Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually participated in the convocation ceremony of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gujarat.
He inaugurated five state-of-the-art facilities including ‘India-h2o’, an Indo-EU bilateral project for industrial waste and desalination, under Horizon 2020 initiative. He also said that the country has set a target of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 to 35 per cent.

Notes:
The 59th National Pharmacy Week (NPW) is celebrated throughout the country from November 16-22, 2020.
This year, the theme of the National Pharmacy Week (NPW) is “Pharmacists: Frontline Health Professionals”. The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) is the national professional body of pharmacists, which leads the celebrations.

Notes:
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have developed a solar-powered Unmanned Autonomous Survey Craft for Indian ports and inland waterways.
It would help to conduct autonomous hydrographic and oceanographic surveys and provide real-time data transmission over long distances. It had a successful field-test recently off the Chennai coast at Kamarajar port.

Notes:
The web series title ‘Delhi Crime’ has won the Best Drama Series award at the 48th International Emmy Awards, held virtually this year.
The show becomes the first Indian programme to win an International Emmy. The series was streamed in the OTT platform Netflix and was written and directed by Richie Mehta. The programme narrates the story of investigation in the aftermath of the Delhi gang-rape of December 2012.

Notes:
American messaging app Snapchat has recently rolled out a new short-video making feature called ‘Spotlight’.
It would allow users to share short-form videos publicly in its Snapchat app. By the launch of the new feature, Snap Inc. is expected to compete with ByteDance-owned TikTok and Instagram Reels launched by Facebook.

Notes:
Indian army has successfully test fired the land-attack version of the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, in the Andaman and Nicobar.
The range of the new version of the missile has been extended to 400 km from the original 290 km. The Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy will carry out separate test-firing of the new version of the air-launched and naval versions of the missile.

Notes:
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has recently released an order stating that all consumers trying to dial a mobile number using landline phones should prefix the mobile number with ‘0’.
This process is expected to be performed from January 15, 2021 from Fixed to Mobile calls only. Due to this activity, over 253.9 crore numbers would be generated, which will free up sufficient numbering resources for future use.

Notes:
The Fit India School week program was launched in November last year, to inculcate the awareness of physical activity and sports to school children.
The schools, after registering themselves on the Fit India website, will select a week in the month of December. It will then make the children follow the activities listed by the Sports Ministry for the program. Last year, over 15000 schools participated in the program.

Notes:
Odisha is set to celebrate International Sand Art Festival, at its Chandrabhaga Beach starting from December 1, 2020.
The five-day Sand Art Festival festival also coincides with the Konark Festival that is held in the backdrop of the Sun temple in Konark. On account of Covid-19 restrictions, only Indian sand artists will showcase their art using sand, bronze or wood.

Notes:
The Cabinet of Pakistan has approved two anti-rape ordinances which includes chemical castration of rapists, with the consent of the convict.
The ordinance also envisages setting up of Special Courts for rape trials and appointing Special prosecutors. The proposed laws include in-camera trials, witness protection, legal assistance to victims and speedy trials of rape cases. It also prohibits unscientific examination of survivors.