Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
The third round of the monthly sero-prevalence survey began in the National Capital Region, to analyse the situation of the Covid-19 spread.
Under the survey, using the blood samples, the presence of antibodies for Covid-19 will be checked, which will explain the extent of the spread of the virus. In the last survey, it was found that 29.1 per cent of people had antibodies. This time, the sample size will be 17,000.

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:
Two Union Territories of India Ladakh and Lakshadweep have been recently integrated to One Nation One Ration Card Scheme.
With this, a total of 26 states and UTs are seamlessly integrated in the national cluster of the scheme. The UTs have successfully completed the trial of portability transactions with other States and UTs.

Notes:
A relatively low concentration of Ozone over Guwahati has been discovered by the Scientists at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital.
ARIES is an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The team has evaluated the near surface ozone in the Brahmaputra River Valley (BRV) and found the Ozone variation in Guwahati, compared to the other urban locations in India.

Notes:
An important meeting of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) was held virtually under the chairmanship of Sri Lanka.
During the meeting discussions were focussed on ways to expand cooperation among its member nations to deal with various challenges Covid-19. BIMSTEC is a multinational grouping of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

Notes:
Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot is set to launch the Mental Health Rehabilitation Helpline “KIRAN”.
This 24×7 Toll-Free Helpline has been developed by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, to provide psychological support and rehabilitation services to persons with Mental Illness, across the country.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has released revised guidelines for Priority sector lending (PSL). This has been done to achieve better credit penetration in the country.
The new guidelines have mechanism to enhance flow of credit to credit deficient areas. Also, under the new prevision bank finance to start-ups up to Rs.50 crore can be considered as Priority Sector Advance.

Notes:
The 11th edition of ‘INDRA NAVY’ – a biennial maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and Russian Navy has commenced in the Bay of Bengal.
It is a 2-day exercise and would be conducted in a non-contact format at sea. India has deployed guided missile destroyer, frigate vessels, fleet tanker and their integral helicopters in the exercise.

Notes:
As per the Japan Meteorological Agency, the typhoon Haishen hit Japan and released fierce winds and rains.
Haishen means Sea God in Chinese and the typhoon unleashed winds of speed over 180 kilometers per hour and damaged some parts of Okinawa, Kyushu island. The typhoon is estimated to approach some regions of South Korea.

Notes:
As per the news from the Prime Minister’s Office, the first-ever cannabis medicine project will be set up at Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in Jammu.
This project will be the first major foreign investment in Jammu and Kashmir after it became a Union Territory (UT). It will be established in collaboration with Canada. The medicine prepared from Cannabis are used to produce pain-relief medicine.