Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has launched an application named “Harit Path”.
It has been developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to monitor the location, maintenance activities, and performance of all its plantation projects. Using the application, the data of the plants along with their photos will be uploaded to oversee their status.

Notes:
With more than 15 crore users and more than 6.6 million Bluetooth traced contacts, the official contact tracing application of India, Aarogya Setu is the most downloaded contact tracing app in the world, as on date.
The application team has recently introduced ‘Open API Service’, which is used to obtain answers for real-time queries about the health status of their employees or any other Aarogya Setu User who has consented to share their health status.

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.

Notes:
Ace England Bowler James Anderson has become the first fast bowler to reach 600 wickets in Test matches.
Before his feat, only three spin bowlers had made this achievement, including Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and Anil Kumble (619). Anderson achieved this feat during the third Test against Pakistan at the Rose Bowl.

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:
Indian Railways organised a discussion with key stake holders under the chairmanship of Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal.
Indian Railways has developed a plan for installing solar plants of 20 GW capacity along its vacant land by 2030. It is also expected to meet all energy consumption needs of over 33 billion units by 2030. This will also contribute towards National Solar Mission while becoming a net zero carbon emitting Railway by 2030.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman chaired the 41st GST Council meet, which discussed about the options that can be given to states to meet shortfall of GST compensation.
Earlier in the month of May, the Centre amended the FRBM act to raise the borrowing limit of States from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of GSDP for FY21. After the meeting, the Finance Minister said, a further relaxation of 0.5 per cent in the limit will be given. This year, there is a GST compensation gap of 2.35 lakh crore rupees.

Notes:
The Fisheries Department of the state of Kerala has acquired the first marine ambulance named “Pratheeksha”.
The marine ambulance is constructed by Cochin Shipyard Ltd. The vessel can move at a speed of 14 knots per hour and will be used to rescue fishermen in distress. The vessel has inbuilt facility to provide medical support to as many as ten people at a time.

Notes:
After the supersession of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the board of governors (BoG) announced that Pandemic management will be included in the MBBS course.
The premier medical education regulator said that the Medical students will learn this module along with its social, legal and other portions. This module will extend from foundation course to the final year undergraduate programme. This will help the doctors to meet the challenges posed by pandemics like Covid-19.

Notes:
The World Bank releases the ‘Ease of doing business’ report, to rank 190 countries on the basis of their measures to promote trade.
Recently, the World Bank announced that it has paused the publication of the report amidst concerns of Data manipulation. A Wall Street Journal report said that data of four countries including and the UAE is said to have been allegedly altered.