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:
Amazon has recently acquired the Self-driving Car start-up firm Zoox, in a deal estimated to be worth over USD 1 billion.
Zoox is an American company, which employs more than 1000 persons and was also developing an electric self-driving vehicle. As per sources, this is Amazon’s biggest investment so far in self-driving car technology. This is also one of its biggest purchases ever. The technology is expected to be deployed in automated delivery projects of Amazon.

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:
The President of India has re-appointed K.K. Venugopal as the Attorney General (AG) of India for one more year. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister approved the extension in term of Tushar Mehta as the Solicitor General (SG) for three years.
Six new Additional Solicitors General (ASGs) were appointed and tenure of five existing Additional Solicitors General (ASGs) was extended. Venugopal took over as the AG in 2017, succeeding Mukul Rohatgi.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana would be extended till the end of November.
The scheme aims to provide free grains to more than 80 crore poor people of the country. The Prime Minister announced that more than Rs 90,000 crore will be spent in this expansion of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

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.

Notes:
Botswana, the landlocked country in South Africa has the largest elephant population in the world, around an estimate of 1,30,000.
The country was recently in news, more than 300 elephants have died mysteriously in the famous Okavango Delta of Botswana. As per the head of the wildlife department, the reason of deaths was not poaching, as their tusks were not damaged.

Notes:
The Government of Maharashtra’s industrial infrastructure development agency, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has recently signed a MoU with UK India Business Council.
The agreement aims to promote sustainable business relations between UK and India. This will help the state to develop its business environment and promote its partnership with the British business.

Notes:
Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that the ministry will launch Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Junior.
The scheme aims to train to train young athletes for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. Under the existing TOPS scheme, senior athletes who have been identified as medal achievers for the Olympics are being trained. This was announced during the ‘Fit Hai To Hit Hai Fit India’ webinar.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Asia’s largest solar plant in the state.
The 750 MW Rewa Ultra-Mega Solar plant would be inaugurated through video conferencing. It is claimed to be the one of the largest single-site solar power plants in Asia. The plant is located in the Rewa district of Vindhya region of the state.