Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The incumbent President of Poland, Andrzej Duda has been re-elected to a second term, in a narrow count.
Andrzej Duda was backed by the ruling party, the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. He won with 51.21% of the votes, as per the country’s election committee. Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, of the center-right opposition Civic Platform party (PO) secured 48.79%.

Notes:
Global leader in payments technology Visa has partnered with Federal Bank to deploy Visa Secure to the bank’s cardholders.
Visa Secure is an authentication program that uses the latest standards of the EMV protocol. This upgraded technology will provide security to curb online frauds and quick check-out experience to the card-holders.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has set the target to achieve net zero carbon emission by the year 2030. In order to achieve the target of becoming a Green Railways, it has accelerated the efforts.
Some of its initiatives include Electrification of lines, improving energy efficiency of trains, green certification for stations, fitting bio toilets in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy. Recently, a 1.7 mega watt plant at Bina in Madhya Pradesh in collaboration with BHEL has been installed.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh has topped in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors Atma Nirbhar Nidhi-PM SvaNidhi scheme.
The scheme was launched to provide a free working capital of 10,000 rupees for one year to street vendors. The state also provides assistance for vendors of rural areas in the state, along with those in urban areas. Over 15000 cases have been approved in the state and loans worth above 15 crore have been approved.

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 Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched a low-cost Covid-19 test developed by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT) Delhi.
The test kit named ‘Corosure’, has been claimed as the world’s most affordable probe free RT-PCR based Covid-19 diagnostic kit. It uses an alternative method of testing samples and costs approximately Rs 650 per kit.

Notes:
The 15th summit between the India and the European Union was held recently through a virtual mode. India was represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The EU was represented by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Charles Michel, President of the European Council. The leaders adopted the “India-EU Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025”, a strategic guide for mutual cooperation, over the next five years.

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.

Notes:
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has recently celebrated its 92nd Foundation Day on July 16.
It was established on the same day in the year 1929 and was formerly known as Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. ICAR also announced the annual awards to various institutions and persons.

Notes:
India has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States, to store strategic reserves of Petroleum in the US.
The countries are also planning to store oil in America’s strategic reserve to increase India’s oil reserves. Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan co-chaired a virtual US-India Strategic Energy Partnership Ministerial with his American counterpart Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.