Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The House of Representatives of the United States has unanimously passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), condemning China’s aggression.
China’s military activities against India in the Galwan Valley, its growing territorial actions around disputed areas like the South China Sea are condemned. The United States also added 11 Chinese companies to economic blacklist over its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Notes:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have jointly released a report titled ‘Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report: Benefits of cooling efficiency and the Kigali Amendment’ report released July 17, 2020.
As per the report, the world will need more than 10 billion new cooling appliances by 2050, that will make the count of such machines to 14 billion. As per the report around 3.6 billion appliances are being used and it is increasing by up to 10 cooling appliances every second.

Notes:
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved acquisition of Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd.
Along with the equity shareholding, the management control of the total share capital of Krishnapatnam Port company will be acquired, as per the statement of CCI. Krishnapatnam Port Company is the developer and operator of the deep-water port at Krishnapatnam.

Notes:
India and the European Union are set to renew the Agreement on Scientific cooperation for the next five years, 2020-2025.
This was announced at the virtual 15th India-EU Summit, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led the EU. The mentioned Agreement was initially signed in 2001 and has been renewed two times in 2007 and 2015.

Notes:
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is to be called as ‘Covishield’ in India, as per the statement of the Serum Institute of India (SII).
SII is the largest vaccine maker in the world and it has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate. Recently, it has sought permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the potential vaccine.

Notes:
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company otherwise called as Saudi Aramco is a multinational petroleum and natural gas company. It is the world’s biggest energy firm, with USD 1.75 trillion market capitalization.
Recently, the Reliance Industries surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. to become the world’s second largest energy company. Reliance has the world’s biggest oil refinery complex. Its market value is USD 189 billion, as on July 27, 2020.

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:
The India-Indonesia Defence Ministers’ Dialogue was held in New Delhi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh led the Indian delegation while Indonesia’s Defence Minister General Prabowo Subianto led their delegation.
Both the countries affirmed to further expand defence and military ties between the countries in areas including technology sharing. The countries had signed a new defence cooperation agreement in 2018 for a comprehensive strategic partnership.

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:
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.