Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The electoral commission of the East African country Malawi has declared opposition alliance leader. Lazarus Chakwera, as the winner of the country’s presidential re-election.
The result of the previous May 2019 election has been declared invalid by the constitutional court, over allegations of irregularities. Lazarus Chakwera secured the required majority defeating the incumbent President Peter Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014.

Notes:
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is the parent organisation of Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.
According to the latest study by the Global Forum, India has been among the top-three jurisdictions to which Switzerland provided information about bank accounts and beneficiary ownership of entities, on request. The other two countries were France and Germany. The report recorded the requests during the period from July 2015 to June 2018.

Notes:
The state government of Maharashtra has launched the world’s largest convalescent plasma therapy project named PLATINA, for treating COVID-19.
The trial-cum-project is expected to save at least 500 lives of critically-ill Covid-19 patients in the state. The trial will be carried out in government medical colleges and BMC medical colleges. All critical patients will receive two doses of 200 ml of convalescent plasma under the project, free of cost.

Notes:
National Statistics Day is observed on June 29 every year in India. This year it was celebrated through virtual conference with the theme of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) and SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).
The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation instituted a new award ‘Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics’, which was conferred upon Former RBI Governor C Rangarajan. ‘Prof. P.V. Sukhatme National Award in Statistics 2020’ was given to Dr Arvind Pandey and Dr. Akhilesh Chandra Kulshreshtha.

Notes:
Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has unveiled National Anti-Doping Agency’s first mobile application to provide information about prohibited substances and their use.
This application is expected to provide easily accessible information of NADA, so that the athletes and their coaches would remain cautious about the prohibited drugs and medicines. The app also provides means for easy process of conducting a dope test.

Notes:
International Zinc Association (IZA) has launched Asia’s first-ever Continuous Galvanized Rebar (CGR) manufacturing facility in Punjab.
The project would be supported by Hindustan Zinc Limited. It has been launched in collaboration with a private manufacturing company Madhav KRG Group. The new product called Continuously Galvanized Rebars (CGR) are value added rebars for better life and lower maintenance. Rebar is the short form of Reinforced Bar.

Notes:
Charted Accountants (CA) Day is celebrated on July 1 every year to commemorate the finding of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) was established by the parliament of India in 1949 under an Act. It is the national professional accounting body and the second biggest accounting organization in the world.

Notes:
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is set to replace the 25-year-old NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).
The renegotiated deal comes into effect from July 1. USMCA is a trilateral agreement between three countries namely the United States, Mexico and Canada. The deal was originally signed in 2018 and since then the countries have been working to implement the new deal. It seeks to support the technology sector and include USD 600 million to address environmental problems.

Notes:
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has deployed 120 Mobile Medical Vans named ‘Dhanvantri Rath’ across the city.
It is a mobile van that provides non-COVID essential healthcare services to every household of the corporation. Every van has an AYUSH Doctor, a paramedic and nursing staff and a local Medical Officer from the Corporation’s Urban Health Centre. It conducts regular out-patient consultations.

Notes:
Israel has launched a new surveillance satellite named ‘Ofek 16’, that will provide high-quality surveillance for its military activities
The satellite was launched into space by its indigenously developed Shavit rocket, which was used to launch the previous versions of Ofek satellites. It is an advanced electro-optical surveillance satellite developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.