Current Affairs Quiz Questions and Answers 2020 || 24 Sept 2020 ||

Current Affairs Quiz Questions and Answers 2020

24 SEPT 2020

(Q.01) Who laid the foundation stone for 9 highway projects worth Rs 14, 528 crores in Bihar recently?
1) Ram Nath Kovind
2) Narendra Modi
3) Amit Shah
4) Nitin Gadkari

Ans. :-(2) Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the Foundation Stone for Nine Highway Projects worth Rs 14, 528 Crores in Bihar through video conference. The project includes making six-lane highways, and three bridges on rivers. He also laid foundation of ‘Har Gaon Optical Fibre Cable’ for Internet Services to connect all villages of Bihar. Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad participated in the virtual meeting. Prime Minister also inaugurated the “Har Gaon Optical Fibre Cable” project, under this about six lakh villages would be provided internet services through optical fibre cable in 1,000 days. This includes all 45,945 villages in Bihar. It will be executed by the Department of Telecom, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Common Service Centres (CSC).

(Q.02) The 1st ever direct cargo ferry vessel named “MCP Linz” was launched between India and which country?
1) Mauritius
2) Bhutan
3) Myanmar
4) Maldives

Ans. :-(4) Maldives

Minister of State (MoS) (Independent Charge) for shipping, Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of Maldives, Aishath Nahula jointly launched the First Ever Direct Cargo Ferry Service between India and Maldives. It is considered to be the new connectivity effort has begun in Indian Ocean Region. The services will be a big boost for business communities in India and Maldives to expand their business and trade relations. The service will connect the Indian ports of Tuticorin, Cochin Ports with Kulhudhuhfushi and Male Ports in the Maldives.

(Q.03) Name the company which has won the bid to construct a new parliament building.
1) Reliance Infrastructure
2) Tata Projects
3) Larsen & Toubro Infrastructure
4) GMR Infrastructure

Ans. :-(2) Tata Projects

Tata Projects Limited has won the bid to construct a new parliament building at a cost of Rs 861.90 crore, as per official sources.

(Q.04) How much was the amount extended by India to Maldives to combat COVID-19 (September 2020)?
1) USD 500 million
2) USD 250 million
3) USD 100 million
4) USD 200 million

Ans. :-(2) USD 250 million

In order to reduce the economic and financial impact driven by COVID-19, the President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih requested Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for urgent financial aid. In this regard, on September 20, 2020, India provided a financial assistance of US$250 million (Indian Rupees of around 1837 crores) at favourable terms to the Government of Maldives in the form of symbolic cheque which was handed over by the High Commissioner of India Sunjay Sudhir to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid during an event held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives. This financial support is provided through subscription in Maldives’ Government Domestic Treasury bonds by State Bank of India (SBI), Male (Maldives) so that it does not reflect in the external borrowings of the Maldives. This soft loan has 10-year tenure for repayment and a very low interest rate.

(Q.05) Name the public sector bank which has initiated “Mahila Atmanirbharshil Aachani (Women Self-Reliance programme)” in Assam.
1) Union Bank of India
2) Bank of Baroda
3) State Bank of India
4) Bank of Maharashtra

Ans. :-(3) State Bank of India

State Bank of India (SBI) initiated “Mahila Atmanirbharshil Aachani (Women Self-Reliance programme)” in Assam on the lines of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyanto accelerate Self Help Group (SHG) finance in a mission mode. In this regard, SBI branches of Assam sanctioned 856 SHGs sponsored by NRLM with financial outlay of Rs. 38 crores. Notably, women SHGs of Assam are very active and rely on social collateral rather than on financial collateral. The basic objective of the programme is to create a strong bonding with the SHG members besides extending credit linkages to the women SHGs nurtured and sponsored by National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Assam for self-reliance and economic upliftment.

(Q.06) According to the estimation of Finance ministry, what will be the growth in nominal GDP of India in FY22 (2021-2022)?
1) 11%
2) 17%
3) 15%
4) 19%

Ans. :-(4) 19%

Krishnamurthy Subramanian, chief economic advisor in the finance ministry, Government of India informed that as per the estimate of finance ministry, India’s nominal Gross Domestic Product(GDP) is expected to grow by 19% in FY22 (2021-22) on a low base. NK Singh, chairman of Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) stated that this estimate is a bit moderate when compared with some estimates received from experts.

(Q.07) India (Konkan railways) has delivered two Modern Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit (DMUC) trains to which country (September 2020)?
1) Bhutan
2) Bangladesh
3) Maldives
4) Nepal

Ans. :-(4) Nepal

Konkan Railways (operated by Konkan Railway Corporation) handed over two modern Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit (DMUC) trains to Nepal Railways for the Jaynagar-Kurtha Broad Gauge Line. The Rails will run between Jaynagar (Bihar) and Kurtha in Dhanusa district from December, 2020. The Trains have been manufactured by Integrated Coach Factory, Chennai with modern amenities and latest AC-AC Propulsion Technology.

