Current Affairs Quiz - August, 2020

Notes:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently announced that the African continent is completely free of Polio.
A commission headed by Rose Gana Fomban Leke has certified that no wild Polio cases occurred in the African region for the past four years. The threshold for eradication of poliovirus is also four years. Africa had earlier eradicated smallpox disease.

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.

Notes:
‘Char Dham Pariyojana’ is a project of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), that aims to connect major pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand.
Recently, the High-Powered Committee (HPC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India and headed by Ravi Chopra said that the project has caused a long-term damage to the Himalayan ecology. It involved cutting trees, hills and dumping excavated material without proper permits.

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:
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:
A mobile training application for the National Cadet Corps (NCC) has been launched by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The application aims to conduct country wide online training to the NCC cadets. Since the schools and colleges have been closed on account of the COVID 19 pandemic, the app would enable the cadets to be trained through audio visual means.

Notes:
The Industry Ministers of BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) discuss ways and means to enhance cooperation among them in 5G technology and Artificial Intelligence.
The meeting was held virtually. A joint statement was adopted by the participants on cooperation in 5G, AI, Industrial Internet among other areas.

Notes:
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched a new initiative named ‘Beirut’.
The initiative seeks to raise funds to be used in rehabilitating the heritage buildings situated in Beirut. UNESCO will host a meeting for donors by the end of September. Earlier, during a massive explosion that hit Lebanon, several of is buildings were damaged.

Notes:
The apex judicial body, Supreme Court of India has held that state Governments may make legislations for providing reservation to sub-castes within Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories.
The judgment was pronounced by the Constitution bench of Justices – Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose. But the bench has referred the matter to Chief Justice of India to send it for consideration by a larger bench.

Notes:
The think tank of India, NITI Aayog is set to virtually launch the India Component of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)-Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA).
This discussion will have a main focus on the challenges faced by the Indian transport sector and how they are related to the Carbon dioxide reduction ambitions. This will also provide technical support on reducing Green House Gas emission.