Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

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:
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 state Government of Rajasthan has decided to give 30% of the new Public Distribution System (PDS) shops to women.
The decision has been taken by the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, to empower the women in the state. The state has also approved an additional budget of Rs.11 crore to “Sahyog Evam Uphar Yojna”, where financial assistance is provided to needy families for daughter’s marriage.

Notes:
The Defence ministry has signed a Rs 400 crore-contract with Economic Explosive Limited (EEL), for the supply of ten lakh hand grenades.
Earlier, similar products were either imported or made by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The new grenades called multi-mode hand grenades (MMHG), have been designed by the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory of DRDO.

Notes:
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit on October 2.
The summit is a global virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian Researchers and Academicians. It is to be organised from October 2 to October 31. The summit creates a single platform for Science and Technology (S&T) related discussions.

Notes:
The Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI) survey is conducted by the nation’s think tank NITI Aayog, by its Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office.
The survey aims to evaluate the performance of different Ministries /Departments in implementing Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Department of Fertilizers has been ranked 2nd among 65 departments under the Data Governance Quality Index survey.

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:
American Scientists Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology.
The award has been presented for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Their work helped to explore a major source of blood-borne hepatitis, which couldn’t be explained by the hepatitis A and B viruses.

Notes:
According to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry (MoHUA), the Ministry has joined hands with Swiggy, regarding PM SVANidhi scheme.
Under this program, the street vendors will be given online access to thousands of consumers. This initiative has been launched in five cities of Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi on a pilot basis. This will be later expanded to all parts of the country.

Notes:
In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, the resilience of tropical rainforests under two additional extreme scenarios is explored.
As per the study, rainfall in the Amazon is very low that up to 40% of the forest is at a risk of changing into a savanna-like environment, with fewer trees and biodiversity. The study also simulated the effect of emissions from burning fossil fuels between now and the end of the century.