Test: July 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

According to the report, “State of World Population 2020: Against my will – Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality”, which focuses on gender biased sex selection (GBSS) and female genital mutilation (FGM), released by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India accounts for 45.8 million of the world’s 142.6 million “missing females” over the past 50 years & it has the highest number of missing women after China (72.3 million).

The World Bank and the government of India signed an agreement along with the Government of Tamil Nadu to help the low-income groups in the state of Tamil Nadu to get access to affordable housing. Agreements signed: – Legal agreements of two projects were signed to strengthen the state’s housing sector policies, institutions, and regulations. First Tamil Nadu Housing Sector Strengthening Programme worth $200 million (Rs 1,510 crore), Tamil Nadu Housing and Habitat Development Project worth $50 million (Rs 377 crore).

The Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet has approved the re-appointment of senior advocate K.K. Venugopal as Attorney General of India for a year, whose 3 year tenure ends on June 30, 2020 and senior advocate Tushar Mehta as Solicitor General for a period of three years. K.K. Venugopal succeeded Mukul Rohatgi on June 30, 2017. He is the 15th Attorney General of India.

On 29th June 2020, on account of National Statistics Day the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) presented the first Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics’2020 to Dr. Chakravarthi Rangarajan, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India for his contribution to the National Statistical System (NSS).

Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary of Housing & Urban Affairs has rolled out the Beta version webportal for street vendors loan scheme Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors’ AtmaNirbhar Nidhi –PMSVANidhi (http://pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in/) developed by SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) to provide end-to-end solutions for scheme management.

Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, launched the 1st edition of “Matsya Sampada” – newsletter fisheries and aquaculture published by the Department of Fisheries and the operational guidelines of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).

The new report on clean energy transition in India titled “Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-Covid-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors” brought out jointly by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to support India’s clean energy future.

India became a founding member of the United Nation (UN)’s ‘Alliance for Poverty eradication’ launched by Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA). Approximately 2.1 billion people are classified as poor across the globe, among which 767 million are living in extreme poverty. Over 271 million people of India have moved out of poverty between 2006 to 2016, according to the United Nations Development programme.

The World Bank approved a USD 750 million Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Emergency Response Program to support severely impacted MSMEs in India due to COVID-19 crisis. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will provide the loan.

HDFC Bank has launched ‘e-Kisaan Dhan’ App for Farmers in India. This app provides information and knowledge to farmers which will help them to meet the needs of the rural ecosystem.

Government extends the term of Rajkiran Rai G as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Union Bank of India (UBI) by 2 years till May 31, 2022.

India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled “MyGov Corona Helpdesk” won two awards under the categories “Best Innovation for Covid-19 – Society” and “People Choice Covid-19 Overall Winner” in 4th CogX, the annual Global Leadership Summit and Festival of AI and Emerging Technology held in London from June 8th to 10th. The AI enabled Helpdesk was designed, developed and deployed by JioHaptik Technologies Limited in collaboration with the WhatsApp team in 5 days. The theme of CogX 2020 is “How do we get the next 10 years right?”.

New Zealand cancelled the 2021 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that was scheduled to be held in Auckland, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is opting to lead a virtual summit.

In order to promote mutual understanding, Indian Navy and Japanese Navy (Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force) have conducted a day long Naval Exercise PASSEX (Passing Exercise) for tactical and communications training, towards the Malacca Strait in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This was the 15th exercise undertaken by the navies of these two nations in the last three years. The overall content of this PASSEX was goodwill training and to promote understanding.

India Celebrates July 1st as the National Doctors Day to honour the doctors and physicians and to recognise their 24×7 service to the society and to express gratitude towards the professionals of the medical sector for their service. Indian Medical Association (IMA) observed the first National Doctors Day on 1st July 1991. The theme of 2020 Doctors Day is “Lessen the Mortality of COVID-19” which includes awareness about asymptomatic hypoxia and early aggressive therapy.

Government of India (GoI) has approved a scheme for improving the short-term liquidity position of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs)/housing finance companies (HFCs) through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the form of Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS) Trust set up by SBI Capital Markets Limited (SBICAP), a subsidiary of the State Bank of India (SBI). Means, SBICAP will manage this operation. In the Budget Speech of 2020-21, it was announced that a mechanism would be devised to provide additional liquidity facility to NBFCs/HFCs over that provided through the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme (PCGS). It should be noted that the finances provided to the NFBCs/HFCs under this scheme should be used to repay existing liabilities and not to expand assets.

Antonio Guterres, Chief of United Nations, named Prof. Rattan Lal and Dr. Uma Lele (Agricultural experts) from India as members of International Scientific group to offer foremost scientific evidence for sustainable food systems for global food summit 2021. The Scientific Group will be Chaired by Dr. Joachim von Braun of Bonn University Germany.

Karnam Sekar, The Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), retired on 30th June 2020.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), an autonomous, statutory body tasked with regulating and promoting the insurance in India, has set up a nine member working Group (WG) under G. Srinivasan, director, National Insurance Academy, to look at the possibility of the Indian insurance industry or any other sector to offer Surety Bonds in India.

Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu virtually released a book, “Future of Higher Education – Nine Mega Trends.“ The book is authored by CA V Pattabhi Ram, a Public Speaker, author and Teacher. The Virtual event was hosted by ICT Academy.

The 77.9% Russian electorate have voted in favour of constitutional amendments that will allow 67 years old President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036 i.e. until the age of 83. His current term of 6 years will end in 2024. Means now, he will be re-elected twice under the constitutional amendments. He is already the longest-serving leader in modern Russian history.

In accordance with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, India’s external debt stood at $558.5 billion in March 2020, an increase of $15.4 billion or 2.8% as compared to the March 2019. The largest component of the external debt is Commercial borrowings with a share of 39.4%, followed by non-resident deposits at 23.4% and short-term trade credit at 18.2%. In terms of currency, United States (US) dollar-denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt, with a share of 53.7% at end-March 2020, followed by the Indian rupee (31.9%), yen (5.6%), SDR (4.5%) and the euro (3.5%).

The commonwealth writers announced Kritika Pandey, the winner of Asian region prize as the overall winner of the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story, “The Great Indian Tee and Snakes”. The award was presented to her by Ghanaian writer and editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, the chair of the 2020 Judge panel in the online award ceremony.

India's Freya Thakral wins “The Diana Award 2020”
The service through the app is provided in the south Delhi region with plans to extend to the other parts with an aim to transform the lives of the ragpicker community.

Lt Col Bharat Pannu, Indian Army officer, secured the 3rd position on the leader board at the first edition of the Virtual Race Across America (VRAAM) 2020 held from 16th June to 28th June 2020 and became the first ever Indian to secure a podium position in the international ultra-cycling race. Lt Col Pannu finished with a total distance of 4086km in 12 days and a total elevation gain of 71,000 meters in a stationary bicycle in Pimple Nilakh, Pune.