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:
The 36-year-old Indian umpire Nitin Menon recently became the youngest member of the International Cricket Council’s Elite Panel of Umpires.
He replaced England’s Nigel Llong for the upcoming 2020-21 season. Nitin Menon has officiated in three Tests, 24 ODIs and 16 T20Is. He is only the third from India to enter the prestigious group after former captain Srinivas Venkatraghavan and Sundaram Ravi. Michael Gough of England (40), had been the youngest in the current panel.

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:
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:
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:
Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian-American author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee has been named as the ‘2020 Great Immigrants’ honourees by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Another Indian American Professor of Economics at Harvard University Raj Chetty also jointly received the honour. They have been honoured for their contribution towards the efforts in containing the COVID-19 crisis.

Notes:
India’s flagship fitness awareness movement, Fit India is launching a new series of interactive sessions with ace sportspersons of the country.
This series of interactive sessions has been launched with an objective of inspiring young children of the country and to encourage them to actively take part in sports. Badminton star P V Sindhu and Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri will launch the inaugural session, in the presence of HRD Minister and Sports Minister.

Notes:
The Union Territory of Delhi has announced that a plantation drive called ‘Paudhe Lagao, Paryavaran Bachao’ (Plant Saplings, Save Environment).
As per the Environment Ministry, Delhi is to launch a 17-day long plantation drive of 31 lakh saplings, to increase the green cover to 350 sq km by 2021. The aim of the drive is to create awareness about increasing green cover to reduce pollution in the UT. The period of the drive will be observed as “Vrikshaaropan Pakhavaada”.

Notes:
The World Bank has recently announced that it has enhanced its support for India’s flagship program to rejuvenate Ganga river.
World Bank would provide a USD 400 million assistance to the program, which will help reduce pollution and strengthen river basin management. The Second National Ganga River Basin Project (SNGRBP) will support the government’s Namami Gange program. The loan has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of 5 years.