Daily Current Affairs Quiz – 12th August 2020

The HQ of South Indian Bank located at Thrissur, Kerala.

The capital and currency of Lebanon are Beirut & Pound respectively.

Recently landslide happened at Kudremukh National Park, Karnataka as wind, rain batter coast.

Recently, the tiger has died in Panna National Park, Madhya Pradesh – the fifth in seven months. Its carcass was found floating in Ken river late Sunday night after a fight with another male. A forest guard watched the clash of fangs and claws through binoculars from a watchtower. Field director of the park, KS Bhadoria, said the fight seems to have been over mating with tigress T6. Tigers P123 and P431 fought fiercely on the riverbank on August 7 and P123 lost.

State-owned engineering firm BHEL said it has commenced civil works at 660-MW Sagardighi supercritical thermal power project in West Bengal.

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated an information repository, in the form of an online dashboard, for all projects identified under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) through video conferencing from New Delhi. The dashboard hosted on the India Investment Grid (IIG) website “www.indiainvestmentgrid.gov.in” will be a one-stop solution providing information on infrastructure projects in New India to all stakeholders. IIG is a pan-India database, developed and managed by Invest India.

The scientist of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) at Palode identified a new species of the Genus Ardisia in the Akkamalai forest in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu. The new species Ardisiaramaswamii, named after the 20th Century Botanist M.S. Ramaswami, who along with C.C. Calder and V. Narayanaswami, listed the species that are not mentioned in the “J D Hooker’s Flora of British India”.

The 8 year-long (2011 – 2019) fieldwork research conducted in the Matheran an eco-sensitive zone near Mumbai, Maharashtra an area of 214.73 Square Kilometer, identified around 140 rare species of butterflies including 77 new species. Scientists MandarSawant, Dr. Nikhil Modak, and SagarSarang from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and SomaiyaVidyaVihar University published their research paper ‘Finding the forgotten gems: Revisiting the butterflies of Matheran after 125 years’ in the community peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data Journal.

World Lion Day is observed across the world on August 10 every year. World Lion Day, 2020 is being observed virtually this year due to the pandemic. The main purpose of this day is to raise awareness about lions and educate people about issues concerning their protection and conservation. In 2013, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, a husband-and-wife team of Big Cat Initiative and National Geographic began an initiative to form World Lion Day.‘Asiatic Lion Conservation Project’ is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEFCC), Government of India in 2017 to provide safeguards to the Asiatic lion.

PenmatsaSambasiva Raju, the YuvajanaSramikaRythu Congress Party(YSRCP) veteran leader passed away due to his prolonged ill-health, at a private hospital in Visakhapatnam. He served as Transport Minister and Pro-tem Speaker of the united Andhra Pradesh Assembly. He was the only member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) who won the election for 8 times in the united Andhra Pradesh Assembly(Sativada and GajapathiNagaram Assembly constituencies).

Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama is set to release his new book “Our Only Home: A climate Appeal to the world” on Climate change co-written by German environmental Journalist Franz Alt in November.

Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting released an e-version of the book ‘Connecting, Communicating, Changing’, a chronicle of Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu’s third year in office. In addition to this Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of Defence also released the print coffee table version of the e-book. The event was organized at Upa-RashtrapatiNivas in New Delhi. This is the 3rd edition of the book on his efforts and outcomes as the Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The 250 pages’ e-book and its coffee table version has been published by the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

BEML(previously Bharat Earth Movers Limited) has set up Industrial Design Centre at Bengaluru as part of its new infrastructure creation. The Centre is first of its kind in India, focusing on implementing factors of Industrial Design & Human Factors as a part of developmental strategies for setting the global benchmarking in Industrial Design and Ergonomics in Products. It is proposed to develop this facility further as a national facility and would be offered to the industry in the next stage.

As a part of the AtmaNirbhar Week celebration (AtmanirbhartaSaptah) between August 7-14, 2020 of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and to boost Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India movement), the Union Defence Minister (Raksha Mantri) Rajnath Singh virtually launched the initiatives for modernisation and up-gradation of facilities at defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad laid the foundation stone for ‘Seeker Facility Centre’ (SFC) to manufacture missile system and ‘Warhead Production Facility’ for manufacturing and testing of indigenously developed warheads required for Konkurs-M, Invar, Akash, Astra missiles etc.

IC-IMPACTS (the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability) 2020 Annual Research Conference held Virtually on Aug 6-7, 2020 to discuss the ways to elevate the inter-country cooperation to the Next Level by strengthening existing international connections, sharing best practices in multiple areas, and initiating new collaborations in government and institutions. The Conference was organized by IC-IMPACTS.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) and Road Transport & Highways addressed the “India@75 Summit – Mission 2022” organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries(CII) which was focused on ‘reinventing technology in India’. He stated that to achieve self-reliant India, the MSME Ministry and Industries should be made import substitutes, cost-effective, pollution-free, and indigenous.

Asian College of Journalism(ACJ) award 2019 was conferred upon Journalist Nitin Sethi for investigative journalism and K P Narayana Kumar Memorial Award 2019 for Social Impact Journalism is bestowed upon Journalist Shiv Sahay Singh. The awards were presented in a virtual ceremony by SoumyaSwaminathan, chief scientist of the World Health Organisation(WHO), at the inauguration of the Class of 2021.

