Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
Russia is to host a multilateral tri-services military exercise named ‘Kavkaz 2020’ from September 15 to September 27.
Recently, Ministry of Defence of India announced that India is not sending its contingent to the exercise due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and its resultant difficulties. China, Members of SCO, Turkey and Iran will be participating in the exercise.

Notes:
The first commercial direct flight between Israel and the UAE was recently operated. It took off from Israel and landed in Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia granted permission for using its air space.
On August 13, Israel and the UAE announced to establish full diplomatic relations after the United States initiated. UAE is only the third Arab country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel. The flight carried a top-level Israeli delegation and a US delegation.

Notes:
Former Finance Secretary, Rajiv Kumar has taken charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India.
Rajiv Kumar is a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer and has served in various capacities at Ministries in the Centre and his state cadre of Bihar/Jharkhand. He retired as Finance Secretary, in February 2020, after which he was appointed as the Chairman Public Enterprises Selection Board.

Notes:
Qatar has announced major changes in its labour laws and policies. The country has announced to raise the minimum wage by 25 % to 1,000 riyals per month.
The country has also scrapped the requirement for workers to get permission from their employers to change jobs. As Qatar is the host of FIFA world cup 2022, it has been under the spotlight.

Notes:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meet is to be hosted in the city of Moscow, Russia.
Union Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh has recently left for Russia to attend the meet. He is also expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu. However, no schedule has been made for meeting with the Chinese Defence Minister.

Notes:
After the United Arab Emirates requested, Saudi Arabia announced that it will allow flights from all countries to cross its skies to reach the UAE.
Before some days, Saudi Arabia allowed the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight use its airspace to reach the UAE. It carried a high-level delegation of the Government of Israel and the USA, which moderated the ties.

Notes:
The Government of Australian has appointed former star cricketer Matthew Hayden as trade envoy for promoting business ties with India, along with two new members.
He has been named as the Member of Australia-India Council. Ashok Jacob has been reappointed as Chair and Indian-origin politician Lisa Singh will be the Deputy Chair. Another new member was former Australian politician Ted Baillieu.

Notes:
The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched the ‘Water Heroes – Share Your Stories’ Contest.
The contest is launched from September 1 and it aims to create awareness about the importance of water conservation. Under the contest, entries will be invited every month which is a video explaining the participant’s success story. Selected entries will be awarded Rs. 10,000 each.

Notes:
During the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit in Moscow, India and Russia have finalised a major deal for manufacturing AK-47 203 rifles in India.
The rifles will be manufactured in India as part of the joint venture Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL). The AK-47 203 is the advanced version of the AK-47 rifle and will replace the INSAS assault rifle.

Notes:
As per the recent statement from the India’s UN mission, India is to send two teams of specialists to support UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This move is aimed to meet the Covid-19 challenge in two countries. One team of 15 specialists will be sent to Goma in DRC and another team of 15 specialists will be sent to Juba in South Sudan. This will strengthen the hospital facilities managed by Indian peacekeepers and will help those two countries in fighting Covid-19.