Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The Union Shipping Ministry has issued a draft ‘Aids to Navigation Bill, 2020’ and sought suggestions from stakeholders and general public.
This draft bill seeks to replace the colonial Lighthouse Act, 1927, which is over nine decades old. The bill seeks to empower the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) with additional power. It also proposes to include global best practices.

Notes:
The incumbent Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party has retained its power in the recently held general elections.
The ruling party has been in power in Singapore since 1965. This time it has won 83 of 93 parliamentary seats, which implies 61.2 per cent of the vote. In a surprise move, the opposition Workers’ Party made their best performance by securing a record 10 seats, for the first time.

Notes:
‘India Cycles4Change Challenge’ is a new initiative of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, under its Smart Cities Mission.
The Ministry has recently opened the registration for the Challenge, which was originally launched on June 25, 2020. All cities under the Smart Cities Mission, capital cities of States/UTs and all cities with above 5 lakh population can apply through the newly launched portal and provide quick solutions for promoting cycling.

Notes:
The state of Andhra Pradesh has rolled out an initiative of online registration of crops named e-Crop.
The state’s Revenue and Agriculture Department officials will jointly register crops online. At village level, village revenue officers and the village agriculture assistants will register the names of the farmers, details of their land, bank account and about his crops cultivated.

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.

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 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced Rs 5,000 crore worth grant-based scheme for computerisation of about 35,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) by FY23.
The scheme, apart from providing assistance to state governments for the process also ensures integration of the PACS with the Core Banking System (CBS) of District Central Co-operative Banks.

Notes:
Jack Charlton, who was a part of the 1966 World cup winning English Football team, has recently passed away, at the age of 85.
He played for the Leeds United football club for nearly 21 years before managing the Republic of Ireland. He was also a Manager of British football club Newcastle United F.C.

Notes:
Election Commissioner of India Ashok Lavasa, has been appointed as the Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships at the Asian Development Bank.
Ashok Lavasa is to replace the incumbent Vice President Diwakar Gupta, whose term is ending on August 31. The retired IAS officer was appointed as the Election commissioner in January 2018 and he was the next senior Election Commissioner, to be appointed as the Chief, after the present CEC Sunil Arora.

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.