Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Maldives is the first neighbouring country with which India is operating transport services under the air bubble agreement.
Recently, the Director-General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced that Indians holding any kind of valid visa can travel through air to US, UK, Canada under air bubble agreement.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the framework for setting up of a new umbrella entity for retail payments.
It will operate as a ‘for-profit’ company that will have minimum paid-up capital of Rs 500 crore. It will set up and operate the payment systems such as ATMs, white-label PoS and Aadhaar-based payments. The company will also manage clearing and settlement systems of banks/ non-banks.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has recently announced that all of the state government jobs will be reserved to the people belonging to its state.
This is the first country in the state to reserve all its jobs to the people of the state. The state government is set to form legal provisions in this regard. During his Independence Day address, the Chief Minister announced that the state will give preference to their youths in government jobs.

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:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved to set up a new entity named ‘National Recruitment Agency (NRA)’ to carry out a national Common Entrance Test (CET).
This exam would be a common screening test for non-gazetted vacancies in both departments of Central government and public sector organisations. It is to conduct first level tests currently conducted by agencies like SSC, RRB and IBPS among others.

Notes:
The title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 is awarded to Dream11, an Indian fantasy sports platform. The sponsorship rights have been awarded for Rs.222 crore.
Byju’s came second in the bid at Rs 201 crore and Unacademy stood third in the bid at Rs 171 crore. The 2020 IPL is the 13th edition of the cricket event and is scheduled to be held at the United Arab Emirates.

Notes:
USD 1 billion (equivalent to Rs 7,485 crore) financial support by way of loan has been approved by the Manila based-Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Delhi-Meerut regional rapid transit system.
The project is first of the three priority rail corridors in country. The financial assistance from ADB will be used for construction of railway tracks, station buildings, maintenance facilities and power supply.

Notes:
Veteran Indian author Sudha Murty’s latest collection of short stories, ‘Grandparents’ Bag of Stories’ is to be released in the month of November.
The Penguin Random House India announced the collection which is a sequel of her recent release ‘Grandma’s Bag of Stories’ and will have 20 stories. Sudha Murty has authored several books in English and Kannada especially for children.

Notes:
A proposal for leasing out Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports through public-private partnership (PPP) has been cleared by the Union Cabinet.
The rights to run these airports in addition to Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru airports have been awarded to Adani Enterprises by way of competitive bidding. Presently, these six airports are owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

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.