Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Ministry of Jal Shakti had constituted a multi-disciplinary Technical Committee to recommend innovative ‘field level solution’ technologies in Drinking Water and Sanitation for states and UTs.
The committee was chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India K Vijaya Raghavan. It also has other members from NITI Aayog, DST, CSIR, DRDO, IIT among others. The committee has recently recommended five technology solutions for states/UTs.

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 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:
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:
Mizoram has debarred its Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and retired IPS officer Lalduhoma from the state assembly. He was in charge of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s security.
In 1988, he was the first Member of Parliament to have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha, under the Anti-Defection Law. At present, the charge on him is despite being elected as an independent candidate, he declared himself as a representative of ZPM.

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.

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.

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.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to become the first Arab Gulf country to generate electricity from coal.
A USD 3.4 billion Hassyan coal plant is being set up in Dubai with a capacity of 600 MW. The capacity is expected to increase to 2,400 MW by 2023. Most of the existing power plants in UAE runs on Gas.

Notes:
As per International Air Transport Association’s (IATA), recent report, China’s Shanghai has become the world’s most connected city, replacing London from the top spot.
According to the IATA, London has witnessed a 67% fall in air connectivity due to the prevalent COVID 19 pandemic. With Shanghai added to the top list, world’s four most connected cities are now in China.