Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
India and Russia are set to sign a Defence logistics sharing pact by the end of this year. Under the pact, both the countries can have seamless access to each other’s military bases and support facilities.
An annual summit is expected to be held for signing this agreement. As Russia continues to be a leading arms supplier to India, this agreement will enhance more interoperability and support to military platforms like warships and aircraft.

Notes:
For the first time, Russia has conducted a successful flight test of the MGTD-20 gas turbine engine, which is a 3D-printed aircraft engine.
As per the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry, the production of the engines is scheduled for the year 2021-2022. The bench tests of small-sized gas turbine aircraft 3-D printing technology engines were reported in 2019.

Notes:
Pune-based Serum Institute of India announced that the company will start trials of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca.
The trials are to be carried out by the end of August on about 5,000 Indian volunteers after getting the necessary permissions. The company also hoped that the vaccine will be hopefully launched by June next year. To manufacture 300 million doses, the company is to spend USD 200 million.

Notes:
India’s third-largest public sector bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB) has recently launched ‘Insta Click Savings Account’.
This is a completely paperless, digital and self-assisted online savings account. The process uses a new form of digital KYC and Aadhaar-based OTP authentication of the customer. A customer can access the bank’s website to open the account, which gets activated in real-time. Baroda M Connect Plus is to be used for further transactions.

Notes:
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has extended the suspension of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) by another six months.
The reason for the current extension is due to non-conformation to international standards. The WADA had initially suspended NDTL in August 2019 for six months. After being suspended, the lab cannot carry out any anti-doping activities, including all analyses of urine and blood samples.

Notes:
The United States has listed India’s leading tele-com company Reliance Jio among the companies that are becoming “Clean Telcos”.
This is an initiative of a coalition of countries and companies to secure their critical telecommunication technologies by relying on trusted vendors. Orange in France, Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan, and O2 in the United Kingdom have been added in the list recently.

Notes:
The Defence Institute of High-Altitude Research (DIHAR) is a life science laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) working on cold arid agro-animal technologies.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has established a COVID-19 testing facility at the DIHAR in Leh. The testing facility is capable of screening 50 samples per day and it enhances the capacity of testing in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Notes:
The Union Government has issued a certificate of Geographical Indication (GI) registration for Saffron grown in the Union Territory of Jammu &Kashmir.
The GI tag would ensure better remunerative price to the farmers growing Saffron in Kashmir Valley. This would also increase export of the unique Kashmir saffron and curb the fake products being sold. The UT is also inaugurating a Spice Park next month.

Notes:
The Indian government has recently sent USD 1 million worth of anti-tuberculosis medicine to North Korea after requested by the World Health Organization (WHO).
As per the press release issued by the Ministry of External affairs, the medical assistance is under the ongoing WHO anti-tuberculosis programme in North Korea.

Notes:
Olivia de Havillan, who was considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, has passed away at the age of 104.
She became popular in the movie “Gone with the Wind” in 1939. During her long acting career, she had won several prestigious awards including two Oscar awards in 1946 and 1949. She featured in as many as 49 movies from 1935 to 2009.