October 4th Week 2020 Current Affairs Online Test English

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a report titled ‘The Global Tuberculosis Report, 2020’ recently. As per the report, India recorded a decline in the notification of tuberculosis (TB) cases by about 85 percent in April 2020, after the imposition of COVID–19 induced lockdown. However, India has the highest TB burden across the globe at 26 percent.

• Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 102nd meeting of World Bank Development Committee Plenary through video conferencing. She highlighted the measures taken by the Government to tackle the COVID–19 crisis, including the USD 23 billion and USD 271 Billion as a part of the economic stimulus package.

• The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has operationalized an advanced high–resolution air quality early warning system for the national capital named ENFUSER (Environmental Information Fusion Service). Another model has also been made operationalized for the rest of the country. IMD has also improved the air quality forecast model ‘System for Integrated Modelling of Atmospheric Composition (SILAM)’, by implementing global emission inventories.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that expires in February, to be extended. However, the USA has rejected the Russian President’s proposal of extending the accord for at least a year without imposing any conditions. The New START treaty, that was signed in 2010, limits the numbers of strategic nuclear equipment that the two countries can deploy.

• As per the Global Hunger Index 2020 report released recently, India ranks 94 among 107 countries in the world. India registered a score of 27.2, which means a level of hunger that is “serious”. Last year, India ranked at 102nd position out of 117 countries. The report also revealed that 14 percent of India’s population is undernourished.

• India has aimed to make it Trans Fat Free by 2022. This is a year ahead of the target set by World Health Organisation (WHO). Trans Fat is a toxic substance present in Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils, baked and fried foods are seen as an important source of non–communicable disease in India.

• As per a recent publication by the Lancet journal, life expectancy in India has risen from 59.6 years in 1990 to 70.8 years in 2019. The value ranges between 77.3 years in Kerala to 66.9 years in Uttar Pradesh. The report has however pointed out that, in India, people are living more years with illness and disability. High Blood pressure, use of tobacco, air pollution and COVID pandemic has resulted in acute health emergencies.

• The rocket named New Shepard has been test launched recently by Blue Origin. It was an unscrewed test. The New Shepard launch vehicle consists of a reusable rocket and space capsule. During the test, both the capsule and the rocket boosters were brought down to earth successfully. Blue Origin is a private spaceflight company founded in 2000 by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

• The Ministry of Finance has authorised State Bank of India (SBI) to issue and encash Electoral Bonds. These bonds would be made available through SBI’s 29 Authorized Branches from 19th October to 28th of October this year. The is the 14th phase of sale. Electoral Bonds will be valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue and no payment will be made to any payee Political Party if the Electoral Bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period.

• The Philippines announced that it will resume oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea, by ending a six–year moratorium on resource exploration. Former President Benigno Aquino III suspended exploration in the disputed sea in 2014 amid tensions with China. The United States had also supported Philippines against the move of China.

• A naval version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test–fired from INS Chennai. The missile was fired from the indigenously built stealth destroyer of the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea. It hit the target accurately after performing extremely complex operations. The missile can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or from land platforms.

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has recently constituted a task force to look into guidelines for vegan foods in the country. The task force includes 7 members from various organisations like ICAR, Ministry of Commerce and the Industry and Quality Council and some private vegan institutions.

• As per a recent report by WPP Plc and Kantar, HDFC Bank has emerged as the most valued brand in India. The Bank is placed at the top position for seventh consecutive year. HDFC Bank is valued at USD 20.2 billion and it is followed by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) at second position.

• The ‘Kati Bihu’ festival was celebrated in the state of Assam recently. It is an agricultural festival being celebrated in the month of October. It is an important festival, during which they light up their homes and agricultural fields. They also perform cultural dances and organise feasts across the state.

• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has stated that it is restructuring the “Fund for Improvement of Science and Technology Infrastructure in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions” (FIST). The FIST programme will now be re–launched as FIST 2.0. It aims align the requirements of startups with the government’s ‘self–reliant India’ campaign.

• India’s think tank NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) has stablished a Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This aims to address societal challenges through digital innovation. This is the first Cloud Innovation Center of Amazon in India and twelfth around the world.

• Commodity exchange, Multi commodity Exchange of India (MCX) has recently launched futures trading in real–time Base Metals Index ‘METLDEX’. The Base Metals Index will track real–time performance of a basket of MCX Base Metal futures that includes zinc, copper, nickel, lead, and aluminium. In August 2020, the exchange had launched MCX Bullion Index (MCX BULLDEX) futures.

