Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders have met during the recent annual summit held via video conference.
ASEAN is a regional association with 10 member countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Brunei, Laos. The Chair of ASEAN in 2020 is Vietnam, which hosted the virtual summit, due to travel restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
Veteran American Designer Milton Glaser, who was famous for his “I (HEART) NY” logo, passed away recently at the age of 91.
He was considered as a Pioneer in using brightly coloured, extroverted posters and book covers in American visual culture in the 1960s and ’70s. Glaser had designed more than 400 posters during his long art career. A book titled “The Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration” describes his life.

Notes:
The state government of Madhya Pradesh is set to launch a campaign called ‘Kill Corona’, to control the spread of coronavirus in the state.
The 15-day campaign, which is to be carried out from July 1, involves door-to-door survey and tests for other diseases. During the campaign, 2.5 lakh tests will be carried out and about 20,000 samples would be collected daily.

Notes:
The Government of India has banned 59 Chinese mobile apps, including TikTok, UC Browser among others, by invoking its power under Section 69 A of Information Technology (IT) Act.
As per the statement from the Information Technology Ministry, the applications are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India and public order. The Government has arranged talks with some firms including TikTok, after the ban was imposed.

Notes:
International Day of the Tropics is celebrated every year on 29 June. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day in the year 2016.
The International Day of the Tropics was designated to raise awareness to the specific challenges faced by tropical areas. June 29 was selected because on the same day in 2014, the inaugural State of the Tropics Report was launched by leading tropical research institutions.

Notes:
Wisden has named Ravindra Jadeja as ‘India’s Most Valuable Test Player of the 21st Century’. He is also named as the second most Valuable Test player in the world.
The list is topped by Sri Lanka’s legendary cricketer Muthiah Muralithatan. Wisden used CricViz, a detailed analysis tool in cricket to analyse performance of the players and award an ‘MVP rating’ to each player in world cricket. The 31-year old India’s spin-bowling all-rounder has scored an MVP rating of 97.3.

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 Union Ministry of Food and Public Distribution implements the “PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana” scheme.
The Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has recently released the details of the 2nd Phase of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Under the scheme, 5 kilograms of Wheat or Rice to every family member and 1 kilogram of Chana (Pulse) for each beneficiary family will be provided without price for five more months, till November.

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:
The Union Government has recently launched the Special Liquidity Scheme improve the liquidity of Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs).
The corpus of the scheme is Rs 30000 crore rupees and it was launched through a Special Purpose Vehicle in the form of a trust set up by SBI Capital Markets. The Union Government will provide unconditional and irrevocable guarantee to the special securities issued by the Trust.