Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
According to a study published in the US science journal PNAS, researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic.
The G4 flu is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009. As per the China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms. More researches are being carried out on ferrets.

Notes:
An Artificial Intelligence enabled digital platform of the Indian Government named MyGov Corona Helpdesk bagged two awards at the Global Leadership Summit, CogX 2020.
The helpdesk bagged two awards under categories namely “Best Innovation for Covid-19 – Society” and “People’s Choice Covid-19 Overall Winner”. CogX 2020 is a prestigious Global Festival of AI & Emerging Technology held annually in London.

Notes:
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is set to launch a cashless scheme for road accident victims.
The Ministry is to establish a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund under its aegis, for implementing the scheme. It will have an insurance coverage cap of Rs 2.5 lakh per case and enables all road accident victims of Indian or foreign nationality, to be eligible.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted a national level committee for reform in criminal law.
The committee is to be headed by Ranbir Singh, who is the Vice-Chancellor, National Law University-Delhi. The committee has many veteran legal academicians and it has invited opinions online on the possible reforms in the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act.

Notes:
Indian Oil Corporation and Beximco LPG have signed an agreement to form a Joint venture company for LPG business in Bangladesh.
The Joint venture company (JVC) aims to set up a large LPG terminal at a deep-water port in Bangladesh, to receive LPG and reduce import. It will begin functioning by acquiring existing LPG assets of Beximco.

Notes:
Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian-American author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee has been named as the ‘2020 Great Immigrants’ honourees by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Another Indian American Professor of Economics at Harvard University Raj Chetty also jointly received the honour. They have been honoured for their contribution towards the efforts in containing the COVID-19 crisis.

Notes:
Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission has recently captured the image of Phobos.
Phobos is the closest and biggest moon of Mars, which has been captured by the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard the MoM spacecraft. The image was taken when the spacecraft was about 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.

Notes:
The state government of Assam has decided to upgrade the Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary into a national park.
Earlier, the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) under the Environment Ministry had recommended coal mining to be allowed within a portion of Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve. After the upgradation of tis sanctuary, Assam will have 6 national parks. Dehing Patkai comprises of a variety of unique flora and fauna.

Notes:
The state government of Odisha is set to launch a new financial assistance scheme called ‘Balaram Yojana’.
It is a sequel to the ‘KALIA’ scheme, which was launched with an aim to provide assistance to small and marginal farmers. Under the new scheme, the state will provide crop loans to 7 lakh landless sharecroppers in the state, through joint liability groups (JLGs) in the next two years.

Notes:
As per the recent research report of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Rajasthan has the highest count of inbred tigers in the country.
Inbreeding refers to the process of producing offspring from breeding of individuals or genetically related organisms. Tigers have dispersed from the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve to Sarika Tiger Reserve in Alwar and Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Kota, and NCBS explained that these tigers are related.