Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a first virtual summit with his counterpart of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen.
As per the joint statement, the new ‘Green strategic partnership’ will be based on existing Joint Commission for Cooperation for cooperation in various fields including politics, energy, environment and education.

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:
It is reported that fraudulent transactions amounting Rs 12,705 crore has taken place in Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) during FY17 to FY19. These frauds pertain to development of 2 Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) projects undertaken by DHFL.
This observation was made by “Grant Thornton”, a transaction investigating agency. The assistance of Grant Thornton was sought by the administrator of DHFL appointed under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Notes:
India’s Sehgal Foundation has emerged as a co-runner up of the USA’s “Citizen Diplomacy Award”. The institution has been selected for its human rights and women empowerment work in rural India.
The Department of States – Bureau of Global Public Affairs of USA, launched the Citizen Diplomacy Award in 2017 to recognize significant contributions by citizens and organizations to deepen USA’s foreign policy around the world.

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:
Ravi Santhanam, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of HDFC Bank has been recognized in the Forbes list of ‘The World’s Most Influential CMOs’.
He is the only CMO of an Indian company to be featured in the prestigious list and he was ranked at 39th place. The list includes marketing heads of Apple, BMW, Adobe, and Microsoft among others. He was behind the ‘HDFCBankSafetyGrid’ and ‘HumHaarNahiMaanenge’ campaigns.

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:
India and Myanmar have agreed to work towards the operationalization of the Sittwe port, located in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General M M Naravane and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla held a two day long visit to Myanmar. The countries also agreed to strengthen their mutual partnership in other connectivity projects, power and energy.

Notes:
Veteran IPS officer M A Ganapathy has been appointed as the Director General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
As per to a Personnel Ministry order, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Ganapathy, for a tenure up to his superannuation on February 29, 2024. He is a 1986 batch IPS officer of Uttarakhand cadre.