Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) has announced its partnership with trade body FICCI, to develop a campaign to support the most vulnerable populations and children.
FICCI and UNICEF will jointly work on an action plan based on the document prepared by the International Chamber of Commerce and UNICEF. FICCI’s Economic Development Foundation (SEDF) will be deployed to mobilise funds, reach out the vulnerable and provide assistance.

Notes:
Election Commissioner of India Ashok Lavasa, has been appointed as the Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships at the Asian Development Bank.
Ashok Lavasa is to replace the incumbent Vice President Diwakar Gupta, whose term is ending on August 31. The retired IAS officer was appointed as the Election commissioner in January 2018 and he was the next senior Election Commissioner, to be appointed as the Chief, after the present CEC Sunil Arora.

Notes:
The Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched a low-cost Covid-19 test developed by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT) Delhi.
The test kit named ‘Corosure’, has been claimed as the world’s most affordable probe free RT-PCR based Covid-19 diagnostic kit. It uses an alternative method of testing samples and costs approximately Rs 650 per kit.

Notes:
The CMD of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani announced at the annual general meeting, that Jio platforms and Google will jointly develop a new Android-based smartphone system.
An entry level affordable smart phone by optimising the Android operating system would be jointly developed by the two giants. Google also announced that it will invest Rs 33,737 crores in Jio for developing 5G technology.

Notes:
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report titled the ‘World Wildlife Crime Report 2020’.
As per the report, Pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal and the number of times the mammal’s scales were seized increased nearly ten times between 2014 and 2018. The report also highlighted that zoonotic diseases account for 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases.

Notes:
As per the recent data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India posted a trade surplus of USD 790 million in June 2020.
This surplus has been recorded for the first time after over 18 years. Due to the Covid-19 induced decrease in domestic demand for crude oil, gold and other industrial products, the country’s import was deeply reduced. This led to a trade surplus with imports of USD 21.11 billion and exports of USD 21.91 billion.

Notes:
India has signed a new agreement with Israel to collaborate in the field of cyber security and to tackle the challenges in the field amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
The MoU has been signed between the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Israel’s National Cyber Directorate (INCD). Under the MoU, technological assistance and mutual services in cyber security will be exchanged.

Notes:
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras-incubated start-up named Modulus Housing has developed a portable hospital unit.
The foldable unit called ‘MediCAB’ can be installed by four people anywhere within two hours. ‘MediCAB’ was launched recently in Wayanad District, Kerala to treat Covid-19 patients. The start-up was founded by two IIT alumni in 2008 and it is in the process of developing micro hospitals.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy renamed the flagship Aarogyasri scheme into YSR AarogyaSri scheme in 2019.
Recently, the services of the healthcare scheme have been extended to another six districts of the state, to provide affordable health services to all. The new services include cancer and dicoclera implant and other such procedures. In April, the scheme has been extended to Covid-19 treatment.

Notes:
Union Defence Ministry of India has signed a Rs 557-crore contract with Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), for procurement of 1,512 mine ploughs for the Indian army’s main battle tank T-90.
As per the contract, a minimum of 50 per cent indigenous content is mentioned in the contract. The army has recently deployed the Russian-made T-90 main battle tanks in the Galwan Valley sector of Ladakh.