Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has handed over its indigenously-developed drone named Bharat to the Indian Army.
The drones will be deployed for carrying out accurate surveillance in high altitude areas and mountainous terrain in Eastern Ladakh. The drone developed by a Chandigarh-based DRDO laboratory, is claimed to be the World’s most agile and lightest Surveillance drone.

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:
India is in the process of developing a rapid testing kit for Covid-19, in collaboration with Israel. The proposed kit is expected to give results in less than 30 seconds.
A team from Israel’s Research and Development (R&D) Team of Defence Ministry will arrive in India to develop the rapid testing kit. The team has been working with India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Principal scientific adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan.

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:
The Reserve Bank of India has signed necessary documents for extending USD 400 million currency swap facility to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka had earlier requested for a currency swap facility under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework. This swap arrangement will remain available till November 2022 and is expected to assist Sri Lank to address the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
The Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar announced that the Union Government is to collaborate with the World Bank, to convert the Gwalior-Chambal belt of Madhya Pradesh into arable land.
This has been decided in the virtual meeting with the World Bank representative. As per the statement, more than 3 lakh hectares of rugged land that remains not cultivable can be improved. As a result, the region’s agricultural development, environmental protection and employment opportunities can be improved.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations releases the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)’ report.
FAO has been publishing this assessment once in every 5 years since 1990. It evaluates the state of forests and their management in all member countries. As per the recent report, India has ranked third among the countries that gained in forest areas in the last decade (2010-2020). China and Australia held the first two ranks.

Notes:
The birth anniversary of 11th President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, October 15 has been recognised by the United Nations to be celebrated as World Students’ Day.
Recently, the country remembered the Missile Man of India on his fifth death anniversary, on July 27. While addressing students at Indian Institute of Management Shillong, the former President died of cardiac arrest.

Notes:
E-commerce major Flipkart has launched a hyper-local delivery service called Flipkart Quick that aims to deliver products in 90 minutes.
The company also expands its services to sell perishable goods, including fruits, vegetables, and milk among others. Flipkart is to begin the services in Bengaluru initially and will expand them throughout the country. Earlier, it had launched Flipkart Wholesale ecosystem.

Notes:
England fast-bowler Stuart Broad has recently become the seventh bowler in cricket history to clinch 500 wickets in Test matches.
The 34-year-old player has achieved this feat during the third and final Test against West Indies at the Old Trafford. He is the second English player to achieve this after James Anderson. Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket with 800 wickets.