Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has recently released the third volume of the selected speeches of President Ram Nath Kovind titled ‘Loktantra Ke Swar’ and ‘The Republican Ethic’.
The book is published by the Publications Division and it is a collection of selected speeches of the President in Hindi and English. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar released the e-version of the book.

Notes:
According to Facebook’s latest transparency report, India occupied the second position in terms of requests being made for user data.
A total of over 35000 requests were made by India during the period of January-June 2020, which is only second to the United States. The requests made by India has also increased 23 per cent globally.

Notes:
The G-20 countries approved the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to temporarily suspend the government-to-government debt payments to 73 countries. It was extended till June 30, 2021.
The G-20 Finance Ministers virtual meeting was recently held and India’s Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in it. She highlighted about the DSSI initiative under the G20 Saudi Arabian Presidency.

Notes:
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin hosted the Leaders’ summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2020.
During the Papua New Guinea summit in 2018, APEC leaders did not issue a joint statement for the first time. Last year’s host Chile cancelled the annual summit due to violent domestic protests. This year, the APEC leaders issued a joint statement, pledging to work toward open trade and investment

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:
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has launched Sahakar Pragya, the 45 new training modules developed by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).
The modules will impart training to primary cooperative societies in rural areas of the country. The National Cooperative Development Corporation is a statutory Corporation, under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

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:
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:
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:
The Government of France has decided to re-introduce tax on big Digital firms like Facebook, Amazon, Google etc.
In the early 2020, France suspended the tax on such big digital firms in exchange for a promise by USA to reduce taxation on French products. Since the US administration pulled out of the negotiation, France has decided to reintroduce levy of tax on digital firms.