Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
A team of engineers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) had developed an intensive care unit (ICU) grade ventilator under the name of ‘Project Praana’.
Recently, the team has successfully completed the prototyping of the ventilator, which is now in the process of being commercialised. The affordable ventilator uses only components made in India or components which are easily available in the domestic markets. The team developed the ventilator in a record 35 days.

Notes:
According to the guidelines issued by the insurance regulator, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has directed the general and health insurance companies to offer one short-term Covid-19 policy.
Named as the “Corona Kavach Policy”, the standard health policy would have a tenure period of 3.5 months to 6.5 months, and 9.5 months. As per the guidelines, the mode of payment would be a single premium. Another policy called Corona Rakshak, a standard benefit policy is also to be launched.

Notes:
The World Bank has recently approved of project called ‘Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)’ for India.
The project aims to improve the quality and governance of school education in six States of India namely Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan, through the Samagra Shiksha. World Bank would provide an assistance of USD 500 million (about Rs 3,700 crore).

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 United Nations has raised USD 7.7 billion in humanitarian aid for the people affected by war in Syria.
The UN had organised a virtual donor conference with governments and non-official agencies. Among many countries that donated, Germany provided the single biggest country donation of 1.58 billion euros (USD 1.78 billion).

Notes:
Edelweiss Asset Management Company manages the Bharat Bond Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). It has formally launched the second series of the ETF.
During December 2019, it had launched the first series. With this tranche, the fund house seeks to raise up to Rs 14,000 crore from retail and institutional investors. Bharat Bond ETFs invest in AAA-rated papers of public sector companies (CPSEs and PSEs).

Notes:
Veteran Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan recently passed away at the age of 72. She was fondly called as ‘Masterji’ in Bollywood.
During her long career spanning over forty years, she had choreographed more than 2000 songs in many languages. She had also won three National Awards for Best Choreography for Devdas, Jab We Met and the Tamil film Shringaram.

Notes:
The Vice President of India is set to launch the first social media super-application of the country named ‘Elyments’. More than 1000 IT professionals have created the application.
The application, that will be available in more than 8 Indian languages, aims to combine the features of popular social media applications and present it on a single unified app. It also has features such as free audio and video calls and chats.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of the state of Karnataka has launched ‘Weavers Sammaan Yojana’, to provide annual financial assistance of two thousand rupees to handloom weavers.
Around 20000 weavers of the state are to be provided financial aid through Direct Benefit Transfer. For implementing the scheme, the state has allocated Rs 10.96 crore rupees. The state has also proposed to give a one-time financial assistance to workers employed in power looms.

Notes:
The state government of Odisha is set to launch a new financial assistance scheme called ‘Balaram Yojana’.
It is a sequel to the ‘KALIA’ scheme, which was launched with an aim to provide assistance to small and marginal farmers. Under the new scheme, the state will provide crop loans to 7 lakh landless sharecroppers in the state, through joint liability groups (JLGs) in the next two years.