Top Current Affairs 27 and 28 July 2020

Top Current Affairs 27 and 28 July 2020

Top Current Affairs 27  & 28 July 2020: We have collected the latest current affairs for 27 & 28 July 2020 that are important for all competitive exams like Bank, SSC, IBPS, SBI exams. The GK current affairs will help you score more in these competitive exams. Improve your general knowledge with our daily online current affairs. 

National News

PM Modi Launches High-Throughput COVID-19 Testing Centres at ICMR Labs in Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three high throughput coronavirus testing facilities via video conferencing on 27 July 2020 at the National Institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research at Kolkata, Mumbai and Noida.
• These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata.
• These hi-tech testing facilities will have testing capacity of almost 10,000 per day.
• These labs will not be limited to testing for COVID, but in future, will also be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Dengue and several other diseases.

IMD launches first weather app ‘Mausam’ for general public

• The Ministry of Earth Sciences has launched a Mobile app ‘Mausam’ to provide all current weather information and forecasts, among other warnings.
• The mobile application, Mausam, has been designed and developed jointly by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderbad and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.
• Mausam is the first app launched by the 145-year-old India Meteorological Department (IMD) that is meant for general public to communicate weather forecasts in a simple manner with no technical jargon.
• IMD already has another app, Meghdoot, meant only for farmers and those involved in agriculture.

Delhi Government Launches ‘Rozgaar Bazaar’

• The Government of Delhi, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has launched an online job portal ‘Rozgaar Bazaar’, which will be beneficial for both, the job seekers and employers, by bringing them together on one platform.
• The portal can be accessed at http://jobs.delhi.gov.in/
• ‘Rozgaar Bazaar, will have two option:
  • I want a job.
  • I want to hire.
• It will provide job-seekers with an opportunity to connect with employers via phone or WhatsApp, so as to make job opportunities available to those who lost employment due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown,

IIM-Kozhikode incubated start-up develops wearable device ‘Veli Band’ to ensure social distancing

• The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK)-based incubated startup, Qual5 India Pvt Ltd (a female-led startup), has launched a unique user-friendly wearable gadget, named as ‘Veli Band’ that helps in maintaining social distancing by sending out alarm in case of proximity with another person.
• The Veli Band momentarily vibrates, sounds buzzer, and flashes LED simultaneously to notify wearers that another band is within three feet or one-meter radius.
• It uses location and contact tracing which can help organisations comply with social distancing norms during the current pandemic situation.

International News

NASA to Launch ASTHROS Mission to study Cosmos using football stadium-sized balloon

• NASA has planned to launch a new mission ‘ASTHROS’, to observe wavelengths of light invisible from the Earth, in a bid to find answers about formation of giant stars in the galaxy.
• Under the mission NASA will send a telescope, on a football stadium-sized balloon, high into the stratosphere.
• The telescope mission ASTHROS stands for Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths
• The mission is likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica,  and will be managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• ASTHROS mission will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent to observe far-infrared light, or light with wavelengths much longer than what is visible to the human eye at an altitude of about 130,000 feet (40 km) roughly four times higher than commercial airliners fly.

Agreements

TRIFED inks MoU with IIT Delhi for Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA)

• TRIFED, a key organizations committed to the welfare and growth of the tribal people, under Ministry of Tribal Affairs has entered into a partnership with IIT Delhi for the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) for the tribal development.
• UBA is a flagship national programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, to connect institutions of higher education with local communities to address the development challenges through appropriate technologies.

India and EU renews Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation for next 5 years till 2025

• India & the European Union have further renewed its Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation for the next five years, 2020-2025, at the 15th India-EU Summit, held on 15 July 2020.
• The Agreement was initially signed in on 23 November 2001 and renewed two times in past in 2007 and 2015.
• The agreement will help both the sides to expand the cooperation in scientific and technological research, strengthen the conduct of cooperative activities in areas of common interest and application of the results of such cooperation to their economic and social benefit.

DST launches Rs. 15 crore fund to support India-Russia collaboration joint R&D and cross-country tech adaptation

• The Department of Science and Technology has launched ‘India-Russia Joint Technology Assessment and Accelerated Commercialisation Programme’.
• The objective of this program is to connect the Indian and Russian science and technology (S&T) led SMEs and start-ups for joint R&D for technology development and for cross-country technology adaptation
• The programme has been jointly launched in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE) of the Russian Federation.
• FICCI will implement the programme in India, on behalf of DST and same will be done by FASIE in Russia.
• The programme will run over a period of two years and up to five projects will be funded each year.
• DST will fund up to Rs 15 crores to 10 Indian SMEs/start-ups and FASIE will provide similar funding to the Russian projects.
• Projects under the program will be mainly based on leading S&T focus areas, such as, IT & ICT, medicine and pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, aerospace, alternative technologies, environment, new materials, biotechnologies, robotics, and drones.

India extends medical assistance worth USD 1 million to North Korea

• India has extended anti-tuberculosis medical assistance worth about USD 1 million to North Korea in response to a request received from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• The medical assistance is given under the aegis of an ongoing WHO anti-tuberculosis programme in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Sports

Haryana to host 4th Khelo India Youth Games in 2021

• Haryana will host the fourth edition of the Khelo India Youth Games in 2021, in Panchkula.
• The games will be held after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which is scheduled to take place from July 2021.
• Usually the Khelo India Youth Games take place in January every year, however, this time owing to the pandemic, the games have been postponed to a later date (yet to be decided).

Indian 4x400m relay squad’s Silver medal at 2018 Asian Games upgraded to Gold

• The silver medal which was won by the Indian 4×400 mixed relay quartet of Mohammed Anas, M.R. Poovamma, Hima Das and Arokia Rajiv at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta has been upgraded to gold.
• This decision was taken following the disqualification of original winners Bahrain on account of a four-year doping ban handed to Kemi Adekoya by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for failing a dope test.
• Additionally, with Adekoya’s disqualification, India’s Anu Raghavan has moved from fourth position to bronze medal position in the 400m hurdles final.
• Now India has become the first winner of the 4x400m mixed relay event, which was introduced in the Asian Games in 2018.

Obituary

Tanzania’s former president Benjamin Mkapa passes away at 81

• Former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, has passed away, due to heart attack. He was 81.
• Mr Mkapa served as the third President of Tanzania and was in office for one decade from 1995 to 2005.

Important Days

Maldives celebrates 55th Independence Day on 26 July 2020

• Maldives celebrated its 55th Independence Day on 26 July 2020.
• 2020 also marks 55 years of establishment of diplomatic ties between India and the Maldives.
• Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih

CRPF Observes 82nd Raising Day on 27 July

• The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), observed its 82nd Raising Day on 27 July 2020.
• CRPF is India’s largest Central Armed Police Force, under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Its headquarter is located in New Delhi.
• It came into existence as the Crown Representative’s Police on 27 July 1939. After Indian Independence, it became the Central Reserve Police Force on the enactment of the CRPF Act on 28 December 1949.

World Hepatitis Day : 28 July

• World Hepatitis Day is observed on 28 July every year to raise global awareness of the burden of viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver that causes a range of health problems, including liver cancer.
• The day 28 July was chosen for World Hepatitis Day because it is the birthday of Nobel-prize winning scientist Dr Baruch Blumberg, who discovered hepatitis B virus (HBV). He also developed a diagnostic test and vaccine for the virus.
• Theme of World Hepatitis Day 2020:  ‘Find the Missing Millions’.