Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

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:
The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Secretary launched the Application Programming Interface (API) integration between the PM SVANidhi Portal and the State Bank of India’s (SBI) eMudra Portal portal.
This integration would enable seamless flow of data between the two portals in a secure environment, which would lead to faster loan sanctioning and disbursement process.

Notes:
As per the Forbes India Rich List 2020 that was released recently, the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited remains the richest Indian for the 13th consecutive year.
His net worth stands at USD 88.7 billion. Mukesh Ambani is followed by Gautam Adani with a net worth of 25.2 billion dollar and Shiv Nadar at 20.4 billion dollar. The new entrant in the top 10 is Cyrus Poonawalla, the Chairman of Serum Institute of India (SII).

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has virtually inaugurated the state’s largest oxygen plant in Modinagar, Ghaziabad.
The plant is commissioned by the leading manufacturers of industrial and medical gases, INOX Air Products (INOX). The project outlay of the plant is Rs 135 crore and it has a capacity of 150 tonnes liquid medical oxygen per day.

Notes:
The Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the North East (SARDP-NE) was launched by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Recently, the Central Government has increased funding for road development in the Northeast by 95 per cent from Rs 390 crore to Rs 760 crore. This is the second consecutive increase of funding for the region this year.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force is celebrating 88th Air Force Day on October 8. On the same day, the Air Force in India was officially formed in 1932 to support the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom.
After 1950, the force was renamed as the Indian Air Force from its earlier name of the Royal Indian Air Force. The Indian Air Force is the largest air Defence force in the world.

Notes:
India has received the second set of Swiss bank account details of its citizens and companies under the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) pact with Switzerland.
India is one among the 86 countries with which Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts as per the framework of global standards on AEOI. India had received the first set of details from Switzerland in September 2019.

Notes:
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) released a report titled ‘Animal Discoveries 2019 and Plant Discoveries 2019’.
As per the report, 544 new species including 364 animal species and 180 plant species were discovered in the year 2019. Some of the important species include Cnemaspisanandani (a rock dwelling gecko) and Ginger Amomum nagamiense (a wild ginger variety discovered in Nagaland).

Notes:
British Racing driver Lewis Hamilton equalled the all-time record for career Formula 1 victories by winning the Eifel Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes recorded the 91st victory of his career and he equalled the record of Michael Schumacher. Max Verstappen finished second and Daniel Ricciardo finished third.

Notes:
The Bangladesh Cabinet has recently approved the draft law to include death penalty as the highest punishment for rape.
Previously, Lifetime imprisonment was the highest punishment. Bangladesh President Mohammed Abdul Hamid signed the ordinance approving the death penalty for rapists. There have been nationwide protests seeking for the move.