Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

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:
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 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had initiated the ‘Eat Right India’ movement, to create awareness about safe, healthy and sustainable dietary habits.
FSSAI has launched Eat Right Challenge as an annual competition to strengthen food regulatory ecosystem and build awareness. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has recently launched FSSAI’s ‘Eat Right India’ Handbook and its website.

Notes:
Interceptor Boat ‘ICGS C-454’, that has been built by Larsen and Toubro, was recently launched into the service of the Coast Guard.
The newly-built boat of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) was launched in Surat, as per the recent notification from the Defence Ministry. It has a length of 27 meters and a maximum speed of 45 nautical miles or 83 kilometers per hour.

Notes:
Karnataka has announced that it would be the first state to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka participated in the ‘Highlights of the National Education policy and its implementation’ workshop. He announced that the state has started to launch administrative reforms and amendments to implement the policy.

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:
Researchers at IIT – Bombay and Shiv Nadar University have claimed that they have developed a technology to produce environment friendly Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries.
The Li-S batteries would be three times more energy efficient and cost effective than conventional Lithium-ion batteries. The production of Li-S batteries uses products from the petroleum industry and agro-waste along with co polymers, and thus has a positive impact on environment.

Notes:
In order to enhance the ease of doing business, the Aadhaar authentication has been activated by the Government for registration to GST. The Aadhaar based GST registration of an entity would be completed in 3 working days and there is no requirement for physical verification.
Those not opting for Aadhaar based registration will be subjected to physical verification of place of business activity and other related documentary verification. The time required for non-Aadhaar registration would be up to 21 days.