Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The World Bank and the Government of India has recently signed a loan agreement to provide support for the Namami Gange programme.
The programme aims to rejuvenate the Ganga river. The USD 400 million fund comprises a loan of USD 381 million and a guarantee of up to USD 19 million. The Second National Ganga River Basin Project aims to reduce population and support river basin management.

Notes:
As per the recently published study by the scientists from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Lithium (Li) is produced in the Universe, by Sun like stars in their later life.
IIA, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, has published the study in Nature Astronomy. Low mass stars like Sun produce Lithium during their Helium core burning phase, as per the scientists. This is the first time that a clear observational evidence has been provided.

Notes:
The state of Andhra Pradesh celebrates Farmer’s Day on the birth anniversary of its former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
The Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced that every year July 8 will be observed as ‘YSR Rythu Dinotsavam’ or Farmers Day. The former Andhra Pradesh CM and the father of Jagan Mohan Reddy, was known for his farmer-friendly schemes.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently approved to establish an Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore.
Under the scheme, loans amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided to Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Group (SHG), agriculture entrepreneurs, start-ups among others, to improve their infrastructure and logistics facilities. This fund is a part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by Union Government

Notes:
As per the official broadcasting service of Pakistan, the country’s mission to the United Nations has confirmed its bid to seek another term in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Pakistan is to contest one of the four seats reserved for the Group of Asia Pacific countries for the 2021- 23 term. Pakistan was also a founding member of the UNHRC when it was founded in the year 2006.

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 Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) has recently partnered with the multinational technology company NVIDIA, to establish India’s first ‘NVIDIA AI Technology Centre’ (NVAITC).
The centre aims to accelerate research on Artificial Intelligence and its commercial adoption. In this technology centre, more than 200 faculty will carry out research in this field. NVIDIA is a partner to the government of Telangana, in its project to establish Hyderabad among the top 25 global AI innovation hubs.

Notes:
The Kuaizhou-11 carrier rocket, that was launched by China, has recently suffered a failure during its maiden flight.
Kuaizhou means ‘fast ship’ in Chinese. It is a low-cost solid-fuelled carrier rocket, that was designed to launch low-Earth orbit satellites. A malfunction occurred during the flight though the exact reason for the failure is not yet known.

Notes:
The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently announced that the iconic architectural place of the country Hagia Sophia would be made a mosque, which gained criticism from across the world.
After the top Turkish court revoked the museum status of the monument, the President made this announcement. The UNESCO World Heritage site in Istanbul was first constructed as a cathedral but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It has been a museum since 1935 and open to people of all faiths.

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.