Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
The President of United States of America Donald Trump has announced its plans to distribute 150 million “15 minute” rapid Covid-19 test kits in the coming weeks.
Out of these 50 million test kits would be used for most vulnerable communities of the country, like nursing homes, assisted living facilities etc.

Notes:
Famous Actor Sonu Sood has been conferred with “SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award” by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The award has been conferred upon him for his selfless assistance rendered to migrants, stranded students abroad and bring them back to India. He also opened his hotel in Mumbai for health care workers of nearby hospitals.

Notes:
Leading Power Sector organisation, NTPC Ltd has recently signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Power.
Under the MoU, the key targets were fixed for the year 2020-21, which include 340 BU of electricity generation, 15 MMT of coal production under excellent category. It also includes other financial parameters including Capex and Revenue from operations.

Notes:
As per the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, senior bureaucrat P D Vaghela has been named as the new Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
P D Vaghela was a 1986- batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer replaces R S Sharma, who has held the post since 2015. Vaghela is to hold will serve as TRAI Chairman for three years or till he attains the age of 65.

Notes:
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has revised the ideal weight for adult Indian men from 60 kg to 65 kg.
Similarly, the NIN has revised the ideal weight for adult Indian women from 50 kg to 55 kg. The definition of Indian adult also stands revised from 20-39 years to 19-39 years.

Notes:
Indian Meteorological Department was established in 1875. As per a recent a recent release by the IMD, India received above normal monsoon during the 4-month long rainfall season of this year.
This year has recorded the second highest rainfall in the last 30 years. IMD has stated that the country received 109% rainfall during the Long Period Average, with 3 out of the 4 months receiving above normal precipitation.

Notes:
The Election Commission has recently issued a set of new instructions regarding the postal ballot facilities for those above 80 years of age and people with disabilities.
The booth level officer would deliver the form required to opt for the postal ballot, under his polling station. The fresh guidelines would be applicable to all elections and by-elections, including the by-polls announced last week.

Notes:
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully tested a system of Supersonic missile-assisted release of torpedo called SMART.
The lightweight anti-submarine torpedo has been tested from the Wheeler Island in Odisha. This system is to be deployed for anti-submarine warfare operations far beyond the torpedo range. All the mission objectives were met during the test.

Notes:
The United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day, to sensitise on the basic right to adequate shelter.
This year, the theme of the World Habitat Day 2020 is ‘Housing For All — A Better Urban Future’. World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986 with the theme ‘Shelter is My Right’ and was hosted by Nairobi.

Notes:
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is set to commission India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer, ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’.
The initiative has been led by Scientist and Program Director at CDAC Abhishek Das. The same has been approved by the Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad. The supercomputer will have 210 AI Petaflops and will be based on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture.