Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
The state of Kerala has recently announced a project named “Dream Kerala”, for rehabilitation of its people returning from abroad.
The project also aims for enhancing works for the overall development of the State. It aims to deploy the skills and knowledge for reviving the economy of the state. Ideas and suggestions from public will be invited and several departments would be jointly coordinating the project.

Notes:
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is set to replace the 25-year-old NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).
The renegotiated deal comes into effect from July 1. USMCA is a trilateral agreement between three countries namely the United States, Mexico and Canada. The deal was originally signed in 2018 and since then the countries have been working to implement the new deal. It seeks to support the technology sector and include USD 600 million to address environmental problems.

Notes:
Two Central public sector undertakings under the Ministry of Coal, namely the NLC India Ltd and Coal India have signed an agreement to form a Joint Venture Company, to develop green power.
The JV company aims to develop solar and thermal power assets of 5000 MW (5 GW) across the country. In the proposed company, both the enterprises will invest in the ratio of 50:50. The expertise of both PSUs would be used for developing power sector.

Notes:
As per the latest issue of a research newsletter on life forms- ‘Bionotes’, a Himalayan butterfly named ‘Golden Birdwing’ is declared the largest butterfly of India.
Until now, another butterfly named the Southern Birdwing holds the record of the country’s largest butterfly for 88 years, after a British military officer and butterfly researcher recorded it in 1932. The female Golden Birdwing has a wingspan of 194 mm, larger than that of the Southern Birdwing.

Notes:
Veteran bureaucrat Injeti Srinivas has been appointed as the first chairman of the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA).
The IFSCA was recently established by the Finance ministry to regulate all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in the country. It is headquartered at Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City, Ahmedabad. The former Corporate affairs Secretary will head the IFSCA for three years.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has launched the state’s own document scanning application named ‘Self Scan’.
The application has been developed by the state’s information technology department. This has been launched amidst the ban imposed by the Centre over 59 Chinese mobile apps. The Chief Minister also inaugurated the state’s first Plasma Bank for treatment of COVID-19 positive patients.

Notes:
The fourth edition of the Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) was recently held through video conferencing.
India’s Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar represented the country in the meeting. It was co-chaired by European Union, China and Canada to discuss on the implementation of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Notes:
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has launched Nasscom Launchpad in New Jersey.
This platform seeks to promote cross border trade between India and the US and technology-based foreign direct investment (FDI) between the two regions. Member companies of NASSCOM will get hands-on training, assistance in site selection, government regulations and tax planning etc.

Notes:
The state Cabinet of Uttar Pradesh has recently cleared the new Uttar Pradesh ‘Start-up policy 2020’, to promote start-ups in the state.
The policy seeks to establish at least one incubator in each district and 100 incubators across the state. It also aims to create an ecosystem in the state to establish 10,000 start-up companies. The policy will be applicable for the next five years.

Notes:
A commercial communication satellite named ‘APStar-6D’ has been recently launched by China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC).
It is developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and was launched using the variant of the country’s Long March rocket. This new satellite can provide a communication capacity of at least 50Gbps, as per sources.