Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
A virtual counter-terrorism dialogue was recently held between India and the Belgium-headquartered European Union.
As per the joint statement, both India and the EU condemned terrorism in all forms, including the “Use of terrorist proxies for cross-border terrorism”. The dialogue also called on all countries to ensure no region under their control is used for terrorist attacks on other countries.

Notes:
The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It was first formed during the post-World War II times. Under the coalition, there have been joint signals intelligence collection and sharing. The 5 countries hold ministerial consultations regularly on various security issues.

Notes:
India-Japan Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) cooperation has won the OECD MAP 2019 award for highest agreement ratio.
The award has been announced for a pair of jurisdictions for transfer pricing cases, which demonstrates the commitment of India to provide tax certainty and an effective dispute resolution mechanism for the Japanese companies.

Notes:
A MoU was signed between the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and leading oil & gas marketing companies and technology providers to set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) plants across India.
The CBG plants are to be set up under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative. The Union Government has set a target to set up 5000 CBG plants by 2023-24 with production target of 15 MMT.

Notes:
Life Insurance Corporation of India has launched a digital application named ‘ANANDA’, which is an acronym for Atma Nirbhar Agents New Business Digital Application.
Using the Digital application, life insurance policy can be applied through a paperless module with the help of the agent or intermediary. The application is developed based on paperless KYC process using Aadhaar-based e-authentication.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Har Ghar Nal Yojana’ in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The scheme aims to provide piped water supply to over 4.1 million people in the two districts of Sonbhadra and Mirzapur.
The outlay of the project is Rs 5,555 crore. The scheme will also benefit over 3,000 villages to access piped water supply.

Notes:
The United Nations Humanitarian Chief has released 25 million US dollars from its emergency fund to support women-led organisations fighting gender-based violence.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will receive USD 17 million and UN Women will get USD 8 million. The funding was announced at the beginning of the ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence’, from November 25 to December 10.

Notes:
NITI Aayog released a report titled ‘Mitigation and Management of Covid-19: Practices from India’s States & UTs’.
It is a compendium of practices from States and UTs with information about the initiatives implemented by states, districts, and cities in India for containing Covid-19 outbreak. The practices in the compendium have been divided under six sections.

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.

Notes:
The Government of Madhya Pradesh has made a change in “Draft Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill 2020”. As per the revised draft, marriages for forcible religious conversions would be a punishable offence with a jail term of 10 years.
Earlier, the proposed bill contained that the term of jail would be 5 years. The Government is expecting to table the bill in the state assembly session to be held in December.