Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Tarun Gogoi, the former Chief Minister of Assam has recently passed away, at the age of 84. He had tested positive for Covid-19 in August.
He was also the longest serving chief minister of Assam. Being a veteran Congressman, Gogoi was elected the Chief minister of Assam in 2001 in the state elections, following which he led the party to a record three consecutive electoral victories in the state.

Notes:
The Martyrdom Day of Guru Tegh Bahadur is observed across the country as Shaheed Diwas every year on November 24.
In the year 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth of the ten Gurus of the Sikhism was executed. He was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind. He had also contributed many hymns to the Guru Granth Sahib.

Notes:
According to the IMD, Cyclone Nivar is estimated to cross Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts and make landfalls in the evening on November 25.
The IMD also highlighted that the cyclone will cross as a severe cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 120-130 kmph strengthening up to 145 kmph. Over 1000 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescue personnel have been deployed in the state of Tamil Nadu and its neighbouring coastal areas.

Notes:
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has declared the Indian Financial services company Karvy Stock Broking Ltd as a defaulter.
The membership of Karvy was also terminated by NSE under NSEIL Rules. In November 2019, Karvy had transferred securities worth Rs 2,300 crore into its account by misusing power of attorney given by its clients. SEBI has also found that Karvy indulged in trades that were not authorized by clients.

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:
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Invest India has recently launched the SDG Investor Map for India.
UNDP highlighted 18 investment opportunities areas (IOAs), which are in 6 important SDG (sustainable development goals) enabling sectors including education, healthcare, agriculture among others. This is expected to bridge the SDG financing gap occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) with the Tamil Nadu government to develop the ecosystem for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state.
Under the MoU, Sidbi will deploy a project management unit (PMU) in the government of Tamil Nadu. It will undertake the process of designing the training and capacity-building programmes to be taken up by the state government in areas.

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 United Kingdom is set to impose a new competition regime next year to prevent Google and Facebook from using their dominance on smaller firms.
The regime is set to be enforced by a unit within the Britain’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Google and Facebook accounted for around 80% of 14 billion pounds spent in the country in 2019.

Notes:
The Government of Scotland has passed a bill making sanitary products free to all women in the country. This makes the country the first nation in the world to take such a step.
The Period Products (Free Provision) Scotland Bill was passed unanimously in the Scotland assembly and the government sees it as an important policy for women and girls in the country.