Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
Reliance Industries (RIL) and the UK-based oil company BP, to start their new fuel retail and mobility joint venture (JV).
As per the joint statement released by the companies, the newly launched JV company is named as Reliance BP Mobility (RBML). Moreover, the JV will begin to rebrand RIL fuel retail outlets to Jio-BP. The new company also aims to provide electric vehicle charging facilities.

Notes:
Australia has recently suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents.
This decision gains importance as it has been declared amidst the imposition of a tough national security law on Hong Kong by China. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a range of visas of two to five years duration. Offers of permanent residency visas were also announced.

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:
Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous organization under the Department of Science & Technology has prepared a white paper on “Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’: Post COVID 19” and “Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: Status, Issues, Technology Readiness and Challenges”.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan released the white papers prepared by TIFAC, during a virtual event. The paper highlights high priority sectors, technologies and strategies to accelerate growth in the time of COVID-19.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has recently transported Andhra Pradesh dry chillies in special Parcel train to Bangladesh.
The special train has been operated beyond the country borders, for the first time to Benapole town in Bangladesh. Earlier, farmers and merchants in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh were transporting dry chillies by road to Bangladesh, which was an expensive process.

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:
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:
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:
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:
Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik recently inaugurated the 5th edition of the Conference on Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Technologies.
The webinar was jointly organised by Tamil Nadu Technology Development & Promotion Centre (TNTDPC), Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The theme of the conference is Empowering India with ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Mission’.