Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
The tenth edition of the National Science film festival has been inaugurated in the state of Tripura. The festival will be held in virtual mode.
VigyanPrasar, an autonomous agency under the Department of Science and Technology, has been organizing this festival. This year, Vigyan Prasar is collaborating with the Tripura State Council of Science and Technology. As many as 372 films in different languages have been received.

Notes:
HDFC Bank became the first bank in the Indian history to cross the Rs 8-trillion market capitalisation milestone.
The stock price has also surpassed its previous lifetime high and stood at Rs 1464 apiece on the BSE. The private sector bank now stands at third position in the overall market-cap ranking of listed companies, after Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services that have crossed Rs 10 trillion.

Notes:
India has recently announced the launch of Phase-IV of the High Impact Community Development Projects in Afghanistan.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced this during the 2020 Afghanistan Conference organized in Geneva, co-hosted by the United Nations, the Government of Afghanistan, and the Government of Finland. India would undertake over 100 projects worth 80 million dollars in Afghanistan.

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:
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced to allocate millions of funds to establish a Counter Terrorism Operations Centre (CTOC) based in London.
The Finance Minister also allocated funds for recruiting Police officers, tackling economic crimes and for criminal justice system, which will include the new CTOC. The state-of-the-art facility is expected to be fully operational within five years

Notes:
India and Finland recently signed an MoU for developing cooperation in the field of Environment protection and biodiversity conservation.
The MoU also seeks to exchange best practices in areas like prevention of air and water pollution, waste management, and promotion of circular economy. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar signed the MoU virtually with his Finnish counterpart.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently chaired the PRAGATI meeting. This marked the thirty-third interaction through the multi-modal platform.
The PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) involving Central and State governments. Prime Minister along with the Secretaries of the Union and State review various projects and schemes. Grievances registered in various sectors are also taken up.

Notes:
Under a new law approved by the Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority will be renamed to Saudi Central Bank.
However, the Central Bank will continue to use its acronym “SAMA” due to its historic significance and relevance. The new law also mandates the objectives of the Central Bank to maintain monetary stability, support economic growth and to directly report King of Saudi Arabia.

Notes:
Faqir Chand Kohli, the founder and the first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, has recently passed away at the age of 96.
He was also called as the ‘Father of Indian IT Industry’, for his contribution towards the development of IT industry and for pioneering the country’s ‘Technology Revolution’. He received several honours including the Padma Bhushan.

Notes:
As per the recent study conducted by the Central Pollution control board and IIT- Delhi, Indo-Gangetic plains continue to be the most polluted region in the country, in terms of PM 2.5 levels.
The study also revealed that the rate of increase in pollution levels southern and eastern India is greater than the Indo-Gangetic plains, between 2000 and 2019. It also found that air pollution in rural areas of the country increased similar to that of urban areas.