Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The comet C/2020 F3 comet also called as NEOWISE was discovered on March 27, this year. It was seen in news recently, as the comet would be visible in the sky.
In India, the NEOWISE comet will be visible in the northwest sky which is 20 degrees from the horizon. It is expected to be visible after sunset for around 20 minutes for 20 days from July 14, 2020 and it will fade away in the month of August.

Notes:
India’s oldest apex industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has projected India’s annual median GDP growth for 2020-21 at -4.5%.
This has been projected in the association’s Economic Outlook Survey in the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave. It had previously predicted India’s growth rate to be 5.5 per cent in the January 2020 survey. In the conclave, RBI Governor said that Indian economy has started showing signs of getting back to normalcy.

Notes:
The historic Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple located at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, has been in dispute over its management. It is considered as one of the richest temples in the country.
The Supreme Court of India has recently upholded the rights of Travancore royal family in the administration of the temple. This dispute has been pending in the Supreme Court for the past nine years after charges of financial irregularities. The Travancore Royal house had ruled southern Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced Rs 5,000 crore worth grant-based scheme for computerisation of about 35,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) by FY23.
The scheme, apart from providing assistance to state governments for the process also ensures integration of the PACS with the Core Banking System (CBS) of District Central Co-operative Banks.

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:
One of the country’s digital payment applications, Fampay has recently launched the country’s first numberless card, targeted at teenagers.
Using these numberless debit cards, minors can make online and offline payments without opening a bank account. The card has no numbers on it and all the details are saved on the FamPay application.

Notes:
NITI Aayog has recommended that the Government of India should use 25 per cent use of recycled products in large infrastructure projects to promote secondary products across India.
The chief executive officer of Niti Aayog, Amitabh Kant announced that the recycled products including metals, plastics and paper will promote secondary products that are now hardly found in our country. India levies 2.5 per cent customs duty on the scrap while importing.

Notes:
The Health Minister of Kerala KK Shailaja has recently announced that the rate of community transmission in Covid-19 clusters in the state is more than 50%.
In the 84 clusters in the state, local transmission is more than 50%. However, the rate of transmission is less than 10% outside the clusters. The Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also confirmed that community transmission was detected in two coastal villages of Thiruvananthapuram.

Notes:
International Centre of Automotive Technology (ICAT) has launcehd the automotive technology e-portal ‘ASPIRE’.
‘ASPIRE’ stands for Automotive Solutions Portal for Industry, Research and Education. ICAT also announced that five portals being developed by different organizations namely, BHEL for power sector equipment, HMT for machine tools, CMFTI for manufacturing technology, ICAT and ARAI for the automotive sector.