Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
Economist and former Indian Administrative Service officer N K Singh is the Chairperson of the 15th Finance Commission.
Recently, the Finance Commission has decided to form a group to develop a mechanism to incentivise states for carrying out the agricultural reforms, that were announced as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package. The group consists of Finance Commission member Ramesh Chand, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal and Agriculture, Research and Education Secretary T Mahapatra.

Notes:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has recently released the ‘State of World Population 2020’ report.
UNFPA is the sexual and reproductive health agency of the United Nations (UN) located in New York. As per the report, the number of missing women has more than doubled over the past 50 years, from 61 million in 1970 to 142.6 million in 2020. Out of that, India accounts for 45.8 million of missing females of the world.

Notes:
A MoU was recently signed between Indian Oil, NTPC Ltd and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), to develop a demonstration Waste-to-energy Plant at Okhla landfill site in Delhi.
The plant is to be developed using Gasification technology and it shall process 17500 tons per annum of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from combustible components of Municipal Waste. Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R K Singh were present during the virtual event.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force has successfully designed and developed an Airborne Locust Control System on Mi-17 helicopters to tackle the locusts attack.
The machine developed by the Indian Air Force can help in spraying pesticides over 750 hectares of affected land in a single mission. Union Agriculture Minister has also ordered for five aerial spray machines from United Kingdom, to deploy in IAF helicopters for locust control.

Notes:
Indian Oil Corporation and Beximco LPG have signed an agreement to form a Joint venture company for LPG business in Bangladesh.
The Joint venture company (JVC) aims to set up a large LPG terminal at a deep-water port in Bangladesh, to receive LPG and reduce import. It will begin functioning by acquiring existing LPG assets of Beximco.

Notes:
The Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has recently inaugurated an urban forest, in the Union Territory of New Delhi.
The urban forest is created with as many as 12,000 seedlings of 59 indigenous species. It is developed at the Office premises of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. This is expected to form into a full-fledged forest by 2021 and will improve the Air Quality Index of the UT.

Notes:
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the proposal for procurement of 21 MiG-29 and upgradation of existing 59 MiG-29 aircraft from Russia at a cost of Rs 7418 crore.
It has also approved the procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd, at an estimated cost of Rs 10,730 cr. DAC cleared the acquisition of 248 Astra Beyond Visual Range air-to-air missiles for the Indian Air Force and the Navy. Other important equipment required by the Armed Forces were also approved for Rs 38,900 crore.

Notes:
The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has released its report on the Annual Marine Fish Landings in India for 2019.
As per the report, the marine fish production of India recorded a marginal rise of 2.1% in 2019, with 3.56 million tonnes in total landings. It also ranked Tamil Nadu in the first position with 7.75 lakh tonnes. It is followed by Gujarat and Kerala. Gujarat was at the top spot in the recent years.

Notes:
Botswana, the landlocked country in South Africa has the largest elephant population in the world, around an estimate of 1,30,000.
The country was recently in news, more than 300 elephants have died mysteriously in the famous Okavango Delta of Botswana. As per the head of the wildlife department, the reason of deaths was not poaching, as their tusks were not damaged.

Notes:
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has partnered with Technology major Facebook, to launch curriculum on digital safety.
The curriculum also includes practices of online well-being of students and Augmented Reality for students and teachers. This was announced by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The curriculum has been prepared comprehensively to equip the children face the future of work.