Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
Saudi Arabia holds the Presidency of G-20 of the year 2020. It has chaired the 3rd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting recently.
Union Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the meeting through Video Conferencing. The global economic outlook during COVID-19 pandemic crisis and G20’s Finance Track priorities for the year 2020 was discussed.

Notes:
The Income Tax Department has launched an e-campaign on voluntary compliance of Income Tax for the convenience of taxpayers from July 20.
The aim of the 11-day campaign is to assist taxpayers especially the Income Tax assessees for FY 2018-19, to validate their financial transaction information online, by using the information available with the I-T Department. This will help tax-payers from redundant notice, scrutiny and penalty.

Notes:
The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) has released the Global Direct Selling –2019 Retail Sales report.
As per the latest edition of the report, India’s direct selling industry has recorded sales of USD 2.47 billion in 2019, reporting a growth of 12.1 per cent. Due to the growth in sales, India has been ranked 15th in the report, from its previous year rank of 19. The list is topped by the US. In terms of the number of direct sellers, India is at 6th rank.

Notes:
India and Maldives have recently signed an agreement for establishment of ‘Emergency Medical Services’ in the capital of Maldives, Male.
India is set to grant assistance of around 20 million US dollars to Maldives for this project. India has been assisting the country in several small and medium projects. This medical service facility will ensure quality emergency care during critical times.

Notes:
South Korea has successfully launched its first military communications satellite named ‘ANASIS-II’, becoming the 10th country in the world to own a military-only communications satellite.
Elon Musk owned private space agency Space X has launched the satellite into space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the US. The satellite was built by Airbus Space and Defense and was carried by Falcon-9 rocket of SpaceX.

Notes:
As per the recent statement from the Indian Railways, they will hand over as many as 10 broad-gauge diesel locomotives to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh had earlier sent a proposal to India in for procurement, as 72% of its present locomotives are at the verge of crossing their economic life. The country will deploy them for both intra-country and inter-country rail transport.

Notes:
Ministry of Rural Development has announced that the average completion time for houses under restructured Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) has come down to 114 days.
Earlier, the number of days for construction under the scheme used to be 314 days. The scheme was launched the scheme in the year 2016, with an objective of Housing for all by the year 2022. It strives to construct as many as 2.95 crore houses with all basic amenities by the year 2022.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar released an updated report on India’s Tiger Survey from 2018.
As per the updated report, India’s tiger population stood at 2967, the same number given by the Government last year. India has 70% of the world’s total tiger population. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526, followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

Notes:
The government has recently notified changes in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms on civil aviation.
As per the amendments, it will permit Non-resident Indian (NRI) nationals to own 100 per cent stake of Air India. The divestment process for the national carrier, Air India was initiated in the month of January and the deadline to bid has been for three times. Recently, the deadline was extended till August 31.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved the change in the name of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The HRD Ministry that is currently headed by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, has been renamed as Ministry of Education. The name change was a key recommendation of the National Education Policy. In 1985, Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi changed the name of the Education Ministry to HRD Ministry.