Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu government has recently passed an order to provide 7.5% reservation in medical colleges to students from government schools who have cleared NEET.
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has recently given his assent to the Bill. As per the bill, those who studied from the 6th standard to higher secondary schools in schools managed by the state government will be benefitted.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has launched an initiative named “Meri Saheli” which will focus on security of women. Its main objectives are to provide safety and security to lady passengers travelling by trains.
Under this initiative, a team of lady officer and staff will visit all of the passenger coaches including ladies’ coaches to identify women passengers. The details of the journey will be noted down by the team, especially if a lady is travelling alone.

Notes:
Indian boxer Sanjeet won gold in the Alexis Vastine international boxing tournament in Nantes in 91 kg category. World silver-medallist Amit Panghal also won gold in 52 kg category.
Ashish Kumar also won gold in the 75kg category opponent pulled out due to injury. Kavinder Singh Bisht won silver while India earned three bronze medals.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has notified draft rules for the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. This is expected to enhance the flexibility to employers to retrench workers.
It also mandates that Labour Unions should give a prior notice before a strike. The Government has aimed to implement the labour codes from April 1, 2021.

Notes:
British Racing Driver Lewis Hamilton has recently won the Formula One Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Tournament.
Mercedes officially clinched the 2020 constructors’ championship. Another Racing Driver Max Verstappen came second while Valtteri Bottas came at the third spot. Hamilton won his third straight race.

Notes:
The Business Expectation Survey is conducted by National Council for Applied Economic Research (NACER). As per the report of the survey, the Business Confidence Index (BCI) in India rose to 65.5 in the second quarter of FY 20 after recording a sharp drop to 46.4 in the first quarter.
NCAER is a non-profit think tank of economics based at New Delhi. Nandan Nilekani is president of the governing body and Dr Shekhar Shah is current director general of NCAER.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Science and Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Posts Sanjay Dhotre have released a Special Cover of Department of Posts.
The special postal cover was released in New Delhi, in order to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Department of Science and Technology.

Notes:
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra has recently handed over a cheque of NPR 1 billion (around Rs 62 crore) to the Nepal government as reimbursement of Nepal Housing Reconstruction Project.
India has partnered with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), to provide funds to its neighbouring country.

Notes:
Saudi Arabia has recently announced a new plan to ease foreign workers’ contractual restrictions in the country. This would pave way to improvement of a sponsorship system known as Kafala, which is highly controversial.
The new plan is expected to take effect from March 2021 and would make Saudi Arabia more labour attractive.

Notes:
WhatsApp has received the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) approval to enter Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in phased manner.
The Social-media giant, owned by Facebook has over 400 million users in India. The UPI payments service is expected to be launched to 2 crore WhatsApp users initially. NPCI stated that a 30% cap will be implemented on total payment volumes via every third-party payment app.