Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
In the Global Innovation Index (GII) released for the year 2020 by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD business school, India has been ranked at 48th position among 131 nations.
India has moved up by 4 places from the previous ranking. Switzerland has topped the chart followed by Sweden and US.

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 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published a report titled ‘Enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)’.
The report identifies 16 ways to address the issue of Food loss and waste. It also suggests that these aspects are to be added in National climate plans, so that the ‘Mitigation and adaptation contributions’ from food systems can be improved by 25 per cent.

Notes:
“Chakr”, an IIT Delhi incubated start-up has developed an equipment named ‘Chakr DeCoV’ to decontaminate N95 masks.
The equipment is designed in the shape of a cabinet. It uses ozone gas for cleaning the pores of N95 masks, thus ensuring complete decontamination of all layers of the mask.

Notes:
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has elected Kenichi Ayukawa as its new President.
He has been the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki India since 2013. He earlier served as the Vice President of SIAM and is succeeding Rajan Wadhera. Vipin Sondhi of Ashok Leyland is elected as the Vice President.

Notes:
The Railway Ministry has proposed to amend Sec 144 of Railways Act 1989. As per the present provision in the act, begging in Railway property is an offence and makes it liable for imprisonment or a fine of Rs.2000/-.
The section is proposed to be changed by stating that begging will not be allowed in properties of Railways including Trains and Railway premises.

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:
Bangladesh has recently launched a nation-wide campaign named ‘Asol Chini’, to curb fake information on Social Media.
The ‘Asol Chini’ campaign, which means ‘real identification’, aims to create digital literacy to stop fake information and rumours. To implement this three-month long campaign, a digital platform Durbar21.org has been created.

Notes:
Jeff Bezos – the Chief Executive and co-founder of Amazon has topped Forbes’ list of richest Americans. He has been the richest American as per the Forbes’ list for 3 times in a row.
He is followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. As per the Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezoz became the first person whose net worth rose to over USD 200 billion.

Notes:
In order to boost applied research and innovation in MSMEs and start-ups, the Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog has launched “ARISE ANIC”.
ANIC stands for “Atal New India Challenges” and ARISE stands for “Applied Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises”. The programme is to be driven by ISRO along with 4 ministries namely Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.