Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has acquired a small equity stake in the leading Indian private sector bank, ICICI Bank.
It is one among the 357 institutional investors which had subscribed to the issue of the Qualified institutional investors (QIP) placement, of Rs 15,000 crore. PBOC has invested Rs 15 crore in the issue. It had earlier bought a stake in leading institution, HDFC.

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:
The state Government of Uttar Pradesh has launched a new Electronics Manufacturing policy to make the state the new global electronics hub.
The policy aims to invite investment up to Rs.40,000 crore in five years and generate nearly 4 lakh direct employment. The new policy has a special focus on Purvanchal and Bundelkhand regions.

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:
Government owned power major NTPC Limited has recently announced that it is to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary for its renewable energy business.
The company has recently obtained the approval from the Niti Aayog and Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), Ministry of Finance for formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary.

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:
Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is set to have the largest ecosystem of incubation ecosystem in the country, in a year by setting up 21 centres of excellence.
The proposed 21 centres of excellence (CoEs) will incubate new technologies in various sectors. Out of the 21 CoEs, 12 of them are already operational. Three centres are related to Agriculture and one more is proposed to be launched.

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:
The NITI Aayog has recently released a report on Export Preparedness Index 2020, in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness. It ranked states on four key parameters namely Policy, Business Ecosystem, Export Ecosystem and Export Performance.
As per the report, Gujarat has topped the index, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Among the top ten places of the list, six out of the country’s coastal states found place. Rajasthan topped among the landlocked states and Uttarakhand topped among the Himalayan states.