Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India has announced that it has shortlisted five start-ups, as part of its MAIL (Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab) programme.
With these new companies, Maruti Suzuki is engaged with 14 start-ups under the MAIL programme in the last 18 months. The initiative aims to create innovative business solutions and promote innovation in automobile sector.

Notes:
The first ever “International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste” is observed on 29th September 2020 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
The day is observed with the message “Stop food loss and waste – for the people, for the planet”. The day aims to create awareness about food loss and calls for global action to maximize the use of food.

Notes:
Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL) has commenced the exploration of the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka. MECL is a Mini Ratna PSU under the Ministry of Mines.
This mining activity is expected to help resolve Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) issue over exploration of the gold field, which is pending for past 16 years.

Notes:
Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan has launched the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Technologies for Rural Development.
The technologies have been launched under a joint initiative of CSIR, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) and Vijnana Bharti (VIBHA). The technologies include improved beehive, dehumidified drier and agricultural waste-based biodegradable plates.

Notes:
“Air India One” is a custom made B777 aircraft and is manufactured by Boeing. It will be used to fly the President, Vice President and Prime Minister of India.
Another custom-made B 777 plane for the VVIP s would be received shortly from Boeing. These two planes were a part of Air India’s commercial fleet till 2018. They were sent to Boeing for retrofitting them for VVIP travel, at a cost of Rs.8400 crore.

Notes:
Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament from BJP, took part in the 3rd G20 Sherpas’ meeting, which was held in a virtual mode. He encouraged the member nations to enhance renewable energy production.
The G20 meeting is being organised under the Presidency of Saudi Arabia and the Sherpas’ meeting was attended by 30 participants including 20 countries.

Notes:
Reliance Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Reliance India Limited has developed a Real Time PCR kit named R-Green Kit. The kit can be used for diagnosis of COVID-19 infection in about 2 hours.
At present, the PCR kits used in India takes about 24 hours to diagnose the infection. The R Green Kit developed by Reliance has been validated by ICMR for its performance.

Notes:
The Indian Army has recently built a memorial in Eastern Ladakh for its 20 personnel killed in the violent clash at Galwan Valley.
The memorial has the names of all 20 personnel killed on June 15, in a clash to evict Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The memorial has inscription titled “Gallants of Galwan”. The troops were led by Col. B Santhosh Babu.

Notes:
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, NITI Aayog along with Invest India are organising a virtual global symposium ‘India PV EDGE 2020’.
The symposium includes sessions on ‘Modules and Production Equipment’ and ‘Supply Chain’ among others. Around 60 top Indian and global CEOs are expected to attend the event virtually.

Notes:
According to a data published by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Regional rural banks (RRBs) as a whole reported net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in the fiscal year 2019-20.
This figure was against Rs 652-crore net loss in the fiscal year 2018-19. Gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of gross loans outstanding of RRBs marginally declined to 10.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020.