Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
India has recently signed reached landmark agreements on financial services, infrastructure and sustainable finance.
These were signed at the 10th Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) between the UK and India. It was jointly chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak. This is expected to boost jobs and investments in both countries.

Notes:
Alphabet Inc’s Google has recently announced that it is set to launch a virtual private networks (VPN) service for its consumers.
The VPN service would be available for its Google One cloud storage services. VPN is used by individuals in countries where access to certain sites and services have been banned by governments.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal has launched a mobile application named ‘Green Delhi’. Using the application, the residents of Delhi can bring pollution causing activities to the government’s notice.
The application has been designed to identify the location of pollution source and the complaint will be automatically forwarded to the concerned department for time bound action.

Notes:
The Government of India has decided to extend the Income tax exemption available under leave travel concession (LTC) cash voucher scheme to non-central government employees also. This is aimed to boost the consumer spending.
Non-central government employees will include employees of state governments, public sector enterprises, banks and private sector.

Notes:
The Adani Group, has recently taken charge of the Mangaluru International Airport. It had earlier won the concession to operate, manage and develop the airport.
The concession agreements for the operations, management and development of the three airports – Mangaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow through PPP mode were signed earlier this year, by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Notes:
Sean Connery, the Scottish movie legend, who was the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen, has recently passed away.
His films include Dr. No in 1962, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. The actor, who dominated the silver screen for four decades, died at the age of 90.

Notes:
The Central government has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) till November 30.
As per the Finance Ministry, Loans amounting Rs 2.03 lakh crore have been sanctioned under the ECLGS to over 60 lakh borrowers, where the target was fixed at Rs 3 lakh core. Out of the loans, an amount of Rs. 1.48 lakh crore has been disbursed.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Shri. Jitendra Singh has inaugurated the Mansar Lake Development Plan in Jammu and Kashmir.
This has been done to increase the tourism sector in this region. The project aims at attracting 20 lakh tourists every year along with creation of employment for 1.15 crore man-days.

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 National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recently issued notice to seek response from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and four State Governments regarding the ban on use of fire crackers from November 7 to 30 in the interest of public health and environment.
The NGT has also appointed a senior advocate Raj Panjwani and advocate Shibhani Ghosh to assist the tribunal as amicus curiae in the matter.