Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, ‘Norilsk Nickel’ mining company is located in Russia. It is headed by the famous Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin.
The company was seen in news, as Russia has directed it to pay USD 2 billion, for damages caused over the huge fuel spill in the Arctic Ocean. Earlier, Russia had declared national emergency after 21,000 tonnes of diesel fuel leaked.

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:
An online tool named ‘Clean air counter’ has been launched by major environmental groups, which calculates the economic impact of air pollution, by measuring smog in 28 major global cities.
As per the tool, New Delhi has suffered a maximum loss of 25,000 lives due to air pollution, measured on a per capita basis. It has also lost 5.8% of its total GDP, from January to June 2020. While Shanghai lost 27000 lives, Beijing lost 22000 lives.

Notes:
The President of Hockey India Mohammed Mushtaque Ahmad has recently resigned from his post, citing personal commitments.
There had been controversies after the election of Ahmad as the President of HI in the year 2018. The Executive board of Hockey India has named Manipur’s Gyanendro Nigombam as the officiating president, in his place. Prior to this, Nigombam was the Senior Vice-President in the federation.

Notes:
TDS is deductible at the rate of 2 % if cash withdrawal of above 1 crore made by a person who is an income-tax payee. While, TDS is deductible at the rate 2 % if cash withdrawal exceeds 20 lakh rupees and at the rate of 5 % if it exceeds one crore rupees, if made by a non-income-tax filer.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched a new tool, through which Banks and Post offices can determine the TDS rates on cash withdrawals, by entering their PAN number.

Notes:
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) became the first Indian company to hit a market capitalisation of Rs 12 lakh crore.
In less than a month, the company has added over a market capitalisation of Rs 1 lakh crore, to stand at Rs 12.24 lakh crore. Since April, the company witnessed investments from 12 global investors. Recently, the wireless technology leader Qualcomm invested Rs 730 crores in Jio platforms.

Notes:
Union Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Giriraj Singh launched the implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund, AHIDF.
The 15000 crore rupees worth fund was approved by the Union Cabinet last month under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan stimulus package. Under the fund, Farmer Producer Organizations, MSMEs, Private Companies and individual entrepreneurs with minimum 10% margin are given 90% loans from scheduled banks, for developing infrastructure for animal husbandry.

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:
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 HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank virtually launched the first online National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) programme for key resources persons of Andhra Pradesh.
After the scheme was launched in 2019, 33 states and UTs launched the programme in collaboration under Samagra Shiksha. The NCERT provides NISHTHA training programme at the state level.