Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
India’s think tank NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) has stablished a Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This aims to address societal challenges through digital innovation.
This is the first Cloud Innovation Center of Amazon in India and twelfth around the world.

Notes:
The Israel Embassy in India would have a separate ‘Water Attache’ from January 2021. This arrangement is being made to share their country’s best practices and technologies in India’s water management and agriculture.
Israel has also stated that, it will soon nominate an honorary Consul in the North-East, with an aim to increase its presence and collaboration in that region.

Notes:
Bangladesh has invited Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to join the celebrations of the 50 years of the country’s independence, which would be celebrated on March 2021.
Bangladesh would be one among the few foreign destinations which PM Modi would visit post COVID-19 outbreak. The visit would be preceded by a virtual summit between the two Prime Ministers in December.

Notes:
The Punjab Legislative Assembly has unanimously passed four Bills to amend and negate the Centre’s three farm laws.
The legislations were also backed by the Opposition parties. The bill seeks to provide for imprisonment of not less than three years and fine for sale/purchase of wheat or paddy under a farming agreement below the minimum support price (MSP).

Notes:
As per a recent study published in the ‘Quaternary Science Reviews’ journal, evidence of a lost river has been found, which might have been a life-line to human populations.
The river which through the central Thar Desert, near Bikaner, before 172 thousand years ago. The study was conducted by Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, and IISER Kolkata.

Notes:
Every year, Police Commemoration Day is observed on 21st of October. This day is observed in memory to the 10 policemen who were killed by Chinese troops in a surprise attack near Ladakh on October 21, 1959.
As per Police sources, as many as 264 police personnel lost their lives this year while in duty and are remembered during this occasion.

Notes:
A framework for regulatory sandbox has been introduced by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
Under this sandbox framework, companies operating in the capital market, banking, insurance and financial services can test their Fin Tech solutions in a live environment. The IFSCA was established on 27th April 2020 with head office in Gandhinagar.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India has recently set up a committee under its Director General Umesh Sinha and ex Indian Revenue Service officer Harish Kumar.
The panel has been set up to examine the existing expenditure limits for election candidates amidst the increase in number of electors and rise in Cost Inflation Index. Earlier, a 10% increase in the expenditure limit of election candidates.

Notes:
The state government of Mizoram has decided to observe ‘COVID-19 – No Tolerance Fortnight’ beginning from 26th October.
The Health & Family Welfare Minister of the state said that this measure would be a containment measure to flatten the curve of Covid-19 in the state. All unlock guidelines and SOPs would be followed strictly.

Notes:
The US Food and Drug Administration has recently granted full approval to the antiviral drug Remdesivir as a treatment for patients hospitalized with Covid-19.
The organisation had given conditional authorization in May. USFDA also announced that the drug, sold under the brand name Veklury, was the only specific treatment for Covid-19 approved so far.