Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The President of World Bank, David Malpass has recently attended a G20 debt conference. He urged G-20 countries to freeze debt payment of poorest countries in 2021.
The World Bank head opined that this freezing of official bilateral debt payments by the world’s poorest countries will permanently reduce the debt load for the severely indebted countries. He also said that this procedure would be more helpful instead of delaying the debt payment.

Notes:
A commercial communication satellite named ‘APStar-6D’ has been recently launched by China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC).
It is developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and was launched using the variant of the country’s Long March rocket. This new satellite can provide a communication capacity of at least 50Gbps, as per sources.

Notes:
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is a Central Public Sector Undertaking functioning under the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched Asia’s largest solar plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa through video-conferencing. It has been developed by the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited (RUMSL), a joint venture company of Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVN) and SECI.

Notes:
The Union Shipping Ministry has issued a draft ‘Aids to Navigation Bill, 2020’ and sought suggestions from stakeholders and general public.
This draft bill seeks to replace the colonial Lighthouse Act, 1927, which is over nine decades old. The bill seeks to empower the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) with additional power. It also proposes to include global best practices.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has set the target to achieve net zero carbon emission by the year 2030. In order to achieve the target of becoming a Green Railways, it has accelerated the efforts.
Some of its initiatives include Electrification of lines, improving energy efficiency of trains, green certification for stations, fitting bio toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy. Recently, a 1.7 mega watt plant at Bina in Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with BHEL has been installed.

Notes:
The Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani has recently become the world’s sixth-richest person, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mukesh Ambani has recently crossed SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to reach this position. Last week, he had surpassed Warren Buffet. The wealth of Mukesh Ambani is now worth USD 72.4 billion.

Notes:
The Kochi International Container Trans-shipment Terminal is locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located in the Kochin port, Kerala. It is claimed to be the first trans-shipment port of India.
Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has recently reviewed the development activities at the Terminal. A terminal at the port, which handles containers, stores them and transfers them to other ships for further movement, is called as Trans-shipment Hub.

Notes:
The state of Tamil Nadu is set to launch a trial to study the efficacy of the BCG vaccine in reducing mortality due to COVID-19 in the elder people.
The trial, which has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), would be taken up by the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai. The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin) is being administered to new-born for 50 years as a vaccine against tuberculosis.

Notes:
Malini Parthasarathy has been named the new Chairperson of The Hindu Group of Publications. She is to replace the current head, N Ram.
The former editor of the Hindu from 2013 to 2016 was also the Co-Chairperson of The Hindu Group of Publications. She also founded a think tank named ‘The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy’.

Notes:
Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Giriraj Singh launched the implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund, AHIDF.
The 15000 crore rupees worth fund was approved by the Union Cabinet last month under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan stimulus package. Under the fund, Farmer Producer Organizations, MSMEs, Private Companies and individual entrepreneurs with minimum 10% margin are given 90% loans from scheduled banks, for developing infrastructure for animal husbandry.