Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
An employee who earns a monthly salary of up to Rs 15,000 is mandatorily required to join the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) scheme.
Union Cabinet has approved extension of EPF contribution of 24% i.e., employees share of 12% and employers share of 12%, for another 3 months till August 2020. Under the AtmaNirbhar Yojana, the Government had earlier proposed to make the 24% contribution. This will cost Rs 4680 crore to the Government.

Notes:
As per the World Health Organisation’s new release, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have become the first two countries in the South East Asian Region, to eliminate both measles and rubella.
The countries have completely eliminated the diseases ahead of the deadline of 2023. WHO declares a country to have eliminated measles and rubella, when there is no evidence of transmission of the disease for over three years.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Culture has launched a project of reprinting 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM).
The National Mission for Manuscripts was launched in 2003 by the Union Government, under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Recently, the first set of five volumes of Mongolian Kanjur was presented to the President Ram Nath Kovind on the occasion of Guru Purnima. Mongolian Kanjur is the most important religious text in Mongolia.

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has renewed its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The aim of the 3-year agreement is to scale up collaboration on sustainability and energy sector resilience in Asia and the Pacific. The first three-year agreement was signed in March 2017, for knowledge sharing of sustainable energy systems in ADB’s developing member countries.

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 United Nations declared July 12 as ‘Malala Day’ every year, to honour the sixteen-year old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was advocating the promotion of education of girls.
On the same day in 2013, she delivered an inspiring speech at the United Nations (UN) headquarters on the need for gender equality in education. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has recently completed her degree at the Oxford University.

Notes:
The CEO of Google Sundar Pichai has recently announced the launch USD 10 billion ‘India Digitization Fund’.
This was announced at the ‘Google for India’ virtual live-stream event, which focused on accelerating India’s digital economy. Through this initiative, Google will invest about Rs 75000 Crores in India over the next 5 to 7 years. The fund will focus on enabling affordable access and information to every Indian.

Notes:
Former captain of Australian Football team recently announced that he is retiring from all forms of football.
He had earlier announced retirement from international football in the year 2018. The 35-year old footballer led the Australian men’s national team, also called as Socceroos, to the 2015 Asian Cup title.

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:
Neela Satyanarayan, the first woman Chief Election Commissioner of Maharashtra has recently passed away, at the age of 72.
She was a 1972 batch IAS officer and a celebrated author, poet and music composer. She was the additional Chief Secretary of Revenue Department and was made the state Chief Election commissioner after retirement.