Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
India has become the second largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the United Kingdom in 2019.
As per the UK government figures recently released, India is up from its third position in 2018 and it is second only to the United States. India has invested in 120 projects and created above 5000 new jobs in the UK. India is followed by Germany, France and China.

Notes:
The incumbent Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party has retained its power in the recently held general elections.
The ruling party has been in power in Singapore since 1965. This time it has won 83 of 93 parliamentary seats, which implies 61.2 per cent of the vote. In a surprise move, the opposition Workers’ Party made their best performance by securing a record 10 seats, for the first time.

Notes:
Central Public Sector Undertaking under Ministry of Power NTPC Ltd has won the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2019, under Outstanding Accomplishment in Corporate Excellence Category.
The enterprise also received Commendation for Significant Achievement in category of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The company runs a CSR program called GEM (Girl Empowerment Mission), which is a residential program for school going girls, who are residing near the company’s power stations.

Notes:
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recently announced that Kunal Bahl has assumed charge as the Chairman of its e-commerce committee for the year 2020-21.
Kunal Bahl is the Co-founder & CEO of popular e-Commerce firm Snapdeal. The agenda of the committee is the upcoming e-commerce policy, consumer protection rules and promotion of exports through e-commerce.

Notes:
The Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, has successfully established stable cultures of coronavirus from patient samples.
The Seventeen in-vitro cultures have been established using Vero cells, from samples of different locations and different virus loads. The cultured SARS-Cov-2 can be used in developing antibodies or antidotes, testing of antibodies and identifying therapeutic agents.

Notes:
India’s leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has recently launched its new video conferencing app named ‘BlueJeans’.
This application is expected to compete its rival applications namely Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams and the recently launched JioMeet. BlueJeans has been launched in partnership with US-based telecom company Verizon.

Notes:
The United Nations has recently released a report titled ‘the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’, prepared jointly by FAO, UNICEF, IFAD and WFP.
As per the report, the number of undernourished people in India has fell down from 249.4 million in 2004-06 to 189.2 million in 2017-19. There was a rise in obesity level in India, as per the report. India and China are the only Asian countries that reported a reduction in number of undernourished people.

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:
The United States President Donald Trump has signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act into law. He also signed an executive order ending US preferential treatment for Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Autonomy Act was passed unanimously by the Congress. It gives provisions to the country, to hold accountable the individuals involved in suppressing Hong Kong’s freedom. After this act, Hong Kong will be treated the same as mainland China by the US.

Notes:
As per the recent report released by the property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, India ranks third in the list of most-suitable locations for global manufacturing, in terms of cost competitiveness and operating conditions.
Among 48 countries, China and the US bagged the top two positions of the Global Manufacturing Risk Index (MRI). Last year, India was in the fourth position in the list, which ranks 48 countries in Europe, America and the Asia-Pacific.