Top Best Current Affairs 8 October 2020

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it has signed an agreement to invest $15 million in Avaada Energy Private Limited (AEPL) to help expand the company's solar generation capacity in the country. According to its press release, this investment will come from ADB's Ordinary Capital Resources and from Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP), with both funds investing $7.5 million each.

ICICI bank has launched a debit card facility for the customers availing the Loan Against Securities (LAS) from the Bank. The debit card is available on the Visa platform. With this launch, ICICI Bank has become the first bank in India to launch such a facility. The LAS debit can be used by customers across all domestic merchant establishments to make seamless POS and online transactions like payments on e-commerce portals among others, using their sanctioned LAS amount.

Veteran Bollywood actor, Vishal Anand has passed away. He came to fame with 1976 super-hit song and film 'Chalte Chalte'. His real name was Bhishmam Kohli. He has appeared in 11 Hindi films during his acting careers like Hindustan Ki Kasam and Taxi Driver. Apart from acting, Anand had also directed and produced a few films, including Chalte Chalte.

India and France are to launch a constellation of maritime surveillance satellites to monitor illegal spillage of oil in the Indian Ocean Region.

Google India has launched a unique initiative titled 'Make Small Strong' which aims at supporting small and local businesses, especially amid the challenging times of the pandemic. The initiative launched on 30th Sept will enable small businesses to go digital and strengthen their presence online to reach out to more people. Furthermore, Google India has also joined hands with Jagran.com to drive community-wide drive and encourage consumers to buy locally and promote local products. Citizens and local groups have also been asked to lend a helping hand to small businesses by providing their genuine reviews about local and small businesses and promote them both locally and on various digital platforms.

Sports tech and events startup Hudle has announced the appointment of cricketer Ajinkya Rahane as brand ambassador and advisor of the company. Apart from being the face of the brand, Rahane will also be able to guide the team with strategic inputs through his wealth of experience in professional sport, the company said.

Man-animal conflict is known to occur from time to time in India in various places, and more often than not it is the animals that are the most affected. In a much welcome move, to ensure a safe passage to wildlife and to reduce human-animal conflict, India will soon have its first-ever animal overpasses at the under-construction Delhi-Mumbai greenfield expressway.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be commissioning India's largest HPC-AI supercomputer 'PARAM Siddhi - AI'. This initiative will place India among the top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation. The initiative was headed by Abhishek Das, Scientist and Program Director (HPC-AI Infrastructure Development) at C-DAC, who conceived the idea and designed the architecture for the largest HPC-AI infrastructure in India.