Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have jointly released a report titled ‘Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report: Benefits of cooling efficiency and the Kigali Amendment’ report released July 17, 2020.
As per the report, the world will need more than 10 billion new cooling appliances by 2050, that will make the count of such machines to 14 billion. As per the report around 3.6 billion appliances are being used and it is increasing by up to 10 cooling appliances every second.

Notes:
The Ministry of Defence has recently issued formal sanction order for granting Permanent Commission (PC) to Women Officers in the Indian Army.
As per the order, permanent commission has been granted to Service Commissioned (SSC) Women Officers in all ten streams of the Indian Army including Army Air Defence (AAD), Army Service Corps (ASC) among others.

Notes:
Turkmenistan became the 25th country with a status of an observer in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The member-states of the WTO General Council unanimously adopted the resolution on granting the status of an observer in WTO to the Central Asian country. There are 164 WTO member-states at present and 25 countries possess the status of an observer including Turkmenistan.

Notes:
E-Commerce Giant Flipkart has announced that it will acquire parent Walmart’s wholesale business, ‘Best Price’.
The loss-ridden cash-and-carry business of Walmart in India is the last part of Walmart to be acquired by Flipkart marking a complete consolidation. This acquisition is expected to help Flipkart to expand its business-to-business vertical.

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:
Technology giant Microsoft has partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to set virtual fans in the game stands.
Microsoft will use its newly launched Teams app and 17-foot-tall LED screens to put around 300 virtual fans in the stands of each game. Fans can login the Teams app and use the “Together mode”, which simulates a group of people sitting in a room.

Notes:
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company otherwise called as Saudi Aramco is a multinational petroleum and natural gas company. It is the world’s biggest energy firm, with USD 1.75 trillion market capitalization.
Recently, the Reliance Industries surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. to become the world’s second largest energy company. Reliance has the world’s biggest oil refinery complex. Its market value is USD 189 billion, as on July 27, 2020.

Notes:
One of the oldest flying clubs in India, the Bombay Flying Club has become the first drone training school approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
DGCA has approved the application of the club for conducting remote pilot training for remotely piloted aircraft systems. All drones should be registered with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and should receive Drone acknowledgement numbers (DANs).

Notes:
Indian climate activist Archana Soreng has been named by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to his new advisory group.
The new advisory group comprises of young leaders, aged between 18 and 28 years, who will provide solutions and opinions on tackling the problems of climate crisis. Archana Soreng is a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is to join six other young climate leaders from around the world.

Notes:
Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship recently announced that out of the over 2,00,000 people who became Australian citizens in 2019-2020, around 38,000 were Indians.
They are the largest international community to be granted the Australian citizenship. This figure is also 60 per cent increase from the previous year. India is followed by the people of the UK, China and Pakistan.