Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The country’s longest river crossing ropeway has been built and opened across river Brahmaputra.
It is a 1.8 km long ropeway built across the river extending from central to northern Guwahati. It will reduce the time of travel to 8 minutes. The cost of the project is Rs.56 crore and has been completed after 11 years of starting the work.

Notes:
One of India’s largest private sector lenders ICICI Bank has decided to use satellite data to assess rainfall and harvesting patterns of the country.
The Bank will combine this data with financial analytics to assess rainfall and harvesting patterns and to offer quick and hassle-free loans to farmers. This new feature is expected to bring down the loan processing time to less than 15 days.

Notes:
Rosatom, the Russian nuclear energy agency, has recently released a documentary footage, titled ‘Top Secret: Test of a clean hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 megatons’, that shows the detonation of the Tsar Bomba or Tsar’s bomb.
It is claimed to be the world’s most powerful hydrogen bomb and it is over 3000 times as destructive as the bomb used in the Hiroshima attack. Tsar’s bomb was initially tested over Novaya Zemlya islands.

Notes:
Leading Automobile company, Volkswagen Motorsport India has launched the Volkswagen Virtual Racing Championship (VW-VRC), a virtual Polo Cup Championship.
It is open for all Indian participants and as many as 26 drivers will be chosen to race in the 2020 VW-VRC season. The winners can drive an actual Polo race car in the 2021 Volkswagen Polo Championship.

Notes:
Apex body on data protection in India, set up by NASSCOM, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), along with PayPal India released a report titled ‘Fraud & Risk Management in Digital Payments’.
The report suggests to safeguard payments for consumers, MSMEs, businesses, as the e-commerce market in India and UPI transactions are growing manifold during the recent times. It also discussed about the threats in the payment ecosystem and its prevention.

Notes:
The State Government of Andhra Pradesh headed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced that Rs.22,000 crore worth residential building sites would be registered to 30 lakh women belonging to weaker sections of the state.
The Government is the process of marking layouts and selection of beneficiaries for the house sites. After favourable verdict from the Supreme Court, the state will distribute the sites.

Notes:
The Bureau of Police Research and Development, BPR&D is celebrating its Golden Jubilee Anniversary on August 28, 2020.
To mark the day, a virtual event was organised with Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy as the Chief Guest. During the occasion, Central Detective Training Institute (CDTI), Jaipur and the website of Student Police Cadets were launched.

Notes:
E commerce and technology Major Amazon has launched ‘Halo Band’, thus officially venturing into the health monitoring segment.
The wrist band uses AI software to monitor personal wellness parameters. The device is said to have three-dimensional scan feature for measuring body fat and voice detection to evaluate the user’s emotion.

Notes:
The Union Government has proposed to introduce 11 ordinances in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.
These ordinances pertain to various ministries including Health Ministry, Finance Ministry and Agriculture Ministry. The Monsoon Session would commence from 14th September and will continue till 1st October without any break. Several preventive measures have been put in place at the Parliament for the safety of participants.

Notes:
The prestigious International Booker Prize for the year 2020 has been awarded to the Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld for her debut novel “Discomfort of Evening”.
The novel has been translated to English by Michele Hutchison. This prize is announced annually for the best book translated into English and published in UK or Ireland.