Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Mumbai has become the first Indian city to design a plan for developing dedicated spaces for women.
This has been designed under the Revised Draft Development Plan 2034. Under the plan, as many as 90 land reservations are to be made across the state to address the social needs of women including education and health.

Notes:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has launched a new rural housing project named “Maha Awas Yojana”.
Under the new scheme, as many as 8.82 lakh rural houses will be built in a period of 100 days. The outlay of the project is estimated to be Rs 4000 crore. The state’s Department of Rural Development will undertake this project.

Notes:
The Agreement establishing an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was signed in 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda.
The AfCFTA is expected to become operational on 1 January 2021, which will be the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries. It will also create a single African market for goods and services. Africa Industrialization Day is celebrated on November 20 every year.

Notes:
An Internal Working Group (IWG) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended raising the cap on promoters’ stake in private sector banks to 26% in 15 years.
At present, the percentage of stake is mandated at 15% of the equity share capital of the bank. The group also suggested to allow large corporate or industrial houses, as promoters of banks after necessary amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

Notes:
As per the recent statement of the International Energy Agency, China will surpass the United States to become the world’s biggest oil refiner in 2021.
The United States has been at the top in the list of oil refiners since the beginning of the oil regime in the mid-nineteenth century. Also, in 1967 the United States possessed over 35 times the refining capacity of China.

Notes:
Technology Giant Google has paid Rs 33,737 crore to Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) digital subsidiary, Jio Platforms Ltd.
Google will now hold 7.73% stake in Jio Platforms and has joined the list of global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, General Atlantic among others. This is also the biggest-ever investment of Google in an Indian company.

Notes:
The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR), Uttar Pradesh and the state Forest department have bagged the first-ever international award- TX2.
The award has been announced for doubling the number of tigers in four years against a target of 10 years from 25 tigers in 2014 to 65 in 2018. UNDP (United Nations Development Program) virtually presented the award to the Principal Chief conservator of forest (wildlife) of the state.

Notes:
Uttar Pradesh government has passed an ordinance to ban unlawful religious conversions for marriage.
As per the ordinance, unlawful conversion for the sake of getting married through force, deceit, undue pressure will be considered a non-bailable offence and can lead to imprisonment of a maximum of 10 years and penalty of 50 thousand rupees.

Notes:
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) had organised a virtual meeting with importers of Germany to promote export of fresh fruits and vegetables from India. The event was organised in collaboration with Indian Embassy in Germany and German Agribusiness Alliance.
APEDA is an apex body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry which regulates export of agricultural products in India.

Notes:
The promoter of the Sputnik V vaccine candidate – Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has entered into an agreement with Hyderabad based company named “Hetero Biopharma”.
Under the agreement, the Sputnik V vaccine candidate would be produced in India from beginning of 2021. The Sputnik V vaccine is recently claimed to have reached an efficiency of 91.4% in Phase 3 trials.