Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) had asked all insurance companies to launch a standardised insurance cover for COVID-19 disease.
Under the Corona Kavach Policy, the minimum sum insured will be Rs 50000 and the maximum sum insured will be Rs 5 lakh. Recently, IRDAI has allowed the insurers to offer this policy as a group insurance product. A discount of 5% is provided to the group of doctors or healthcare workers.

Notes:
National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) has recently added the ‘UPI Autopay’ feature in its Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
This solution has been launched during the virtual event of Global Fintech Fest. The e-mandate can be used in recurring payments and for multiple payment scenarios including booking train tickets, paying DTH subscriptions among others.

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:
China has launched its most ambitious Mars mission, in an attempt to land the spacecraft on Mars. So far, only the United States has successfully landed a spacecraft on the soil of Mars.
Tianwen-1 was launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket from Hainan Island. It contains both an orbiter and a rover and will take about seven months to reach the red planet. It will investigate on underground water and evidences of any ancient life. Tianwen means ‘quest for heavenly truth’.

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 United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has launched a strategy to encourage the citizens to be physically fit.
A new evidence showed that obese people who are being infected by coronavirus are more likely to die or develop severe illness. Under the drive, Doctors prescribe cycling or running to patients. There will be ban on junk food advertisements and calorie warnings will be provided on food items.

Notes:
The Sree Sree JoyKali Matar temple, one of the oldest temples in Bangladesh, has been reconstructed with the Indian assistance of Taka 97 lakh.
The High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das has inaugurated the reconstructed temple at Natore. The MoU for the process was signed in the year 2016. The Indian assistance was given under its High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP). Several other community projects are also being carried out under this fund.

Notes:
At the 2016 high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly, India pledged to fast track efforts towards ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat in the next five years, and to end the epidemic by 2030.
Recently, a study published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that India may miss the national target to end AIDS by 2030. The decline in annual new HIV infections is only 27% from 2020 to 2017 against the national target of 75% by 2020.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar released an updated report on India’s Tiger Survey from 2018.
As per the updated report, India’s tiger population stood at 2967, the same number given by the Government last year. India has 70% of the world’s total tiger population. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526, followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

Notes:
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has recently announced the National Awards for excellence in Earth System Science.
The Life Time Excellence Award is being awarded to Professor Ashok Sahni for his contribution in the field of Geology and Biostratigraphy. The National Award for Ocean Science and technology is being awarded to Dr. V. V. S. S. Sarma and Dr. M. Ravichandran.