Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

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:
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar recently virtually addressed the first India -Nordic – Baltic Conclave.
The Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) co-operation framework includes eight countries namely Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden.

Notes:
Over 50 people have been killed by landslides in Guatemala after the Storm named ‘Eta’ caused torrential rain and winds.
After the storm hit the Central American country, it was later downgraded to a tropical storm. A hillside in a single town of the country collapsed which buried several houses under mud. It also mae landfall in the neighbouring country Nicaragua.

Notes:
Technology Major Facebook has recently announced that it has launched an offline to online small and medium businesses (SMB) guide.
The company has also launched other new resources to help small and medium businesses. The guide will be publicly available for free while the platform is to be made accessible to 9 million small businesses across the country, which needed it the most.

Notes:
India’s latest earth observation satellite named EOS-01 will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The satellite along with 9 other customer satellites would be carried to space by ISRO using its PSLV-C49 rocket. The rocket would be launched from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
The Education department of Assam had launched an Aadhaar enrolment drive that aims to cover nearly 70 lakh students of the State.
The drive aims to cover 66,133 schools across the state. The drive would enrol all students of age 6 to 18 studying in Government and Private schools of Assam.

Notes:
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is set to unveil a life size statue of Swami Vivekananda. The statue is being unveiled at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus at New Delhi on November 12th.
The statue would be unveiled by the Prime Minister in a virtual mode. The statue has been installed in JNU campus with the support of the JNU alumni.

Notes:
The word “Lockdown” has been selected as the Collins Dictionary word of the year 2020. The word has been chosen for a sudden increase in usage of the word during the spread of Covid-19.
Lexicographers have stated that they have picked the word since it had become synonymous with the experience of populations across the world as governments look to curb the coronavirus pandemic.