Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan recently announced that Saudi Arabia has assured India of uninterrupted supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The Minister announced this after his discussions with Saudi Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. As the cooking gas demand surged due to the nation-wide lockdown, Saudi Arabia has assured of LPG supplies to support the domestic requirement in the upcoming days.

Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the limit for investment of Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in corporate bonds is hiked to 15% of outstanding stock for FY2020-21.
FPIs can invest Rs 3.17 lakh crore in Indian corporate bonds, at present. After this hike in limit, they can invest up to Rs 4.29 lakh crore of corporate bonds for the half year April to September 2020, and Rs 5.41 lakh crore for the half year October 2020 to March 2021. The revised limits for FPI investment in Central Government securities (G-secs) and State Development Loans (SDLs) will be notified separately.

Notes:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released an analysis report titled ‘The COVID-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a ‘whatever it takes’ programme for the two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind’.
As per its analysis, the world economy will go into recession this year except India and China. The loss to be incurred is estimated to be several trillions of dollars due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Notes:
The Department of Science and Technology has released Rs. 1 Crore to an incubatee firm called Science and Technology park also called as Scitech park.
The Pune-based Scitech park has developed a novel air-purifying technology, which is expected to be used during the ongoing response of the country against Covid-19. The production of the new purifier called ‘Scitech Airon’ is to be scaled up and 1000 units will be soon installed in hospitals.

Notes:
On April 1, the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic relations between India and China was celebrated on April 1.
As per the release of the Union External Affairs Ministry, the Presidents, Prime Ministers and External Affairs Ministers of India and China exchanged messages of felicitation to mark the 70th anniversary. India was the first non-Communist country in Asia to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), on April 1, 1950.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched a new initiative called ‘Lifeline Udan’ under which flights are operated to transport essential medical supplies across the country amid coronavirus lockdown.
The air carriers which are involved in Lifeline Udan operations include Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force and Pawan Hans. Cargo hubs have been established at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata

Notes:
Indian-origin South African and world-renowned virologist Gita Ramjee passed away after contracting coronavirus.
Gita Ramjee was a veteran virologist and a research leader in HIV prevention. She was the Unit Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) offices in Durban. She was the recipient of ‘Outstanding Female Scientist Award’ by the European Development Clinical Trials Partnerships.

Notes:
Following the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Fitch Ratings has slashed India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal to 2 per cent.
This GDP forecast is the lowest prediction in the last 30 years of the agency’s estimates. The Ratings agency had earlier predicted that Indian economy would grow at 5.1 per cent. The Fitch Ratings also announced that it also expects a global recession this year.

Notes:
The Government of India placed curbs on exports of diagnostic kits (diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a backing, preparation diagnostic or laboratory reagents) with immediate effect.
As per the recent notification of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), this step has been taken to discourage shipments amid the coronavirus outbreak. An exporter will have to get license from the DGFT for shipments, which were allowed without restrictions earlier.

Notes:
Basketball legend, who died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, Kobe Bryant along with eight others, were selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Other personalities include American basketball coach Tim Duncan and former professional basketball player Kevin Garnett. The Honourees will be officially inducted in on August 29 in Massachusetts, United States, where the basketball museum, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located.