Current Affairs Quiz - October, 2020

Notes:
Japan has introduced deer-friendly bags to stop animals like Nara deer from eating plastics. The locals have launched paper bags made with rice bran that the deer can digest.
Earlier, a deer was found dead with a huge amount of plastic garbage in its stomach, as the deer thinks plastic wrappers left out by tourists as food. Nara Park of Japan is home to more than 1,200 free-roaming deer.

Notes:
Jio has partnered with Qualcomm and indigenously developed a 5G RAN (Radio Access Network) product.
Reliance Jio Infocomm will use the technology of Qualcomm to develop the product which has achieved over 1 Gbps throughput. India has entered the elite club of countries which display 1 Gbps speeds for 5G customers.

Notes:
Microsoft Corporation has recently announced its partnership with SpaceX, a space agency founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The association would enable Microsoft to establish a connection between its Cloud Computing Platform “Azure” to SpaceX’s network of Low Earth satellites. This partnership would help the integration of cloud computing with space technology.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India has recently set up a committee under its Director General Umesh Sinha and ex Indian Revenue Service officer Harish Kumar.
The panel has been set up to examine the existing expenditure limits for election candidates amidst the increase in number of electors and rise in Cost Inflation Index. Earlier, a 10% increase in the expenditure limit of election candidates.

Notes:
The Pune based Serum Institute of India has partnered with Merck KGaA and IAVI for development SARS-CoV-2 neutralising monoclonal antibodies. The Merck Group is a German multinational science and technology company.
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated “Kisan Suryodaya Yojana” of Gujarat. It is an agricultural scheme under which, farmers would be entitled to power supply from 5am to 9pm for irrigation purposes.
The scheme was announced by the state’s Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. The state has allocated a budget of Rs.3500 crore for installing power transmission infrastructure under this scheme by 2023.

Notes:
The Central Government has extended the due dates for filing income tax returns and tax audit reports for FY 20 to various classes of taxpayers.
As per the announcement, individuals who are not required to conduct a tax audit report can file their Income Tax for FY 20 up to 31st December 2020. The original due date of 31 July 2020 was earlier extended to 30 November 2020.

Notes:
Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the ‘Direct Port Entry (DPE) facility’ of V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Tamil Nadu.
‘Direct Port Entry (DPE)’ will help in increasing Ease of Doing Business for the exporters. The facility is expected to lower tariff cost and improve the competitiveness of shipper in the international trade. This will also align it on the lines of ‘Maritime Vision 2030’ of Ministry of Shipping.

Notes:
The NITI Aayog’s AIM (Atal Innovation Mission) will be organizing a 2-day hackathon on circular economy titled “India–Australia Circular Economy Hackathon (I-ACE)”.
This is done in collaboration with CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency). The hackathon would be held on 7th and 8th December this year.