• The state of Uttar Pradesh has attracted the highest number of domestic tourists in 2019. As per the Indian Tourist Statistics 2020, 23.1% of travelers in India visited Uttar Pradesh. The state stood at third position in average number of foreign travelers. As many as 47 lakh travelers visited the state in 2019.

• The Government of India has signed a loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan of USD 177 million. The proceeds of the loan would be used for upgrading 450 kilometres of state highways in Maharashtra. The project is expected to boost the road connectivity between rural and urban centres in Maharashtra for better access to markets and services.

• As per the recent statement of the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) of India, the import of edible oils to the country reduced by 12 percent in the first 11 months (November to September) of the oil year 2019–20. The oil year ranges from November to October. India imported 11.95 million tonnes of edible oil during November–September of 2019–20 as against 13.58 million tonnes during the corresponding period of 2018–19.

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) chief Michelle Bachelet has recently appealed to the Government of India to review the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
• The head of the UN forum also asked India to review compliance of the act with international human rights norms. She also regretted that it was being used to punish NGOs for human rights reporting. Earlier, Amnesty Intl., shut its office in India after its bank accounts were frozen.

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh released a new version of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Procurement Manual 2020 (PM–2020). The previous Procurement Manual was altered in the year 2016. The manual aims to encourage more participation of start–ups and micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) in defence research and development.

• Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS–REx) is a space craft of the NASA. It was seen in news recently as the space craft touched an asteroid using its robotic arm to collect dust and pebbles from the surface to deliver to Earth in 2023. The asteroid known as Bennu, is currently more than 321 million kilometers from Earth.

• As per a recent study published in the ‘Quaternary Science Reviews’ journal, evidence of a lost river has been found, which might have been a life–line to human populations.
• The river which through the central Thar Desert, near Bikaner, before 172 thousand years ago. The study was conducted by Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, and IISER Kolkata.

• In a recently released scorecard of the Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Index by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Haryana was ranked at the top spot with an AMB Index of 46.7. The Anaemia Mukt Bharat is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and UNICEF. It aims to reduce the prevalence of Anaemia all over India.

• The famous UNESCO World Heritage Site Nazca Lines (Pampa de Nazca) is located in the South American country Peru. The place was seen in news recently as a new figurative geoglyph related to a cat was identified, drawn on one of the slopes of this hill. The site is known for its depictions of gigantic animals, plants and imaginary beings.

• ‘Global Estimate of Children in Monetary Poverty: An Update’ is an analysis on children living in poverty, released by World Bank Group and UNICEF. As per the estimate, 1/6th of the total 356 million children of the world, were living in extreme poverty before the COVID–19. The report states that sub–Saharan Africa accounts for two thirds of children living extreme poverty.

• The State of Global Air 2020 (SOGA 2020) report was released by US–based Health Effects Institute and Global Burden of Disease (GBD). As per the report, India recorded the highest annual average PM 2.5 concentration exposure in the world last year.
• People in India are exposed to the highest PM 2.5 concentrations globally and the country has been recording an increase in PM 2.5 pollution since 2010.

• INS Kavaratti, Anti–Submarine Warfare (ASW) stealth corvette built under Project 28 (Kamorta Class) was commissioned into the Indian Navy by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, Chief of the Army Staff at a ceremony held at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam. INS Kavaratti is the last of the four indigenously built ASW stealth corvettes under ‘Project 28’. It has been built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd.

• Tamil Nadu state government has started implementing the Smart Black Board scheme in 80,000 government schools. Under the Smart Black Board scheme, audio visual teaching material is used that can be fed into the computer screens using pen drives. This project is expected to ensure better teaching environment.

• A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur has developed a low–cost COVID–19 test unit named ‘COVIRAP’. It is a portable unit for rapid diagnostics of coronavirus and produces results in less than an hour.
• It involves accurate molecular diagnostic procedure and costs only around Rs 500 per test. The team also developed a mobile application for finding the results.

• Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has recently launched the ‘e–Dharti Geo Portal’. The portal aims to integrate legacy drawings such as maps and lease plans in the management information system named e–Dharti and make it a geographic information system (GIS) enabled system.

• Switzerland–based World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released a report titled ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2020’. As per the report, advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will lead to a net increase in jobs over the next five years. It also revealed that the Covid–19 pandemic will result in “double–disruption” for workers.

• In pursuance of ‘Make in India’ policy of the Government of India, Ministry of Shipping has reviewed the ROFR (Right of First Refusal) licensing conditions for chartering of vessels/Ships through tender process for all types of requirements. To promote the demand of the ships built in India, priority in chartering of vessels is given to vessels built in India, flagged in India and owned by Indians under the amendments in the guidelines of ROFR (Right of First Refusal).

