Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the enhanced borrowing facility provided to banks by six more months.
The facility to borrow under MSF scheme to meet liquidity shortage till March 31, 2021. Earlier in the March, the RBI had increased the limit from 2 per cent to 3 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities.

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:
India’s first multi-wavelength astronomical observatory named ‘Astrosat’ has recently completed five years of imaging objects in space.
The satellite was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2015. It has successfully carried out over 1000 observations of 800 unique celestial sources. A discovery of a galaxy located at a distance of about 10 billion light-years from Earth has been made using it.

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:
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:
India has successfully test fired a new version of the surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile BrahMos.
The missile with a number of indigenously developed sub-systems including a Booster was flight-tested from the integrated test range at Balasore in Odisha. It has an extended range of about 400 km from the earlier 290 km range.

Notes:
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is celebrating the sixth anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).
To commemorate the event, the Ministry is organising a webinar titled ‘Swachhata Ke 6 Saal, Bemisaal’. The Ministry said that 4,327 urban local bodies have been declared open defecation-free (ODF) so far.

Notes:
Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda is to launch India’s largest handicraft and organic products marketplace named ‘Tribes India E-Marketplace’
This marketplace will be launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. This initiative of TRIFED will showcase the produce and handicrafts of tribal enterprises from all parts of the country. The Minister will also launch Pakur Honey, gathered by Santhal Tribals from Pakur, Jharkhand.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed to launch its Venus mission by the year 2025.
French space agency CNES would also participate in the mission. Presently, the two nations are working closely on ISRO’s human space mission Gaganyaan that aims to send 3 Indians to space by 2022.

Notes:
The Union Defence Ministry has designated Alpha Design Technologies Limited (ADTL) to upgrade the soviet era Pechora surface to air systems.
As per the Rs.591 crore contract, the firm would be upgrading 16 such systems. Alpha Design Technologies Limited is a Bengaluru based company that is specialized in defence electronics, avionics and space satellite systems.