Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

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:
The CEO of Google Sundar Pichai has recently announced the launch USD 10 billion ‘India Digitization Fund’.
This was announced at the ‘Google for India’ virtual live-stream event, which focused on accelerating India’s digital economy. Through this initiative, Google will invest about Rs 75000 Crores in India over the next 5 to 7 years. The fund will focus on enabling affordable access and information to every Indian.

Notes:
The flagship initiative of NITI Aayog, Atal Innovation Mission, (AIM) has launched a programme named ‘Demo-Days’.
The programme aims to identify start-ups with potential Covid-19 innovations and help them develop their ideas into workable solutions which will be deployed across the country. This was launched in partnership with other state-owned bodies including BIRAC, DBT, DST, Start-up India etc.

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 state government of Andhra Pradesh has recently constituted a high-level committee constitute new districts with Lok Sabha constituency as base.
As per the decision made during the Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, this high-level committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary. The committee will study the feasibility of forming new districts and reducing expenditure.

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:
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.

Notes:
CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute has developed COVID Protection System (COPS) for Workplace. It is located in Durgapur, West Bengal.
The system comprises of a contactless Solar Intelligent Mask Dispensing Unit and Thermal Scanner (IntelliMAST), Touchless Faucet (TouF) and a 360° Car Flusher. This would provide full protection to Healthcare Workers as well as the frontline Security Guards.

Notes:
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has recently crossed six crore followers on micro-blogging platform Twitter.
The Prime Minister joined Twitter in the year 2009 and his handle is following 2,354 accounts. The Twitter handle of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has 3.7 crore followers. US President Donald Trump has over 8.3 crore followers on Twitter.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the first Arab country to launch a spacecraft to Mars. In its first interplanetary mission, it has sent a car-sized spacecraft named ‘Hope’.
UAE has sent the spacecraft from the space centre of Japan. After traversing the space, it will start orbiting around Mars to examine its weather. China is set to launch its Mars Mission on July 23. NASA is also to launch its Perseverance Mars rover to examine its hospitability.