Hassan Diab, Lebanon(Republic of Lebanon) Prime Minister(PM) and his government resigned due to public outrage and the pressure from within his own Cabinet as his government was blamed for the August 4 explosion in Beirut’s port which killed at least 160 people and injured about 6,000 others.

India’s leading Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC) has signed a Memorandum of Association(MoA) with District Administration of Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh(UP) to construct 2 Modular Operation Theatre Rooms in the District Hospital, Siddharthnagar.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given Amazon approval for its Project Kuiper low orbit satellite constellation, to provide Internet access. The planned constellation of 3,236 satellites is intended to address “unserved and underserved communities” around the world. SpaceX is a rival in this area, with its planned Starlink eventually consisting of 4,425 satellites.

BSE, formerly known as Bombay Stock Exchange has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Akola Sarafa Association and Akola SarafaVaSuvarnakarYuvaSangh of Akola, Maharashtra based bullion trade and industry associations for deepening the commodity derivatives market in India and benefit the trading and hedging of all the market participants in Indian bullion derivatives market. Ashish Kumar Chauhan is the present MD&CEO of BSE.

S N Rajeswari has been appointed the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL), according to a Personnel Ministry. She is currently the General Manager of New India Assurance Company Limited.

South Indian Bank(SIB) has obtained in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to set up a wholly-owned non- financial subsidiary for undertaking activities permitted by RBI. After SIB completes the relevant formalities and receives final approval from the regulators the subsidiary will commence its operations.

Paytm has launched India’s 1st Pocket Android POS(Point of Sale) Device, ‘Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS’ for contactless ordering and payments in India. It is an effort to digitize and empower a large number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It is integrated with the ‘Paytm for Business’ app to generate GST compliant bills and to manage all transactions & settlements. It comes with an introductory price of Rs 499 per month on a rental basis and is designed like a phone. It is much more powerful than the portable Linux based POS devices presently available in the country. Paytm: Headquarters– Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, launched Rs 1,800 crore scheme “MukhyaMantriKisan Sahay Yojana” by replacing “Pradhan MantriFasalBimaYojana (PMFBY)”, for FY20-21 only, for the state’s 56 lakh farmers facing crop losses due to drought, excess rain or unseasonal rain. In this regard, the state government will launch a dedicated portal so that farmers can apply online.

MozammelHaque, Bangladesh War Liberation Minister announced the decision to construct a standalone monument for the Indian Soldiers who were killed by Pakistan in the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan. The construction of the monument will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Independence of Bangladesh.

Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment Forest &Climate Change(MoEFCC) along with MoS Environment ministry Supriyo& officials of the Ministry launched a beta version of a portal on Human-Elephants Conflict called “Surakhsya”, a collection of real-time information and supports managing conflicts on a real-time basis.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is going to launch the first-of-its-kind training-cum-production centre of silk in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. The Silk Training cum Production Center will be opened in the far-flung tribal village of Chullyu in Arunachal Pradesh and is set to give a big boost to weaving activities in the entire region.

Mumbai’s Dadar has become the first city in India to have women symbols on traffic signals and signage, which was installed by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that display female icons sporting triangular frock, a shift from the default representation of men.

Assam Council of Ministers approved “Assam Non-Government Education Institutions (Regulation of Fees) Rules 2020”. It seeks to regulate the fee structure of the private educational institutes in the State of Assam. Governor of Assam is Jagdish Mukhi.

Himachal Pradesh has received Investment Clearance from the Union Government for six multipurpose and flood control projects involving an expenditure of Rs 7,922.69 crore for six schemes on 7th August, 2020 at New Delhi. The clearance was given during the 13th meeting of the Investment Clearance Committee (ICC). Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD & GR), Union Jal Shakti Ministry has approved the proposals in respect of major and medium irrigation, flood control and multipurpose projects.

NTPC Limited has achieved 100 Billion Units (BU) of cumulative power generation in the ongoing fiscal year. Central Electricity Board (CEA) has released data in the Annual Load Generation Balance Report of 2020-21.

On the lines of Government of India vision of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”, the Ministry of textiles has abolished it’s another advisory body, Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), and notified that all eight Textiles Research Associations (TRAs) have ceased to be” affiliated bodies” of the ministry. Ministry of Textiles: Union Minister– SmritiZubinIrani.

Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment Forest &Climate Change(MoEFCC) launched the booklet on “Best practices of Human-Elephant Conflict Management in India” to strengthen the coexistence of the human-elephant, along with the Beta Version of “Surakhsya” during the event on the eve of World Elephant Day. The booklet was aimed to reduce the Human-Elephant conflicts and avoid the loss of lives of both humans and elephants.

India and Maldives signed a contract for the development of five eco-tourism zones in Addu atoll of Maldives during an online signing ceremony held from Addu City. The virtual ceremony was attended by High Commissioner of India to the Maldives SunjaySudir and Maldives Foreign Secretary Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed.It should be noted that these projects are undertaken under the MoU signed on 17 March 2019 for “Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP) through local bodies” which involves a total grant assistance of US$5.5 million to the Maldives.