Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
As per the Public Affairs Index-2020 released by the Public Affairs Centre, Kerala was adjudged the best governed State in the large States category.
States were ranked on governance performance based on a composite index in sustainable development. Kerala is followed by Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Uttar Pradesh is ranked at the bottom of the list.

Notes:
The nation’s central bank Reserve Bank of India has launched the latest round of Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH). The survey would give vital inputs to RBI for framing the monetary policy.
The survey is conducted regularly in 13 cities namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

Notes:
The percentage of Goods and Service Tax (GST) is decided by GST Council, headed by the Union Finance Minister.
Ministry of Finance has recently published that the GST revenue that has been collected for the month of October 2020 has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore, which is a highest collection after 8 months. The GST revenue collection for the month of Oct 2020 stood at Rs.1,05,155 crore.

Notes:
On November 1, several Indian states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka were formed.
The day is recognised as Statehood Day or State Formation Day. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala were formed in 1956. Punjab and Haryana were formed in 1966.

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:
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been signed by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). The MoU sets key targets for IRDAI to be achieved in the year 2020-21.
IREDA is a “Mini Ratna” Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. It is categorized as a Public Financial Institution and NBFC by Reserve Bank of India.

Notes:
Based on the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the Central Government has released a financial aid of Rs.2200 crore to 15 states.
The aid would be used to improve the air quality in these states by undertaking capacity building measures. This is the first instalment of the grant towards air quality improvement.

Notes:
As per the recent statement from the Earth Sciences Ministry, the Economic benefits from the use of weather forecasting services to farmers and fishermen since 2015 amounted to Rs 19,000 crore.
The Ministry cited a study it had commissioned from the research firm National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The Ministry also stated that this can record Rs 5000 crore, when extrapolated to the next five years.

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.

Notes:
China has successfully sent 13 satellites from the single rocket named Long March-6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.
It includes ten satellites from Argentina and this launch is said to be the biggest launch of foreign satellites by the country. This launch was also the 351st by the Long March rocket series. China has also planned to launch 90 earth observation satellites.