Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
The Konso cultural landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in a dry, hilly environment at the edge of the Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia. It has always been a relatively isolated area of the country, where life has remained largely unchanged for at least 400 years. The people live in closely-packed communities of wood-and-mud built, thatched dwellings from which they travel out to their fields of millet on a daily basis. The local chief’s hilltop ‘Palace’ comprises a collection of dome-shaped thatched rooms, with covered meeting and work areas, all surrounded by a heavy wooden ‘stockade’ with narrow gates. In nearby forest clearings, collections of anthropomorphic statues are maintained, one group of them kept under a pagoda-style shelter.

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 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:
The Island nation of Sri Lanka has recently announced to ban slaughtering of cows across the country.
The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced that a legislature to implement the decision would be moved soon. The Cabinet has decided to import beef and provide it at a lower price to people who consume it.

Notes:
A Fast Patrol Vessel named “ICGS Kanaklata Barua” has been commissioned into the Indian Coast Guard.
The ship is built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) and is the fifth and last in a series of FPVs built by the company. The ship has been named after a teen age freedom fighter of Assam who was shot dead during the Quit India Movement.

Notes:
October 2 is observed as the International Day of Non-Violence every year by the United Nations, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The UN General Assembly in a resolution on 15 June 2007 declared this day. The objective of this day is to spread the message of non-violence through education and public awareness. Gandhi is known across the world for his non-violence movement ‘Satyagraha’.

Notes:
The South Pacific territory of New Caledonia has recently rejected independence from France. It chose to remain French in a recent referendum.
In the referendum made two years ago in 2018, the percentage of votes rejecting the breakaway was 56.7 percent, while this year, the percentage was 53.26 percent. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed this result.

Notes:
Indian Army Chief General M M Naravane and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla have handed over 3,000 vials of Remdesivir to Myanmar.
The vials were handed over to Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, during their two-day visit, which aims to expand ties in areas including connectivity, defence and security. This is also the first visit of Army Chief to the country.

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.