Dear Readers, Daily Current Affairs Questions Quiz for SBI, IBPS, RBI, RRB, SSC Exam 2020 of 17th November 2020. Daily GK quiz online for bank & competitive exam. Here we have given the Daily Current Affairs Quiz based on the previous days Daily Current Affairs updates. Candidates preparing for IBPS, SBI, RBI, RRB, SSC Exam 2020 & other competitive exams can make use of these Current Affairs Quiz.
1) International Day for Tolerance is observed on which date to make educational institutions believe that tolerance is an integral part of society?
A) November 11
B) November 13
C) November 16
D) November 15
E) November 18
2) Keetham lake in which state has been added to the list of recognised sites under Ramsar Convention?
A) Bihar
B) Madhya Pradesh
C) Assam
D) Uttar Pradesh
E) Haryana
3) The World’s First library for children on a tram would be launched in which city?
A) Dispur
B) Chennai
C) Mumbai
D) Chandigarh
E) Kolkata
4) The government of which state has launched the Jeevan Seva App For Safe And Timely Transportation Of Corona Patients?
A) Karnataka
B) Chhattisgarh
C) Kerala
D) Delhi
E) Assam
5) Arjun Prajapati who passed away due to covid was an eminent _______.
A) Actor
B) Sculptor
C) Dancer
D) Writer
E) Director
6) Jerry Rawlings who passed away aged 73 was the former president of which country?
A) Kenya
B) Ethiopia
C) Ghana
D) Nigeria
E) Eritrea
7) Which of the following companies emerged as the lowest bidder for a Rs 3,200 crore project to build a road bridge over the Brahmaputra river?
A) JSW
B) Adani
C) GRSE
D) Havells
E) L&T
8) Queen Mother of which country and HelpAge India have received the 2020 UN Population Award?
A) Thailand
B) Vietnam
C) Sri Lanka
D) Bhutan
E) UK
9) The Finance Ministry has given its first ever national database of migrant labour to provide a platform for workers and employers. The total cost is expected to be around ____ crores.
A) 350
B) 400
C) 650
D) 500
E) 450
10) How many countries have signed the RCEP agreement which is the world’s largest trading bloc?
A) 11
B) 15
C) 13
D) 14
E) 12
11) Who among the following is representing India at the 44th Annual Meeting Of Ministers For Foreign Affairs Of G77?
A) Renu Pall
B) Srikumar Menon
C) TS Tirumurti
D) Vinay Kumar
E) Satbir Singh
12) India along with which country have Jointly Launched the 3rd Integrated Check Post, Aim To Boost Trade & Connectivity?
A) Bhutan
B) Maldives
C) Bangladesh
D) Sri Lanka
E) Nepal
13) Puducherry Lt Governor Chandrawati who passed away at 92 was the first woman MP from which state?
A) Madhya Pradesh
B) Chhattisgarh
C) Haryana
D) Bihar
E) Assam
14) Who among the following has clinched the Maiden ATP Tour Title In Sofia?
A) Novak Djokovic
B) Daniil Medvedev
C) Alexander Zverev
D) Jannik Sinner
E) Kei Nishikori
15) The Union government has extended the tenure of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra by _______ year after modifying his appointment order.
- A) 3
- B) 2.5
- C) 1
- D) 1.5
- E) 2
16) Which bank along with IndusInd has been put in the ‘red flag’ list on nearing foreign investment cap?
A) IDFC
B) Bandhan
C) SBI
D) HDFC
E) ICICI
17) Asif Basra who died by suicide at 53 was an eminent _____.
A) Producer
B) Director
C) Writer
D) Dancer
E) Actor
18) Reliance Retail has bought which company recently for $24.4 million?
A) LazyPay
B) Swiggy
C) Urban Ladder
D) Pepper Fry
E) Lenskart
19) Who among the following will attend the 12th BRICS Summit and address the Third Annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum?
A) Nitin Gadkari
B) Anurag Thakur
C) Prahlad Patel
D) Narendra Modi
E) Amit Shah
20) RBI has imposed a ______ crore penalty on Punjab National Bank for contravention of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act.
A) 3
B) 1
C) 1.5
D) 2
E) 2.5
21) Which institution has formuted an efficient “pincer” catalytic system that transforms biomass wastes into valuable chemicals?
A) IIT Delhi
B) IIT Roorkee
C) IIT Madras
D) IIT Bombay
E) IIT Guwahati
22) Who among the following has been appointed as the first chairperson of Reserve Bank Innovation Hub?
A) Rabi Sankar
B) Radhakrishna Nair
C) Kris Gopalakrishnan
D) A P Hota
E) Ashok Jhunjhunwala
23) Who among the following has quit SBI Funds to join HDFC Mutual Fund as CEO?
A) Anand Gupta
B) Deepak Kumar
C) Gopal Srinivasan
D) Navneet Munot
E) K Nikhila
24) The First solar power-enabled Textile Mill in Asia will come up in the Parbhani district of which state?
A) Gujarat
B) Bihar
C) Chhattisgarh
D) Kerala
E) Maharashtra
25) Who among the following has been appointed as state icon of Punjab by Election Commission of India?
A) Sanjay Dutt
B) Akhsay Kumar
C) Sonu Sood
D) Kareena Kapoor
E) Dia Mirza
26) NSE arm, The NSE Academy Limited has acquired which ed-tech firm?
A) Toppr
B) TalentSprint
C) Doubtnut
D) Gradeup
E) Vedantu
27) Indian students have contributed ________ billion to the US economy in the academic year 2019-20.
A) $4.4
B) $6.5
C) $7.6
D) $3.5
E) $5.5
28) The Asian Development Bank has allocated ______ million to help developing members access Covid-19 vaccine.
A) 35
B) 30
C) 25
D) 15
E) 20
29) BCCI has roped in which company as official Kit sponsor for Team India?
A) Nokia
B) Oppo
C) MPL Sports
D) Dream11
E) Vivo
30) The Municipal administrator of which state has launched the TS-bPASS to simplify the building clearance initiative?
A) Chhattisgarh
B) Haryana
C) Uttar Pradesh
D) Telangana
E) Madhya Pradesh
Answers :
1) Answer: C
International Day for Tolerance is marked on November 16.
The day is being celebrated ever since the United Nations marked the year of Tolerance in 1995. The date of November 16 was chosen as it is the anniversary of UNESCO’s Declaration of Principles on Tolerance.
The main aim behind starting this day was to make educational institutions and people at large believe that tolerance is an integral part of society.
2) Answer: D
India has 41 wetlands, the highest in South Asia, with two more added to the list of recognised sites of international importance under the treaty of Ramsar Convention.
The Lonar lake in Maharashtra and Sur Sarovar, also known as Keetham lake, in Agra, have been added to the list of recognised Ramsar sites.
The Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun, the first wetland from Uttarakhand to be recognised by Ramsar convention, was added to the list in October this year.
The other 38 Ramsar sites in India include Chilika Lake in Odisha, Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Harike Lake in Punjab, Loktak Lake in Manipur and Wular Lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
3) Answer: E
The world’s first library for children on a tram would be launched in Kolkata on Children’s Day, which is celebrated to commemorate first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary.
The Kolkata Young Reader’s Tramcar has been jointly developed by the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC) and Apeejay Anand Children’s Library and will have around 1,000 books.
The tram would run on Shyambazar-Esplanade and Esplanade-Gariahat routes, spanning across North and South Kolkata.
The beautiful library on wheels decorated with attractive artworks of children reading, hand painted by local artists housing books across genres for young readers adorning its shelves rolled on its first trip to encourage and inspire children to read and experience the joy of reading.
Year Long activities for children on board the tramcar, such as storytelling dramatised readings, poetry sessions, book launches, music and more are also on the cards, to captivate young minds.
Entry is free for children. Only parents accompanying their children will have to pay normal tram fares to board it.
Earlier in September India’s first library on tram was launched in Kolkata with a wide range of books including those for competitive exams. A similar effort was earlier initiated at Brno in the Czech
Republic.
4) Answer: D
Aiming at safe and timely transportation of the COVID-19 patients to hospitals and healthcare facilities, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain launched Jeevan Seva app.
From health check-ups, ambulance requirements to admission in hospitals, health amenities are now just a click away. With this app, you will get access to an e-vehicle, which will provide free pick-up and drop services. Each vehicle will be properly sanitised after every ride.
The app was launched in collaboration with EVERA cab services. Electric Vehicles will be used as ambulances to transfer non-critical patients to healthcare facilities within Delhi.
5) Answer: B
Padma Shri awardee and sculptor Arjun Prajapati was among the 13 people who died of Covid-19 in the state of Rajasthan.
Prajapati was known for his stone-carved sculptures not only in India but elsewhere in the world.
He was conferred with the Padma Shri Award in the year 2010 for his contributions to art.
He had coined the statue of noted personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Jagjit Singh, Lata Mangeshkar, Indira Gandhi, Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Sachin Tendulkar.
6) Answer: C
Ghana’s former president Jerry Rawlings, a member of the radical and charismatic generation of figures who emerged in West Africa in the 1980s, passed away aged 73.
The former air force flight lieutenant led two coups in 1979 and 1981, railing against corruption and stamping his authority on the nation before ushering in democracy.
From 1981 to 1993, he ruled as chairman of a joint military-civilian government. In 1992 he was elected president under a new constitution, taking up that office the following year.
In 2001, he handed over power to John Kufour of the opposition party who had defeated Rawlings’ vice president in the previous year’s election.
After stepping down, Rawlings remained a power broker in Ghanian politics while serving in various international diplomatic posts, including as the African Union’s representative in Somalia.
7) Answer: E
Engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro has emerged as the lowest bidder for a Rs 3,200 crore project to build a road bridge over the Brahmaputra river.
It will be one of the longest road bridges over a river in the country and on completion will connect two eastern states – Assam and Meghalaya.
The project is being financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The proposed around 18 km bridge, which is considered as strategic, will connect Assam and Meghalaya, reducing the detouring road distance by about 203 km from Dhubri to Phulabari on NH 127 B.
8) Answer: D
Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck, Queen Mother of Bhutan, was announced as the individual laureate for the 2020 United Nations Population Award. HelpAge India was announced as the award’s institutional laureate.
Her Majesty Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck is a longstanding champion of sexual and reproductive health and rights and the need to end violence against women, girls and children in Bhutan. Among her many achievements in recent decades, she has helped to create an enabling environment to openly discuss sexual reproductive health in the kingdom and founded a volunteer organization called “Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women” (RENEW) in 2004. She has also been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNFPA for more than 20 years.
The world’s ageing population has gained increasing attention in recent years, but HelpAge India has been working with and for disadvantaged elderly people in India for nearly four decades, serving their needs holistically and enabling them to live active, dignified and healthier lives.
9) Answer: C
The Finance Ministry has given its first ever national database of migrant labour to provide a platform for workers and employers, and for the government to implement specific programmes for such labourers.
The Ministry of Labour & Employment has envisaged development of a ‘National Database of Unorganised Workers’ (NDUW) seeded with Aadhaar.
The project will enrol all unorganised workers, including migrant workers.
Total cost is expected around Rs.650 crore.
Besides job opportunities, such a database will help migrant labour get the benefit of government schemes. It will help workers to share information about his/her skill which, in turn, will make it easy for employers to find suitable person
Such a database can be used in many ways, apart from being a platform for employers and potential employees. It can be helpful in providing welfare schemes or implementing social security initiatives.
10) Answer: B
Fifteen countries have formed the world’s largest trading bloc, covering nearly a third of the global economy.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is made up of 10 Southeast Asian countries, as well as South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The deal excludes the US, which withdrew from a rival Asia-Pacific trade pact in 2017.
Nguyen Xuan Phuc, prime minister of Vietnam, which hosted the ceremony as ASEAN chair.
The deal was signed on the sidelines of an online ASEAN summit held as Asian leaders address tensions in the South China Sea and tackle plans for a post-pandemic economic recovery in a region where U.S.-China rivalry has been rising.
RCEP will account for 30% of the global economy, 30% of the global population and reach 2.2 billion consumers.
India pulled out of RCEP talks in November last year.
11) Answer: C
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti represented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the G-77 Foreign Ministers.
Tirumurti reiterated India’s steadfast commitment to work with its partners from the global South in the G-77 “towards a resilient and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to build back better and stronger.
India has pledged 15 million dollars for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and operationalised the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for India’s neighbours with an initial contribution of 10 million dollars.
India’s concessional Lines of Credit of over 30 billion dollars, its grants-in-aid projects and flagship training and capacity building projects under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) have made a huge contribution to fellow developing countries.
Further, the 150 million dollar India-UN Development Partnership Fund continues to support transformational sustainable development projects with a focus on LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS.
Tirumurti underlined that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and Financing for Development framework should lay the foundations for global efforts.
12) Answer: E
India and Nepal launched the construction of a Rs 147.12 crore integrated check post (ICP) at Nepalgunj.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Nepali Minister for Urban Development Krishna Gopal Shrestha witnessed the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of an Integrated Check Post.
The Government of India is building Integrated Check Posts on either side of the Indo-Nepal border to systematize the movement of cross-border cargo trucks between the two countries by bringing customs and immigration facilities under one roof. ICPs at Birgunj and Biratnagar were jointly inaugurated and operationalized in April 2018 and January 2020 respectively by Prime Ministers of India and Nepal.
Meanwhile, a similar facility is being built on the Indian side in Rupaidiha by the Lands Ports Authority of India and the work on the facility started in May this year and over 10 percent of construction work has been completed.
13) Answer: C
Haryana’s first woman MP and former Puducherry Lt Governor Chandrawati passed away.
Chandrawati, who had been a Janata Party leader, became the first-ever woman MP from Haryana in 1977 when she defeated political stalwart Chaudhary Bansi Lal from the Bhiwani constituency. She later joined the Congress and served as the Lt Governor of Puducherry in 1990.
14) Answer: D
Jannik Sinner captured his maiden ATP Tour trophy at the Sofia Open in Bulgaria.
The 19-year-old battled past experienced Canadian Vasek Pospisil to become the youngest Italian in the Open Era to win an ATP Tour title.
The last player to have lifted a tour-level trophy at a younger age than Sinner was Kei Nishikori who had earned his maiden ATP Tour title as an 18-year-old at the 2008 Delray Beach Open.
As a result of his title run in the Bulgarian capital, he will crack the top 40 of the ATP Rankings for the first time at number 37.
15) Answer: C
The Union government has extended the tenure of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra by a year after modifying his appointment order that was issued in 2018, officials stated.
Mishra, 60, is a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service officer of the Income Tax cadre and was appointed the Enforcement Directorate chief on November 19, 2018.
His tenure was to end next week as the ED director’s post comes with a fixed term of two years.
It added that his appointment will be for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
The ED is a central investigative agency that enforces two central laws– the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
These laws were enacted to curb money laundering, terror financing, black money and hawala or illegal financial transactions that have cross-border ramifications.
16) Answer: D
Private sector lenders HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank have been put in the so-called ‘red flag’ list, a system used for monitoring foreign portfolio investor (FPI) limits. A listed company enters the list when the available legroom for overseas investment is less than 3 percent of the permissible limit.
FPIs can invest up to 74 per cent in both HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank. The current FPI shareholding in case of HDFC Bank is 71.3 per cent, while that of IndusInd Bank is 73. 1 percent, data provided by depository firm NSDL shows.
Shares of HDFC Bank are up 15 per cent, while IndusInd Bank has gained 31 per cent on a month-to-date basis. Market players stated a lot of foreign capital has flown into these two counters in recent weeks.
Besides these two, Novartis India and Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care are the only other companies in the red-flag list.
Once a stock enters this list, incremental FPI buying is permitted on condition that overseas investors will divest their excess holdings within five trading days from the day of breach of the sectoral cap of 74 per cent.
17) Answer: E
Bollywood actor Asif Basra allegedly died by suicide at a private guest house in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh. He was 53.
Asif Basra starred in films like Black Friday, Parzania, Outsourced, Jab We Met, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Kai Po Che, Krrish 3, Ek Villain, Kaalakaandi and Hichki.
18) Answer: C
Reliance Retail has acquired a majority stake in furniture and decor platform Urban Ladder, making a broader push into e-commerce as the largest retail chain in India gears up to fight Amazon and Flipkart.
Reliance Retail stated it had acquired a 96% stake in Urban Ladder for about $24.43 million. The Indian retail giant, which retains the option to acquire the remainder stake in the seven-and-a-half-years-old startup, stated it has proposed to invest up to $10.06 million more in Urban Ladder by December 2023.
Founded in early 2012, Urban Ladder sells home furniture and decor products online. It also operates a chain of physical retail stores in several Indian cities. The deal size suggests that it was a fire sale.
The startup had raised about $115 million from Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital, and MIT and other investors, according to Crunchbase and Tracxn. In the financial year that ended in March, the Indian startup reported a loss of $6.63 million on a turnover of $58.2 million.
19) Answer: D
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 12th BRICS Summit hosted by Russia, under the theme Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth. The meeting will be held in a virtual format.
During the 12th Summit, held in the backdrop of the 75th Anniversary of UN and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders would be discussing intra-BRICS cooperation and key issues in the global context, including the reform of the multilateral system, measures to mitigate the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, cooperation in Counter Terrorism, trade, health, energy and people to people exchanges.
India will be taking over the Chairship of the BRICS, which would be the third BRICS Presidency for India since its inception after 2012 and 2016. India will host the 13th BRICS Summit next year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver an address at the Third Annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum this evening. The Bloomberg New Economy Forum was established in 2018 by Michael Bloomberg. It seeks to build a community of leaders to engage in real conversations leading to actionable solutions about the critical challenges facing a world economy in the throes of a historic transition.
The inaugural Forum was held in Singapore and the Second Annual Forum was hosted in Beijing. These covered a range of topics, including global economic management, trade and investment, technology, urbanization, capital markets, climate change and inclusion.
20) Answer: B
State-run Punjab National Bank stated the RBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on it for contravention of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act.
“RBI has observed that the Bank was operating a bilateral ATM sharing arrangement with Druk PNB Bank Ltd, Bhutan, (international subsidiary of the Bank), since April, 2010 without the prior approval / authorisation from RBI,” it stated in a stock exchange filing.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed the Rs 1 crore penalty for “contravention of the nature referred to in Section 26 (6) of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act)”, it added. PNB’s shares closed at Rs 29.50 a piece on BSE, up 1.37 percent.
21) Answer: E
A research team of IIT Guwahati has formulated efficient “pincer” catalytic systems that transform biomass wastes into valuable chemicals. Tiny amounts of these “pincer catalysts” repeatedly convert large amounts of industrial waste such as glycerol into lactic acid and hydrogen.
Official sources stated that such catalysts also efficiently convert bioethanol, a low-energy density fuel, into high-energy density butanol. The conversion of valuable intermediates such as glycerol and ethanol, produced during the processing of biomass, into industrially useful chemicals has elicited much interest worldwide.
22) Answer: C
Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, has been appointed as the first Chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.
In August, the central bank had announced that it will set up the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment that would facilitate and foster innovation.
“The Reserve Bank has appointed Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, as the first Chairperson of the RBIH,” RBI stated .
Gopalakrishnan is currently the Chief Mentor of Start-up Village, an incubation hub for start-ups.
Other members of the governing council are CEO (to be appointed), Ashok Jhunjhunwala (Institute Professor, IIT, Madras), H Krishnamurthy (Principal Research Scientist, IISc, Bengaluru), Gopal Srinivasan (CMD, TVS Capital Funds), A P Hota (Former CEO, NPCI), Mrutyunjay Mahapatra (Former CMD, Syndicate Bank), T Rabi Sankar (Executive Director, RBI), Deepak Kumar (CGM, Department of Information Technology, RBI), and K Nikhila (Director, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad).
The Hub will collaborate with financial sector institutions, technology industry and academic institutions and coordinate efforts for exchange of ideas and development of prototypes related to financial innovations.
23) Answer: D
Navneet Munot, Chief Investment Officer of SBI Funds Management, has decided to quit the organisation and join HDFC Mutual Fund as Managing Director and CEO.
Munot will succeed the incumbent Milind Barve at HDFC Mutual Fund.
The board of directors of HDFC Mutual Fund, at its meeting held, approved the appointment of Navneet Munot as Managing Director and CEO.
Barve was re-appointed as the Managing Director for three years in November, 2017.
24) Answer: E
In Maharashtra, the first solar power-enabled Textile Mill in Asia is coming up in Parbhani district. The project, once functional, will provide jobs to many women in the district.
