Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
Indian Navy has commenced Passage Exercise (PASSEX) along with the United States Navy near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The training exercise involved a total of eight Indian and US warships, including the flagship USS Nimitz, USS Princeton, USS Sterett and USS Ralph Johnson. India was represented by INS Rana, INS Sahyadri, INS Shivalik and INS Kamorta.

Notes:
The Governor of the state of Madhya Pradesh Lalji Tandon has recently passed away at the age of 85.
Lalji Tandon has played an active role in politics for nearly five decades. He had served in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council for two terms, as an MLA in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for three terms, as an MP in the 15th Lok Sabha and Governor of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Notes:
The National Centre for Disease Control and the Delhi government conducted Sero-prevalence study across 11 districts of Delhi.
As per the results of the study, 23.48 per cent of the samples had past infections. It means that almost one in four persons living in Delhi has antibodies against the coronavirus. It also indicated that around 3.85 million people living in Delhi had exposure to the virus.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath has recently launched ‘Navin Rojgar Chhatri Yojana’.
The scheme aims to promote the overall development of the people belonging to scheduled castes in the state. The Chief Minister also provided an assistance of around Rs 17.42 crore to more than 3000 people under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Swarojgar Yojana’.

Notes:
The Supreme Court has endorsed the suggestion of the Uttar Pradesh government in the composition of the commission to probe the encounter involving gangster Vikas Dubey and other events leading to his death.
Former judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice B S Chauhan will head the Commission. Another High Court Judge Shashi Kant Aggarwal and former DGP K.L Gupta will be the members of the commission, which will submit its report in two months.

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:
A space technology start-up named Digiantra Research and Technology (DRT) developed India’s first in-orbit space debris monitoring and tracking system.
The company has also been selected for the ‘Society for Innovation and Development’ incubation program at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. The country’s first air and space surveillance company has received a grant of Rs 25 lakhs for developing space debris monitoring systems.

Notes:
Union Shipping Ministry has announced that it has waived off waterway usage charges for a period of three years.
This decision has been taken to promote inland waterways as a cheaper mode of transport. Water usage charge was previously applicable on use of all national waterways by vessels. This waiver is estimated to increase the inland waterway traffic movement to 110 million metric tonne (MMT) in 2022-23.

Notes:
The government has released guidelines for four schemes to boost domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices.
Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda launched and issued guidelines for the schemes, which aim to reduce imports in pharmaceutical raw materials like drug intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medical devices.

Notes:
Pune based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) has developed a Medical Bed Isolation System named Aashray, to fight COVID-19.
The system has individual envelopes made up of specialized material that stops the virus spread from patient to others. It consists of negative pressure suction near exhale and tools to filter and disinfect aerosol. The portable and reusable system can be used in quarantine facilities.