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:
The Asia Cup is a popular cricket tournament organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). It was established in 1983 and includes men’s One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket tournament.
Recently, the Asian Cricket Council announced that the tournament that was scheduled to be held in September this year in Sri Lanka, has been postponed till June 2021.

Notes:
The state of Chhattisgarh has the become the first in the country, to organise an state-wide e-Lok Adalat, through video conferencing.
As per the State Legal Services Authority, more than 3,000 cases will be taken up for virtual hearing in over 200 benches of various districts, including the High Court. This step is expected to clear pending cases by following precautionary measures amidst Covid-19.

Notes:
Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog presented India’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) 2020.
The HLPF is the international platform for review of progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It meets annually in July under the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The India VNR 2020 report was titled “Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local”.

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:
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:
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has recently released a set of guidelines on Digital Education through online medium.
It is named ‘PRAGYATA’, which includes eight steps of digital learning namely Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak(talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate. It aimed at addressing teachers, parents, and students on coping with stress during digital learning and recommended screen time for children.

Notes:
The flagship initiative of NITI Aayog, Atal Innovation Mission, (AIM) has launched a programme named ‘Demo-Days’.
The programme aims to identify start-ups with potential Covid-19 innovations and help them develop their ideas into workable solutions which will be deployed across the country. This was launched in partnership with other state-owned bodies including BIRAC, DBT, DST, Start-up India etc.

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:
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.