The Jai Bhawani women’s cooperative textile mill will be the first in Asia that will operate on solar power. Spread across thirty acres of land the mill will process cotton to cloth.
Ginning, pressing, weaving and spinning of cotton will be done in the mill. Dr. Patil stated, the cost of the project is 100 crore rupees and with the operationalization of the mill it will certainly give momentum to the industrial sector in the district.
25) Answer: C
Actor Sonu Sood has been appointed as state icon of Punjab by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The decision of honouring Sonu Sood with the title comes after he earned laurels for his humanitarian work during the lockdown.
Sonu has been helping migrant workers reach their hometowns amid the coronavirus pandemic. He also helped people by giving them face masks, food, mobile phones and more.
26) Answer: B
The NSE Academy Limited, an arm of the National Stock Exchange, has acquired a majority stake of 51 per cent in the Hyderabad-based TalentSprint, a deep tech education firm. In the phase-wise acquisition of the stake, the NSE arm would acquire the total stake over a period of three years.
Santanu Paul, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TalentSprint, would continue in the leadership position for three years.
The education technology platform operates in professional learning and executive education space. It has tie-ups with premier institutes like Indian Institute of Science (IIS, Bengaluru), International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad) and the Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) to offer courses in deep tech areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and fintech.
27) Answer: C
Indian students contributed $7.6 billion to the US economy in the academic year 2019-20, even though there was a 4.4 per cent drop in the total number of Indian students, according to a report.
China remained the largest source of international students in the US, with the number of Chinese students in the country increasing for the 16th consecutive year. There were over 372,000 Chinese students during 2019-20 year, stated the report “Opens Doors 2020.”
India remained the second largest source of international students, despite the 4.4 per cent decline to 193,124 students, it stated.
According to the report, released by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE), for the fifth consecutive year the United States hosted more than 1 million international students (1,075,496) in an academic year.
Despite a slight decline (1.8 per cent) in the number of international students during the academic year, this group still represents 5.5 per cent of all students in the US higher education system.
According to the US Department of Commerce, international students contributed $44 billion to the US economy in 2019, including $7,69 billion from Indian students.
28) Answer: E
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated it has allocated $20.3 million aid to its developing member countries to access coronavirus vaccine and establish systems to enable equitable and efficient vaccine distribution.
The funds will be available for ADB developing members to support vaccine-related health system assessments and the development of country readiness plans to strengthen the capacity to access, introduce, deploy, deliver, and monitor vaccines safely and effectively.
The technical assistance will also support the identification and promotion of innovative cold chain and vaccine tracking technologies.
Funds will help members assess and strengthen vaccine cold chain and logistics, infection control, supply and skills of health workers, risk communications, and real-time data capturing and monitoring, it stated.
ADB expects to implement the technical assistance with its partners UNICEF and the World Health Organization, in coordination with COVAX, Gavi, the World Bank, and bilateral agencies, among others.
29) Answer: C
The BCCI formally announced MPL Sports apparel and accessories as the official kit sponsor and merchandise partner of both the national men’s and women’s sides as well as the U-19 team, replacing Nike.
The deal was cleared by the Board’s apex council on November 2. Nike had a five-year deal during which they paid Rs.370 crore from 2016 to 2020.
MPL Sports, the sports merchandise brand from Mobile Premier League — an esports platform — offers a wide range of sports wear and cricket equipment, along with other accessories such as masks, wrist bands, footwear and headgear.
As per the newly-inked strategic partnership, MPL Sports has entered into a three-year agreement from November 2020 to December 2023.
30) Answer: D
Telangana Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao has launched the TS-bPASS initiative.
TS-bPASS provides an instant approval for buildings in plots of above 75 sq yards and upto 600 sq yards, based on self certification.
After the formal launch, he handed over the building permission copies to the citizens who availed the services of TS-bPASS initiative.
The TS-bPASS exclusively for building approvals is similar to TS-iPASS, a single window approval system for industries.
He stated that about 43 per cent population in Telangana lives in towns and cities and the urban population will increase over the years. This initiative will be useful for people. He appealed to people not to break the trust by registering illegal or encroached constructions under self certification initiative.
