Current Affairs Quiz - November, 2020

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually participated in the convocation ceremony of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gujarat.
He inaugurated five state-of-the-art facilities including ‘India-h2o’, an Indo-EU bilateral project for industrial waste and desalination, under Horizon 2020 initiative. He also said that the country has set a target of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 to 35 per cent.

Notes:
Indian-origin economist and author Lord Meghnad Desai has resigned as a member of the UK’s Opposition Labour Party, over its failure to tackle racism.
The 80-year-old peer was against the readmission of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn without apology, after being suspended. The Labour Party has been alleged of antisemitism over several years.

Notes:
The 59th National Pharmacy Week (NPW) is celebrated throughout the country from November 16-22, 2020.
This year, the theme of the National Pharmacy Week (NPW) is “Pharmacists: Frontline Health Professionals”. The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) is the national professional body of pharmacists, which leads the celebrations.

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank has approved a USD 50 million loan to improve resource planning and operational efficiencies in West Bengal.
This loan will be supplemented by a USD 350,000 technical assistance grant for other reforms including monitoring of IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System) reforms.

Notes:
As per a recent survey conducted by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ernst & Young, Multi-national Companies regard India as their first option, in terms of investments across the globe.
Out of the total key decision makers of those MNCs, 82 per cent of them said that they have plans to expand their business in the next 2 to 3 years. After India, the second most favourable place is North America followed by the rest of Asia-Pacific.

Notes:
Indian army has successfully test fired the land-attack version of the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, in the Andaman and Nicobar.
The range of the new version of the missile has been extended to 400 km from the original 290 km. The Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy will carry out separate test-firing of the new version of the air-launched and naval versions of the missile.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet recently approved Rs 6,000 crore equity infusion in National Infrastructure Investment Fund’s (NIIF’s) debt platform.
The fresh capital would be infused over the current and the next fiscal, to fast-track infrastructure development in the country. Out of this, Rs 2,000 crore is expected to be utilised in the current fiscal, while the remaining will be deployed in 2021-22.

Notes:
New Zealand’s Greg Barclay has been elected as the new independent Ahairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
He is also the second independent chairman of the international body, after Shashank Manohar of India. Greg Barclay served as the Director of New Zealand Cricket Team since 2012. He had also been the Director of 2015 Men’s World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand.

Notes:
India and Vietnam recently signed an agreement for cooperation in the field of hydrography. The agreement is signed during the virtual conference held between India’s Defence minister Rajnath Singh and his Vietnamese counterpart.
The agreement also enables sharing of data between the countries and assist in production of navigational charts. Hydrography includes measurement of physical features of oceans and seas.

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.