a ‘Train the Trainer’ program in association with Electronics and ICT Academies at Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur and National Institute of Technology, Patna.

Notes:
The international day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is observed by UNESCO on 23rd August every year. This date was adopted by the resolution at UNESCO’s 29th session. 
The date is significant because, it was on the night of 22nd August to 23rd August, 1791 an uprising occurred on the island of Saint Domingue, which was primarily responsible for abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Notes:
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital is to organise an online international conference on ‘Aerosol Air Quality, Climate Change and Impact on Water Resources and Livelihoods in the Greater Himalayas’.
ARIES, an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is organising the conference along with Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University between 14th -16th September 2020.

Notes:
The Republican Party of the United States has formally re-nominated President Donald Trump as the party’s Presidential candidate and Vice President Mike Pence as the running mate of the President.
The Presidential Election is to be held on November 3 in the United States. Elected Republican Party delegates from all 50 States of the country polled votes to re-nominate Trump. Democratic party had earlier nominated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as their nominees of President and VP respectively.