Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

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:
National Broadcasting Day is celebrated in India on July 23 every year. On the same day in the year 1927, the first ever radio broadcast in the country was carried out from the Bombay Station.
The first broadcast was done by a private organisation called the Indian Broadcasting Company. At present, Prasar Bharati is the National public service broadcasting agency. It comprises of Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio.

Notes:
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has virtually inaugurated a world-class Honey Testing Laboratory.
The state of Art laboratory has been established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) with support of National Bee Board (NBB), in Anand, Gujarat. Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare has approved the National Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) for a period of 2 years.

Notes:
Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a new low-cost, portable device that can test for Covid-19 and give results in an hour.
The new technology has accuracy similar to the RT-PCR test, which is now considered the standard for testing. The device uses a disposable paper strip for analysing the sample and the results are made available in a mobile application.

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:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has recently attended the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
A roundtable discussion was conducted on the theme ‘AIIB 2030-Supporting Asia’s Development over the Next Decade’. The bank had earlier provided a financial assistance of about USD 10 billion to combat Covid-19.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth will jointly inaugurate the new Supreme Court building of Maldives.
The new building located in Port Louis has been built with the financial assistance of India. It is one among the five projects implemented under a USD 353-million special economic package provided by India in 2016.

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.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved the National Education Policy 2020. It has introduced several major reforms in higher education.
As per the policy, a target of 50 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2035 has been fixed. It also provides academic, administrative and financial autonomy for institutions and proposes a single regulator for all higher education.