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:
The 2nd Extraordinary G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting was recently organised via tele-conferencing under the Presidency of Saudi Arabia.
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the virtual meeting. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and markets was discussed and coordinate efforts in response to this global challenge. Finance Minister asked for reviewing and enhancing the IMF toolkit.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India recently released some measures to deal with the consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. As per the new export norms, the exporters can take 15 months to realise their export proceeds, for exports made up to July 31 against the earlier 9 months.
RBI also increased the Ways and Means Advances limit for state governments and UTs by 30 % till September 30. It also said that the banks are not required to activate counter-cyclical capital buffers for one more year.

Notes:
Every year, the 2nd day of April has been observed as the World Autism Awareness Day, across the world.
According to the United Nations, the theme of the 2020 World Autism Awareness Day is “The Transition to Adulthood”. The UN Secretary General António Guterres announced that the rights of persons with autism must be taken into account in all responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes:
As per a recent survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), about one-fourth of the consumers in India pay for news at present but nearly two-third of the population are willing to pay.
Amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the role of media has become vital in the society. The World Economic Forum (WEF) conducted a survey of news and entertainment consumers in six markets including China, Germany, India, South Korea, the UK and the US. It also revealed that 60% of consumers registered for a media service.

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank released its annual economic publication- Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020 recently. As per the report, India’s growth is to slow down to 4%, from the earlier estimate of 5% in the current fiscal year.
Weak global demand and the containment efforts of the government amid Covid-19 are cited as the reasons for the slash. The report also estimates the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 6.2% in FY22 provided full economic activity resumes from the second quarter of FY21.

Notes:
The official mascots of the 2022 Asian Games were released at a digital launch ceremony in China recently.
Congcong, Lianlian and Chenchen are named as the mascots of the 19th Asian Games, which is scheduled to be held at Hangzhou, China. Three robots nicknamed as ‘Smart Triplets’, representing the mascots were unveiled, to highlight the expertise of the city.

Notes:
The South-Central Railway has recently started deploying ‘Doodh Duronto Special’ to ensure uninterrupted transport and supply of essential commodities during the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Though passenger train services have been suspended till April 14, 2020, these trains are being operated. Recently, the train has been dispatched from Renigunta to Delhi with 6 milk tankers and two parcel vans with mangoes and musk-melons. The special train is being run with an average speed of 110 km per hour.

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:
As per the notification of the Union Health Ministry, India has received 1.70 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls, which have been donated by China.
The 1.7 lakh coveralls along with 20000 domestic coveralls, a total of 1.90 lakh equipment are to be distributed to hospitals. After the supply lines from abroad have been opened up, India has received the donation of coveralls for the first time. It also said that about 3.87 lakh PPEs are available in India.