(Q.08) SBI Life Insurance signed a bancassurance agreement with which bank recently?
1) YES Bank
2) HDFC Bank
3) DBS Bank
4) ICICI Bank

Ans. :- (1) YES Bank

SBI Life Insurance signed a bancassurance agreement with YES Bank to provide a range of insurance solutions to the customers of YES Bank across the nation.

(Q.09) Find the company which collaborated with Google to enable customers use their cards on Google Pay platform?
1) ICICI Card
2) PNB Card
3) SBI Card
4) HDFC Card

Ans. :-(3) SBI Card

Inorder to enable customers to use their SBI Credit Cards to make card payments using the Google Pay app on their Android smartphones, SBI Card (legally- SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited) has collaborated with Google. The launch is in accordance with the endeavour of SBI card to promote zero contact, digital forms of payments for a safe and enhanced customer experience. Also, Google Pay has rolled out tokenisation across its platform in collaboration with Visa and banking partners. It will enable users to safely transact with their cards and use Tap-to-pay feature on NFC-enabled Point of Sale (POS) terminals and online merchants.

(Q.10) Name the company which partnered with IFundWomen to launch a grant program in India to support women entrepreneurs.
1) Visa
2) Mastercard
3) Chase
4) American Express

Ans. :-(1) Visa

Visa Inc. (Visa) along with its global partner IFundWomen, a funding marketplace for women-owned businesses, launched a grant program in India to support women entrepreneurs. This program enables India’s women entrepreneurs to receive funding from Visa to grow and expand their business. It is the extension of 2 successful programs that were launched in the U.S in 2020.

(Q.11) Which ministry has signed MoU with AYUSH ministry to integrate AYUSH systems with nutrition interventions of ICDS?
1) Ministry of Women and Child Development
2) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
3) Ministry of Culture
4) Ministry of External Affairs

Ans. :-(1) Ministry of Women and Child Development

Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) to control Malnutrition as a part of POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission Abhiyaan of MWCD to improve the nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. As a part of MoU there will also be a launch of hashtag #Ayush4Anganwadi for generating awareness about the activities on the digital media.

(Q.12) Name the organization which signed letter of intent with Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP) to strengthen the knowledge, ability, skills of government officials.
1) Finance Commission (FC)
2) Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
3) National Development Council (NDC)
4) National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog

Ans. :-(4) National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog

Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog signed a Statement of Intent with Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP) to provide training, mentoring and other activities to strengthen the knowledge, ability, skills of Government Officials and public policy scholars.

(Q.13) Who has not won the Ig Nobel Prize 2020 for Medical Education?
1) Donald Trump
2) Cyril Ramaphosa
3) Boris Johnson
4) Narendra Modi

Ans. :-(2) Cyril Ramaphosa

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India won the Medical Education Prize of Ig Nobel Prize 2020 at the 30th First Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony over virtual platform. He became the 2nd Prime Minister from India to win the Ig Nobel Prize after Atal Bihari Vajpayee who won the 1998 Peace award for “Aggressively peaceful explosion of atomic bombs”. The Ig Nobel Prize is an annual sarcastic or a parody award presented by the magazine “Annals of Improbable Research”, which is dedicated to scientific humors as a mockery of the standard academic journal. The word “Ignoble” is an antonym of Nobel. The Ig Nobel Award was instituted in 1991 by Marc Abrahams with an objective to honour the achievements that make people laugh and then think. The Ig Nobel Prize 2020 for Medical Education is shared among Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the USA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, for “Using the Covid-19 pandemic to show the world that politicians can have more impacts on life and death than scientists and doctors”.

(Q.14) Who heads the high level task force constituted to initiate action in advance for managing air pollution in National Capital Region (NCR)?
1) Arvind Shrivastava
2) Amarjeet Sinha
3) PK Mishra
4) C Buvaneswaran

Ans. :-(3) PK Mishra

A high-level task force led by Dr Pramod Kumar (PK) Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister reviewed the action taken by agencies and firm up plans for the coming harvesting and winter season during a meeting with Chief Secretaries of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, Secretaries of different departments/ministries of the central government including M/o of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Agriculture, Road, Petroleum and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Its objective was to initiate proper precautionary and preventive measures in advance for the management of air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR). The meet notified that incidence of stubble burning has reduced by more than 50% in the last two years and the number of Good Air Quality Index (AQI) days have gone up.

(Q.15) Which lab of CSIR has developed India’s 1st CRISPR test (Tata sons signed agreement to manufacture it)?
1) Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
2) Institute of Microbial Technology
3) National Environmental Engineering Research Institute
4) Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology

Ans. :-(4) Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology

Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given regulatory approval for the commercial launch of ‘FELUDA’ (FNCAS9 Editor-Limited Uniform Detection Assay), India’s 1st CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) test. It is developed by the scientist of CSIR-IGIB (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology). As per the agreement was signed by Tata Sons Private Limited and CSIR-IGIB in May, 2020, Tata group will manufacture it.