Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
The 8th India-Mexico Joint Commission Meeting was recently held through Video-Conference. The Meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard.
Both the countries agreed to promote economic strengths and work on strengthening their ‘Privileged Partnership’.

Notes:
The 15th Finance Commission (FFC) has announced that it is set to submit its report to Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on 9 November, this year.
The report will have recommendations for next five years beginning the financial year 2021-22. The report may be tabled in the Parliament along with action taken report by the government, during the next budget session.

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 Ministry of AYUSH and Invest India will collaborate to set up a “Strategic Policy & Facilitation Bureau”.
Invest India will collaborate with the AYUSH Ministry to frame the work plan of the Bureau and define its targets. It will also deploy expert resources to implement and execute the plans of the AYUSH Ministry.

Notes:
BRICS Business Forum, which is an important annual event of the BRICS Business Council was hosted by Russia from October 20 to 28, 2020. President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia is the current Chairman of the BRICS Business Council.
BRICS Business Forum was held in via Video Conferencing under the title “BRICS Business Partnership: Common Vision for Sustainable Inclusive Development”.

Notes:
Priyanca Radhakrishnan became New Zealand’s first-ever Indian-origin minister after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced five new ministers into her executive.
The 41-year-old Member of Parliament belonging to the Labour Party, was born in India. In 2019, she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities. She has been advocating tights of women survivors of domestic violence and migrant workers.

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:
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:
Visa has recently partnered with Indian leading private sector bank HDFC Bank and Digit Secure, to deploy PCI certified Tap to Phone card acceptance solution.
DigitSecure has become the first company based in Asia-Pacific to receive PCI security certification for deploying this technology. India has also joined a list of over 15 markets that provide Visa Tap to Phone technology for merchants.

Notes:
According to the recent order by the Personnel Ministry, former Chief Secretary of Delhi M M Kutty has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas.
Several technical experts from IIT- Delhi, IMD and the Environment Ministry have also been appointed as the full-time members of the commission.