Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
NITI Aayog has estimated that India needs 6.2% additional spending of GDP to achieve 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The country’s think tank said this in its second Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the UN high-level political forum (HLPF) on sustainable development, 2020. India needs to upgrade its statistical system, improve its monitoring mechanism and capacity building of all stakeholders. It also advised that the Budget should be aligned with SDGs.

Notes:
United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) has announced its partnership with trade body FICCI, to develop a campaign to support the most vulnerable populations and children.
FICCI and UNICEF will jointly work on an action plan based on the document prepared by the International Chamber of Commerce and UNICEF. FICCI’s Economic Development Foundation (SEDF) will be deployed to mobilise funds, reach out the vulnerable and provide assistance.

Notes:
The Kochi International Container Trans-shipment Terminal is locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located in the Kochin port, Kerala. It is claimed to be the first trans-shipment port of India.
Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has recently reviewed the development activities at the Terminal. A terminal at the port, which handles containers, stores them and transfers them to other ships for further movement, is called as Trans-shipment Hub.

Notes:
The ‘World Youth Skills Day’ is celebrated across the world on July 15 every year, across the world. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day in the year 2014.
It highlights the importance of training young people with skills for decent employment and entrepreneurship. As per the announcement from the United Nations, several virtual events focussing on the theme of “Skills for a Resilient Youth” will take place, to mark the day. Skill India Mission was launched on the same day, five years ago.

Notes:
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, headquartered at New York.
The High-Level Segment of UN ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) is to be held on July 17 in New York in the theme of “Multilateralism after COVID19: What kind of UN do we need at the 75th anniversary”. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to address the valedictory session.

Notes:
As per the recent study released in the online edition of the Lancet, India’s population is likely to peak by 2047 at about 1.61 billion.
The study also estimated that the population of India would then decline to 1.03 billion by the year 2100. But, if the country’s targets of United Nations Sustainable Goal Development (SDG) were achieved, India’s population would decline to 929 million.

Notes:
Solar Orbiter Mission is the collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and it was launched in the month of February 2020.
NASA has recently released the images from the Orbiter including the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun, to the public. The spacecraft has closely passed the Sun for the first time in the month of June. The orbiter carries six imaging instruments, to capture the layers of Sun.

Notes:
The Lourdes Roman Catholic shrine located in France has recently organised the world’s first ever e-pilgrimage after the coronavirus crisis.
About 80 million from across the world attended the programme. Mass and prayers are broadcasted on television and social media for the e-pilgrimage named ‘Lourdes United’. During summer, pilgrims visit the shrine and light candles in the sanctuary, where Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared.

Notes:
International Centre of Automotive Technology (ICAT) has launcehd the automotive technology e-portal ‘ASPIRE’.
‘ASPIRE’ stands for Automotive Solutions Portal for Industry, Research and Education. ICAT also announced that five portals being developed by different organizations namely, BHEL for power sector equipment, HMT for machine tools, CMFTI for manufacturing technology, ICAT and ARAI for the automotive sector.

Notes:
Global Selling Programme (GSP) is an initiative of E-commerce giant Amazon that was launched in 2015. Under the programme, Indian companies can export to other countries through Amazon websites.
The company has recently announced that Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and brands that are part of its Global Selling Programme (GSP) have crossed USD 2 billion in cumulative exports.