Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent report of S&P Global Ratings, the GDP growth of India in the financial year 2020-21 is slashed to 3.5% from its earlier forecast of 5.2%.
The main reason for the decrease is said to be the huge dip in output from the covid-19 outbreak for the Asia-Pacific region. It had also forecasted the Asia-Pacific economy will grow at 2.2% in 2020. Earlier Moody’s Investors Service slashed India’s economic growth projection for 2020 to 2.5%.

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 state government of Andhra Pradesh has recently issued modified guidelines in the Navaratnalu – Pedalandariki Illu (houses for all the poor) scheme, under which 25 lakh house sites are to be distributed at concessional rates to the poor.
As per the recent order, the house sites will be allotted at a concessional rate of ₹1 for the beneficiaries with white ration cards. A sum of only ₹ 20 will be collected from them towards cost of stamp paper and lamination charges. The distribution is also postponed to April 14, from March 25.

Notes:
Veteran Indian historian Arjun Dev, who co-authored several popular NCERT books, recently passed away in Noida.
Mr. Arjun Dev served as a historian at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for many years. He wrote many famous NCERT books on Modern and Contemporary India and the World, along with his wife Indira Arjun. In the later part of his life, he was associated with the ‘Towards Freedom Project’ of the Indian Council of Historical Research.

Notes:
As per the new gazette notification under the J&K Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Act, a person who has resided in Jammu and Kashmir for at least 15 years will be eligible to be a domicile of the Union Territory.
The person who has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10 or 12 examination in an educational institution based in the Union Territory will also be eligible to be a domicile.

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:
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Philip Anderson recently passed away in the United States at the age of 96.
The physicist was known for making the science community understand about magnetism and superconductivity and for starting solid state physics as a field. He had been the inspiration for other Nobel-prize winning physicists including Brian Josephson (1973) and F. Duncan Haldane (2016).

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:
The National Maritime Day is celebrated on April 5, to commemorate the maiden voyage of the first wholly owned ship of Indians.
It was the first ship was owned by the Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. On the same day in the year 1919, the ship travelled from Mumbai to the city of London, United Kingdom. This year is the 57th edition of the National Maritime Day. World Maritime Day is observed on the last week of September on Thursday annually.