Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
The fourth World Conference on Women was convened by the United Nations during in September 1995 in Beijing, China.
The 25th anniversary of the fourth World Conference on Women was recently organised. Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani participated in the conference. She highlighted about the initiatives undertaken in India including the National Nutrition Mission.

Notes:
According to a data published by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Regional rural banks (RRBs) as a whole reported net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in the fiscal year 2019-20.
This figure was against Rs 652-crore net loss in the fiscal year 2018-19. Gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of gross loans outstanding of RRBs marginally declined to 10.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020.

Notes:
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed World Space Week to be celebrated during October 4-10.
The first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4. The Space week aims to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology. This year the theme of the week is “Satellites improve life.”

Notes:
Paytm is organising a dedicated App Developers’ conference, to attract indigenous app developers on its newly-launched mini app store.
This is seen as a battle against the monopoly of Google in the app store segment and the issue of transaction fee on in-app purchases. Start-ups and technology companies would join this conference to showcase their mini-apps.

Notes:
According to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) revised trade forecast, the World merchandise trade is expected to fall by 9.2 percent in 2020.
However, the WTO also estimated that the world will record a 7.2 percent rise in the year 2021. Earlier in the month of April, WTO had predicted that the volume of world merchandise trade would decline between 13 percent and 32 percent for 2020.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has recently launched ‘MSME Prerana’, an online business mentoring programme for MSMEs.
The programme is to implemented by Indian Bank and is aimed at empowering entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building workshops. The mentoring programmes would be available in all local languages.

Notes:
India’s first advanced manufacturing hub (AMHUB) is to be established in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Guidance, nodal investment promotion and facilitation agency of the state has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this regard.
AMHUB is one of the nineteen platforms designed by the WEF. It will help the production ecosystem in Tamil Nadu by identifying and addressing the regional opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

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:
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das announced that Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payment system will be available round the clock from December 2020.
At present, in the RTGS service, customer transactions are allowed from 7am to 6pm only on a working day. The relaxation of time constraints would make online payment more efficient. The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is Rs 2 lakhs with no upper ceiling.

Notes:
The subsidiary of Coal India, the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute has designed and developed a website for those involved in research and development (R&D) in the coal sector.
Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain launched the website, which also displays the guidelines for implementing coal research projects and forms for submitting proposals.