Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
England’s star cricketer Ben Stokes has displaced West Indies captain Jason Holder to become the world’s top-ranked Test all-rounder.
Ben Stokes also attained his career-best third position among batsmen in the ICC Test Player Rankings. Recently, he delivered an outstanding performance in the Test match with the West Indies at Old Trafford.

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 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:
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:
Kala Narayanasamy, a 59-year-old Indian-origin nurse in Singapore has been conferred with the President’s Award for Nurses.
She has been awarded for serving on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for using infection control practices learnt during SARS outbreak in 2003. The 10,000 SGD -award is given to 5 nurses for their services.

Notes:
The United States has recently ordered China to close its consulate in Houston. This is a sequel of punitive measures against China including the travel bans, strict registration requirements among others.
The State Department said it ordered the consulate to shut down within 72 hours to protect American intellectual property and the private information of Americans. China has its embassy in Washington, its mission to the United Nations in New York, and consulates in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Notes:
India and Pakistan fought the Kargil War between May and July in the year 1999. India launched ‘Operation Vijay’ and cleared the posts in the Kargil sector that was occupied by the Pakistani soldiers on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC).
To commemorate its victory over Pakistan, India has been observing ‘Kargil Vijay Diwas’ on July 26 every year, on the day the war ended. It resulted in 527 deaths in the Indian side. On the Vijay Diwas, India pays tributes to the soldiers who laid down their lives during the war.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has recently launched an innovation contest named Dare to Dream 2.0.
It was announced by the Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh, on the fifth death anniversary of the former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The contest encourages individuals and start-ups to use advanced technologies for innovation in Aerospace and Defence sectors in the country.

Notes:
As per the latest report released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), about 403 infrastructure projects are hit by cost overruns of Rs 4.05 lakh crore.
Due to delays and other reasons, the projects each worth Rs 150 crore or more have been affected by overruns. MoSPI monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. Out of the 1686 projects, while 403 ones reported cost overruns and 530 projects reported time escalation.

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.