Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

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 Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved capital acquisition proposals in Defence sector worth Rs.229 crore.
The proposals include acquisition of 72,000 assault rifles from the United States of America. These proposals include material acquisitions from both Indian and foreign players and is aligned with Atma Nirbhar Policy of Self Reliance.

Notes:
China is expected to send the world’s first mining robot into space by November 2020 through a private Beijing company, Origin Space.
The mining robot named as an ‘Asteroid mining robot’ will be a part of the preliminary assessment to identify and extract valuable resources. The spacecraft NEO-1 will be launched onboard a Chinese Long March rocket.

Notes:
Nigeria is celebrating its 60th independence day on Oct 1, 2020. Nigeria gained independence from the imperial Britain on October 1, 1960 and a representative of Queen Elizabeth II handed over Nigeria’s constitution to the country’s new Prime Minister – Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. The African country became a republic three years later.

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.

Notes:
RAISE 2020 – `Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Social Empowerment 2020’ would be organized jointly by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and the national think tank NITI Aayog.
The event would be held from October 5 – 9, 2020 in a virtual mode. Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the summit.

Notes:
The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) has completed its live trading and other business operations from a Disaster Recovery (DR) site.
As per a release from NSE, all commercial operations of the exchange were executed from the DR site which is located in another city, which is a replica of the main production site located in Mumbai. After successful testing of the DR site, the operations were reverted to the original site.

Notes:
Indian Army has signed a Rs.7,796 crore project with ITI Limited, a telecom & Defence equipment manufacturing PSU.
The project has been signed for Phase IV of Army Static Switched Communication Network (ASCON) project. The ASCON is a telecom network for secured communication across the country. The project also includes maintenance of the network for a period of 10 years by ITI Limited.

Notes:
The authorities of Saudi Arabia have announced that the Umrah pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca has been resumed.
Due to the spread of Covid-19, Saudi Arabia had earlier suspended the pilgrimage for foreign and domestic Muslims in March. The country has decided to open up the pilgrimage in gradual phases with precaution, depending upon the pandemic’s spread.

Notes:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has recently launched a mega campaign ‘Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh’.
Under this anti-air pollution campaign, separate detailed plans have been prepared for the 13 pollution hotspots identified in the city. It also aims to eliminate two major issues namely Stubble burning and Dust emissions.