Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is set to commission India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer, ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI’.
The initiative has been led by Scientist and Program Director at CDAC Abhishek Das. The same has been approved by the Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad. The supercomputer will have 210 AI Petaflops and will be based on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture.

Notes:
The State Government of Gujarat has recently launched Digital Seva Setu Programme for the rural areas of the state.
Under this programme, the citizens will be provided access to various public welfare services at the Panchayat level. This Digital Seva Setu has been initiated under the Bharat Net Project that aims to connect the Village Panchayats through fibre network.

Notes:
The National Mission for Clean Ganga along with Wildlife Institute of India and the Forest Department launched the ‘My Ganga My Dolphin’ campaign.
This has been launched on the occasion of Ganga River Dolphin Day observed on October 5, 2020. A Dolphin-based ecotourism programme was also launched at various sites along the Ganga River. Under the campaign, Dolphin Census will be conducted and awareness campaigns would be held.

Notes:
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced detailed guidelines for product labelling in mutual funds.
Earlier, there were five categories to measure the level of risks in mutual fund schemes. Now SEBI, which is the regulator, has introduced one more category known as ‘very high risk’. These new guidelines shall be in force with effect from January 1, 2021.

Notes:
Russia recently announced that it has successfully tested a new hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile named ‘Tsirkon’.
The Tsirkon missile was fired from the White Sea in the Russian Arctic and it successfully hit its target 450 kilometres away in the Barents Sea. The missile has also reached a speed of Mach 8 – eight times the speed of sound.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that the two per cent interest subvention for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on loans offered by co-operative banks has been extended till 31st of March next year.
Fresh/incremental term loan or working capital limit provided by co-operative banks with effect from March 3, 2020, will be eligible for coverage under the scheme. The notification also included certain modifications regarding the credit disbursal and documentation.

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:
The Union Government has recently extended the deadline for filing GST annual return for the financial year 2018-19 by a month till 31st October of this year.
Taxpayers with aggregate annual turnover above two crore rupees are mandated to furnish the Annual return. Registered persons with aggregate turnover above five crore rupees should furnish reconciliation statement.

Notes:
Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament has recently named Lawmaker Sadyr Zhaparov as the country’s new Prime Minister.
This has strengthened the power of President Sooronbay Jeenbekov’s control as his principal opponent and ex-President Almazbek Atambayev was arrested. The country’s Election Commission earlier declared the poll results invalid.

Notes:
According to the PRAAPTI portal, the total dues owed by distribution firms to power producers stood at Rs.1.33 lakh crore in August 2020. It has registered a year on year increase of 37% from Rs.96,963 crore in August 2019.
PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators) is a portal launched in May 2018 by the Ministry of Power, in order to bring transparency in power purchase between power generator and distributor.