Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to invest $100 million equivalent in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund-NIIF’s Fund of Funds.
ADB joins the Government of India (GOI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as an investor in one of the instruments of NIIF of India. NIIF is an investment platform for Indian and international investors where they are mandated to invest equity capital in domestic infrastructure.

Notes:
Switzerland based Technology company Acronis recently unveiled the inaugural edition of ‘2020 World Cyber Protection Week Survey’.
As per the survey, 42% of companies experienced a data loss event that resulted in interruption last year. It also revealed that traditional strategies of data protection can no longer keep up with the modern technology needs of individuals and organizations.

Notes:
The Government of India lowered the interest rates on various small savings schemes for the first quarter of 2020-21.
As per the revision, the interest rate for the flagship Sukanya Samriddhi Account scheme has been reduced to 7.6% against 8.4% earlier. Investments in PPF will earn 7.1% against 7.9%; the five-year National Savings Certificate will earn 6.8% against 7.9% earlier; KVP will earn 6.9% against 7.6% earlier and five-year Senior Citizens Savings Scheme will return 7.6% against 8.6% earlier.

Notes:
Domestic payment company BharatPe has partnered with ICICI Lombard General Insurance to launch the country’s first coronavirus insurance cover for merchants.
The insurance policy which can be purchased from the BharatPe mobile application aims to cover about 40 lakh shop-keepers, who are more prone to the coronavirus infection amid the lock-down. The health cover pays out 100% of the sum insured if they are tested positive for the pandemic for a premium of ₹199 for a ₹25,000 cover for one year.

Notes:
The Research and Development team of the Pune-based Mylab Discovery, headed by the virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale has designed the first made-in-India testing kit for the Covid-19 disease.
This first indigenous kit, which has been developed in a record time of six weeks, is called ‘Patho Detect’. Usually developing such testing kits would take three to four months. Mylab Discovery is a molecular diagnostic company, which is also the first Indian firm to get full approval to make and sell Covid-19 testing kits.

Notes:
The United Nation’s COP 26 climate change summit was scheduled to be held in the city of Glasgow in Scotland in November 2020.
Amid the world-wide Coronavirus pandemic, the Climate change summit has been postponed to 2021. The British government announced that the exact date of the rescheduled conference will be decided later. This decision has been taken by the COP Bureau of the UNFCCC along with the UK and Italy.

Notes:
Technological major Google has recently shut down its neighbourhood community app called Neighbourly, which will be completely closed on May 12, 2020.
The application which was launched two years ago, hasn’t gained much userbase as expected and hence it has been shut down. The users will be able to download the content of the application until October 12 of this year.

Notes:
The World Bank has granted $1 billion fund to India to strengthen its response in containing Covid-19. This is also the largest ever grant provided for India till date, from the World Bank.
The fund will cover all states and UTs and will be managed by the National Health Mission (NHM), National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The fund will be used for procurement of testing kits, setting up of new isolation wards and purchase of personal protective equipment.

Notes:
The Hercules aircraft of Indian Air Force recently delivered about 6.2 tonnes of essential medicines to Maldives as assistance to tackle the consequences of COVID 19.
The medicines were procured from various cities to be delivered to the neighbouring country. India has earlier sent a medical team along with essential medicines to Maldives. As the island country is mostly dependent on imports from India, essential food grains and consumables were also supplied.

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.