Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Surat became the first city to finalise a project under the Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) scheme for migrant workers.
The ARHC scheme was announced under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Under the scheme, unoccupied government housing projects will be given to private firms, to renovate and operate as rental housing.

Notes:
National Ayurveda Day is celebrated on the same day of Dhanwantri Jayanti since 2016. This year it was celebrated on November 13.
National Ayurveda Day was celebrated across the country on the theme of ‘Ayurveda for Covid-19’. The day is observed to spread awareness on the importance of Ayurveda in our daily lives.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister of India S. Jaishankar represented India in the 15th East Asia Summit, which was recently held virtually.
The East Asia Summit is a premier forum in the Asia-Pacific region which was founded in the year 2005. Apart from the 10 ASEAN member states, the Summit includes India, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Russia.

Notes:
Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has signed an agreement with World Bank.
Under the agreement, World Bank will provide advisory services to DIPAM for asset monetization, as per the recent statement of Union Ministry of Finance. DIPAM handles the monetization of non-core assets of government CPSEs under strategic disinvestment of value of ₹100 crore and above.

Notes:
The Canada-based Resonance Consultancy Ltd has recently released the World’s Best Cities report, to rank the world’s best cities with population more than a million.
The ranking was based on 25 ranking parameters. Three cities namely London, New York and Paris bagged the first three ranks. India has only one representative on the list with Delhi being ranked in the 62nd position.

Notes:
Two entities namely Natural Support Consultancy Services, based at Jaipur Ltd and Nucleus Software Exports Ltd based at New Delhi commenced the testing of their products in Reserve Bank of India’s regulatory sandbox on Retail Payment.
“e-Rupaya” is the product being developed by Natural Support Consultancy Services which is a Near-Field Communication (NFC) based prepaid card. “Payse” is the product being developed by Nucleus Software Exports.

Notes:
The regional organisation comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICS has recently adopted a new counter-terrorism strategy.
During the virtual annual summit of BRICS held recently, the BRICS countries reaffirmed their commitment to counter international terrorism and its financing. Russia hosted the virtual summit.

Notes:
Leading Private lender ICICI Bank has launched a ‘Card-less EMI’ facility for its customers which can be used at retail stores.
Instead of using cards, the pre-approved customers of the bank can use their registered mobile number, PAN number and OTP (One Time Password) on the PoS machine at the retail outlets. The bank has launched the facility in partnership with Pine Labs.

Notes:
The Booker Prize 2020 has been awarded to Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart for his debut novel ‘Shuggie Bain’.
The shortlist for the coveted award consisted of five more titles which also included Avni Doshi’s book ‘Burnt Sugar’, which was published in India as ‘Girl in White Cotton’. Last year the Prize was won jointly to Atwood for ‘The Testaments’ and Evaristo for ‘Girl, Woman, Other’.

Notes:
The Union Agriculture Ministry has given approval for subsidised loans worth Rs 3,971.31 crore for implementing micro-irrigation projects.
The interest subvented loans are being offered under Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) created with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Out of the total loans, maximum loan has been approved for Tamil Nadu.