• The Labour and Employment Ministry has recently revised the base year of the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI–IW) from 2001 to 2016. This has been done to reflect the changing consumption pattern, to give more weightage to spending on health, education and other miscellaneous expenses, while reducing the weight of food and beverages. However, this will not affect the DA of government employees.

• The devastating rains over Hyderabad in the recent past have caused damage to the 500–year–old Golconda Fort. It is an early capital of the Qutab Shahi Dynasty. As per the Archaeological Survey of India, steps and rocks of the Kingsway, the wall near the Jagadambika temple, the rear wall and a structure near the second well have suffered damage.

• Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has recently inaugurated the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar. IIT Ropar has featured in the 351–400 rank in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020. The institute also received a grant of Rs 110 crore to set up the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) in the fields of agriculture and water.

• The Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) has been inaugurated at All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi. This RRDR is the second in the series of repositories proposed by National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH. Ministry of AYUSH has proposed eight RRDR and one NRDR out of which three Regional Raw Drug Repositories are ready.

• The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights to the Belarusian movement opposing President Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition movement was led by the exiled Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. The EU also had agreed to impose sanctions against officials suspected of involvement in a security crackdown on protesters in Belarus.

• Former Prime Minister of Lebanon Saad Hariri won a small majority of votes in parliament and has been named the next Prime Minister. He has been tasked with forming his fourth government, just under a year after his resignation amid mass–protests. President Michel Aoun had consultations with various parliamentary associations before naming him as the Prime Minister.

• The city of Dubai of United Arab Emirates (UAE) has broken the record for the world’s largest fountain. The Palm Fountain which covers an area of 14,366 square feet is located at the Pointe shopping and dining district on Palm Jumeirah of Dubai. Dubai which is one of the seven emirates already holds the record for world’s tallest building and world’s fastest police car in service.

• The Indian Navy has made a test launch of its Anti–Ship Missile (AshM) from a Missile Corvette named INS Prabal. According to an official release, the INS Prabal launched and fired an anti–ship missile in the Arabian Sea on a target of an old ship. The missile had hit the target with utmost accuracy and sank the target ship.

• In a meeting held by the European Union (EU) environment ministers in Luxembourg, a law was formulated was signed to make European Union net zero carbon emitter by 2050. The deal makes it legally binding on all the EU members. This climate law would create a basis for Europe’s plans to reduce greenhouse emissions in various industrial sectors.

• Recently, the Government e Marketplace (GeM) has been successfully integrated with Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP). By doing so, the entire process of public procurement of goods and services have been brought under a single platform. The function of ”custom bid” is also created in the platform, which will allow a buyer to float a bid on GeM.

• Maharashtra became the third state in the country to curtail the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) powers in the state. The state withdrew its general consent agreement with the CBI agency. Hence forth CBI has to seek permission from the Government of Maharashtra for every case it has to investigate. A similar move was earlier done by Rajasthan and West Bengal.

• A price monitoring and resource unit (PMRU has been recently set up in Goa, under the aegis of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). NPPA has already established PMRUs in 15 states/ UTs, under its Consumer Awareness, Publicity and Price Monitoring (CAPPM) scheme. As per the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the unit will function at the state level under the direct supervision of the state drug controller.

• Maharashtra has recently inaugurated the platform named ‘Tarang Suposhit Maharashtracha’, to fulfil the nutritional requirements of lactating mothers and children in the state. The platform is based on the interactive voice response system. The platform also aims to create awareness about the nutritional requirements of women and children in the state. The state stood first in the ‘Poshan Mah’ observed this year.

• Mars orbiter Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) is the Mars orbiter mission launched in the year 2013, to investigate the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars. As per a recent study of data and images sent by ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and NASA’s MAVEN, Mars is losing its atmosphere to outer space at a faster rate, when compared to other terrestrial planets in the solar system.

• Indian Origin Wavel Ramkalawan, has been recently elected as the President of Seychelles. He belongs to the opposition party and it is the first time since 1977 that a person from opposition is assuming the office of President. Ramkalawan, a former Anglican Priest, defeated incumbent Danny Faure after three decades of unsuccessful runs for the Presidency.

• The United Nations Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was opened for signature at United Nations headquarters on 20th September 2017. Once 50 countries have ratified or acceded to it, it will enter into force. The United Nations announced recently that 50 countries have ratified the treaty and would come into force within 90 days, by January 2021.