Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated six mega development projects in Uttarakhand under the Namami Gange Mission.
A first of its kind Museum named ‘Ganga Avalokan’ on the River Ganga at Haridwar, was also inaugurated. The Prime Minister also released a book titled “Rowing Down the Ganges” and a new logo for the Jal Jeevan Mission.

Notes:
The World Health Organization has announced that the body along with its leading partners to make available 120 million rapid-diagnostic tests for Covid-19.
The programme aims to help lower and middle-income countries in bridging the gap in testing process, though they are not funded. ‘WHO’ aims to provide the rapid diagnostic tests at five US Dollars apiece.

Notes:
The Supreme Court of India has ordered all the states and UTs to provide dry ration to all sex workers in the country.
The apex court has also insisted that the ration should be provided without insisting on ration card or any other identity proof. The top court has pronounced this order on observing the hardships faced by sex workers due to the COVID pandemic.

Notes:
Assam’s first and only woman Chief Minister Syeda Anwara Taimur has recently passed away in Australia, at 84 years.
She held various important positions including the Education Minister before becoming the Chief Minister from 1980 to 1981. She was also nominated for a Rajya Sabha term in 1988. She served as MLA for four times during his 4 decade-long political career.

Notes:
The CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant has stated that the organization is fine tuning parameters and indicators used in ranking the 112 Aspirational Districts of India.
The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) was launched by the national think tank NITI Aayog in January 2018. It aims to transform 112 most backward districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.

Notes:
The 19th round of Foreign Office Consultations between India and Myanmar was recently held through virtual mode.
India committed to provide debt service relief under the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, for the period May 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Both the countries agreed to enhance their mutual cooperation. A Joint Trade Committee Ministerial Meeting is also to be held on October 20.

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:
Apurva Chandra has been appointed as the new Labour Secretary of Government of India. He is a 1988 batch IAS officer belonging to Maharashtra Cadre. He has replaced Heeralal Samariya.
He is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and is a Structural Engineer by education. His first big role will be the implementation of the three labour codes passed by the parliament recently.

Notes:
The Department of Economic Affairs of the Union Finance Ministry is responsible for preparing the Union Budget.
The Finance Ministry has commenced the exercise for Union Budget 2021-22 by issuing the traditional circular. The Budget is expected to be presented to Parliament on February 1, 2021. The discussions will start from October 16 and continue till the first week of November.

Notes:
Bongosagar is the bilateral naval exercise between India and Bangladesh. The second edition of the exercise was held in Northern Bay of Bengal.
Indian Navy ships Kiltan, Khukri and Bangladesh Navy Ships participated in surface warfare drills and other operations. This exercise will be followed by the third edition of India Bangladesh Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT).