Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

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:
Young Indian author Kritika Pandey has won the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for her short story ‘The Great Indian Tee and Snakes’.
The 29-year-old writer is currently studying at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was also declared as one of five Regional Winners for the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her literary work.

Notes:
The state Government of Madhya Pradesh is set to launch a new scheme called ‘Hamara Ghar-Hamara Vidyalaya’.
It means My Home-My school and the scheme aims to teach the school-going children, in a school-like environment. Under the scheme, the children of the state will learn to read and write and perform yoga, as per the State Education Centre.

Notes:
Lepidopterists, those who specialises in studying moths and butterflies, have recently discovered two new species of butterflies namely Striped Hairstreak and Elusive Prince in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Striped Hairstreak was first recorded in Japan and the Elusive Prince was discovered in Vietnam. As per the Society for Education and Environmental Development (SEED), the discovery of two new species have increased the number of butterfly species of the country to 1327.

Notes:
Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan have jointly launched the online competition to identify drugs against coronavirus.
The competition is named “Drug Discovery Hackathon” 2020. Students, researchers and experts from across the country and the world can participate in the event, to submit their discoveries on potential drugs. While HRD Innovation cell and AICTE will identify potential drug, CSIR will conduct synthesis and laboratory testing.

Notes:
Nimu is a small village located in the Union Territory of Ladakh. It is surrounded by the Zanskar range and located on the banks of the Indus river.
The place was seen in news recently, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Nimu, to interact with Indian troops. Nimu is the reserve brigade headquarter of the Indian Army, situated at 11,000 feet near Kargil. The Border Road Organisation (BRO) is constructing a road from Padum in the Zanskar Valley to Nimu.

Notes:
The Cabinet Secretary of India Rajiv Gauba has ordered to revamp the e-SamikSha platform of the Indian Government.
It is a real time, online system for monitoring projects and decisions taken by the Union government and the follow-up actions by ministries. In the revamped platform, additional information related to milestones with target dates, beneficiary states and districts will also be captured.

Notes:
The State Government of Nagaland has banned the sale of dog meat and commercial import and trading of dogs.
Several animal rights activists have been protesting the consumption of dog meat in the state. Earlier, the ‘animal bazaar’ of Dimapur, which sells dog meat was highlighted by several animal activists. Sale of cooked and uncooked dog meat is completely banned.

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:
Former Chief Executive Officer and present Chairperson of Maruti Suzuki R C Bhargava has authored the book titled ‘Getting Competitive: A Practitioner’s Guide for India’.
In his book which is set to release, R C Bhargava explains his experience of more than 60 years as an industry leader. He has also given practical solutions to create a globally competitive country.