Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the CEO of the leading space company SpaceX, Elon Musk is now the third-richest person in the world.
The 49-year old billionaire has surpassed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Elon Musk’s net worth raised to USD115.4 billion while that of Zuckerberg is USD 110.8 billion. The first and the second positions were featured by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos respectively.

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 Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a MoU with Finland in the field of geology.
The MoU seeks for cooperation in the field of geology and mineral resources between Geological Survey of India (Ministry of Mines) and Geological Survey of Finland. The countries would work for mutual economic, social and environmental benefits.

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:
The Jammu and Kashmir Government has recently set up a 10-member council for conservation of biological diversity.
A new council named the Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council will be constituted, which will have the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests as the Chairman and five non-official members. The council shall constitute a fund named as “Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council Fund”.

Notes:
The United States Department of Defense released its 2020 annual report to the US Congress, on Chinese military power.
As per the DoD report, China has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of around 350 ships and submarines including over 130 major surface combatants. Whereas, the U.S. Navy’s battle force is approximately 293 ships.

Notes:
The Ministry of Power’s Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is set to procure 250 electric vehicles from Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors.
The government’s electric vehicles procurement arm, will procure 150 units of Tata Nexon EV and 100 units of Hyundai Kona EV. The companies were selected by way of an international competitive bidding.

Notes:
The Very-large Crude Carrier (VLCC), that was hired by state-owned Indian Oil Corp. (IOC’s) Paradip refinery, caught fire off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka.
The oil tanker of the Carrier, New Diamond was carrying crude for Indian Oil’s Paradip refinery from Kuwait. The Panama- registered was hired by IOC for carrying 270,000 thousand tonnes of crude oil. Indian Coast Guard sent three ships and a Dornier aircraft for fire-fighting.

Notes:
The Supreme Court refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order against the state government’s decision to make English the medium of education in the state’s government school.
Earlier, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh Government announced that English will only be the medium for government school students from Classes 1 to 6, from 2020-21 academic year. The top court quoted Section 29(2)(f) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

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.